It has been a very long time since I last made bread. I remember liking the process, although it is a DAY LONG process. For many years, that was the primary reason that I quit making it. The store-bought bread is much more convenient and time-saving for a working person.
But, the move to incorporate more Jewish practice in my life intersected with a desire to make bread, and so I decided to try my hand a Challah. Now Challah is a bit different from some breads in that it is a braided bread.
I chose a recipe from a Jewish writer, read the ingredients and thought it was do-able. Yep, that was my thought. I had most of the ingredients but had to run to the store for the yeast, sesame seeds, and additional oil.
I think that, if anyone had been watching me, they would have laughed so hard. First, the yeast foamed! My sister-in-law tells me (afterwards) that yeast can foam. I did not remember that from my prior bread-making. It looked alien to me.
Then when I had to combine the yeast and the rest of the ingredients and start mixing in the flour, I realized I needed to move all of that to the mixer bowl. I did know how to put the bread hook on the KitchenAid mixer, but I had never ever used the mixer or bread hook before. As I was adding the flour…the dough started climbing the bread hook and the mixer head started rocking! AND, it spit flour back at me…kinda like a waterfall spits water at the edge. It went all over me, the counter and floor.
I tried twice to remove the dough from the dough hook as it climbed up the machine. The last time I took it out of the machine and found that it was a bit crumbly with some flour still in the bottom of the bowl, not yet incorporated. So…I started kneading and trying to get the rest of the flour into the dough. I finally succeeded and proceeded to set aside the dough to rest. I know that I needed that rest!
Well, it rose…and rose…and rose. I ended up with Challah loaves that looked like they were on steroids! It was OK tasting. Not as light a bread as I had expected, but OK. I liked that it had honey instead of sugar in the recipe. I did not particularly enjoy the sesame seeds on top. I mean, they were OK, just that I could have left them off and not missed them. But, I will definitely need a smaller recipe in the future as this one has yielded a lot of bread for one person.
So…what did I learn? I learned I can do this. Making Challah has always intimidated me. Even in my bread-making years, I would not have attempted this. So jumping back into the bread creating by starting with Challah was a true leap! Very much out of my wheelhouse.
I did not kill the yeast. That is one of the scariest parts of yeast breads…getting the yeast to grow. I did not kill the yeast. So what if it foamed? At least it was alive.
Braiding was not hard…what was hard was handling such a large loaf. Braided bread had always seemed so intricate a task. But, it turned out to be easy.
I am proud of myself. I set a goal (make Challah). I kept at it, problem-solving my way to the finished product. Maybe my efforts weren’t perfect. That will improve over time. What is important to me is that I made the effort and did not quit or get overwhelmed or give up midway through. I saw it to the end. And, it was fun!
I will do it again. Maybe try another recipe. This was one more step to adding to my own growth…and spirituality…to finding a way to make my own spiritual practice part of my life and to learning that I can do things which scare or intimidate me if I take the first step. The result does not have to be perfect. It just has to be.
This was my first Challah. It definitely looks like it had a workout, doesn’t it?
Feathers of My Mind 