Watching the art of challah
Watching the art of challah
By Kali Bhandari | Staff writer
Published Friday, February 20, 2004
It's an unusually warm February afternoon and nine-month-old Levi Tiechtel is slung on his mother's hip, surveying the hive of activity that is the family kitchen.
Tiechtel pouts slightly and observes the four girls mixing together yeast, eggs and other ingredients, in a process called challah baking. His mother, Goldie Tiechtel, shifts him on her hip and directs the girls as to how to put the flour and yeast in the electric mixer in correct amounts.
This is no ordinary get-together. It's a free, weekly program especially for women at the Campus Chabad of Champaign-Urbana, 614 W. California St., also the Tiechtel home.
Challah is a traditional Jewish bread that is golden brown in color. The braid, Tiechtel said, is a traditional look associated with the bread. She said she first had the idea of inviting members of the community to make challah last fall, as she makes it for a special dinner every Friday night at the Chabad.
"I make it anyway for Friday nights," she said. "So I thought it's just better to do it with other people."
The mix is not quite right, and baby Tiechtel is handed over to Alyssa Cohn, senior in ACES, as the older Tiechtel moves closer to the mixer and directs one of the girls to check the oven for the first batch of dough that has been put there to rise, and another to knead a certain way.
Baby Tiechtel is completely silent with his mouth open and eyes in rapid movement — unusual for him, Cohn says — as he watches the kneading and punching of the dough.
Sarah Perlstein, sophomore in LAS, announces that the dough is ready, and the rest of the girls remove their hands from the sticky mix and rub their fingers together in vain trying to remove the bits of dough.
The group moves into the living room, which has been converted from its normal guest-receiving mien to an extension of the kitchen. Aluminum trays, foil, cinnamon and sesame seed jars cover the dining table, while another is covered with a clean plastic tablecloth where the first batch of dough is placed. The baby, on the floor now, quietly observes his mother holding junior in LAS Jamie Brown's hand, which contains a small ball of dough, and reciting a blessing in Hebrew, which Brown repeats.
The significance of the blessing, Cohn explained, dates back to ancient times when it was customary for people to provide priests without income or food with a certain portion of their food. Nowadays, the blessing signifies that a part of the food is not for the owner but meant for somebody else. Accordingly, Brown's piece of dough is now wrapped in a section of aluminum foil and put in the oven to be burned.
Tiechtel coos at the group now surrounding the table and lifts out his arm in a 'give-me' gesture, wanting to play with the balls of dough like the others. Having been denied a chance to show off his precocious culinary talents, he watches the girls elongate the balls and stick them together at the tip while discussing particular ways of braiding the challah. After the braiding, the ends are tucked in under the challah and placed on the tray ready to be baked.
Perlstein does a complicated four-strand pattern while Eve Mangurten, freshman in ACES, says, "I think I'll start easy," and uses three strands instead.
The girls finish both batches of dough and put the first batch in to be baked. They then relax on the sofa and chairs and chat comfortably with each other about Chabad events and the various people they know.
The first batch is done and the smell of fresh bread fills the room. After waiting for it to cool, baby Tiechtel patiently waits for everyone to dig in after which he turns to his mother and other eaters with a look that fills the onlookers with guilt that the baby isn't getting any of the challah. He then toddles back to his mother and gurgles happily at the attention he's getting.
His mother laughs at the show and pronounces there is nothing better than fresh challah out of the oven.
As Perlstein takes Tiechtel for a walkabout, both Brown and Mangurten explain that it is their first time at the program, and say they will definitely come back next Thursday.
"I'm not a challah maker, but it was a lot of fun," Brown said as she bit into some of the bread. "The end product was excellent."
Cohn takes the baby for his last walkabout of the day and explains her pride in the challah.
"On Friday nights when they serve it, and people say it's so good, you say, 'Oh I did that,' and it feels good," she said.