German-Jewish Challah (Berches) Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

What holidays do Jews eat challah? ›

Challah is an enriched white yeasted bread served on Fridays. More specifically, it's eaten on the Jewish sabbath (which starts on Friday at sunset and ends after dark on Saturday). Challah also plays an important role on certain Jewish holidays like Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

The term “challah” is applied more widely to mean any bread used in Jewish rituals. On the eve of Shabbat, two loaves are placed on the table to reference the Jewish teaching that a double portion of manna fell from heaven on Friday to last through the Saturday Shabbat.

The term challah in Biblical Hebrew meant a kind of loaf or cake.

Top with honey or jam: Drizzle a slice of challah with honey or spread on a dollop of fresh jam.

Gil Marks noted in his book that these braided loaves, made with expensive white flour and eventually enriched with eggs and oil, were a way of marking Shabbat bread as special and distinct from the dark rye loaves eaten during the week.

Challah bread offers trace amounts of the following: Niacin, which helps to turn the food you eat into energy4. Iron, a deficiency of which results in anemia 5. Thiamin, which is important metabolism6.

It's ideal for sweets like french toast and bread pudding, and can also add an extra layer of decadence to savory sandwiches and bready casseroles. You could easily keep a loaf of challah your drawer and find ways to eat it with every meal (and dessert, too).

Typically, it is best to eat or freeze challah within its peak freshness of 5-7 days.

Every shabbat, there are three meals. Six challahs in total. It's a mitzvah — a commandment, good deed or Jewish law — to make the blessing over the challah. It is therefore, by extension, a blessing of sorts to make the challah.

Shulchan Aruch (OC 167: 5) writes that one should not recite Hamotzi until condiments or salt are brought to the table, so the challah can be dipped right after hamotzi. Mishnah Berurah (167:27) explains that dipping in salt or condiments makes the first bite tasty and adds honor to the beracha.

Why does challah have 3 braids? ›

Challah loaves are often braided. The three strands of the braid may represent truth, peace and justice. Another interpretation is that having two loaves of three-stranded braids equals six total strands, which symbolize the six work days of the week aside from Shabbat.

In halachic terms, challah is a mitzvah in the Torah to separate a portion of dough from the baker's batch. Any dough meeting the requirements for hafrashat challah , taking challah, must have this portion removed, or the bread baked from this dough is not considered kosher.

The challah may be topped with a key-shaped decoration, or baked with a key inside, as Schulgasser does, in the belief that the owner will be bestowed with good fortune upon eating the bread. Keys are key, whatever form these challahs take.

It is typically pale yellow due to the number of eggs used in its creation. Some challah recipes actually call for raisins, honey, and seeds, but it all depends on your preferences and what you are celebrating.

Products kneaded from chameishes minei dagan (wheat, spelt, barley, oats, and rye) are obligated in hafrashas Challah. Baked goods produced from other grains are exempt from this mitzvah. One is obligated in hafrashas Challah only when the dough was mixed/kneaded while in the possession of a Jew.

Challah in the Jewish Tradition

Instead, a double portion fell the day before — hence the double loaf on Friday nights. Challah is not eaten during Passover, however, because it is leavened, but can be enjoyed again once Passover is over.

Among the Ashkenazi (descendants of Eastern Europe) community, favorites include bagels, lox, herring and other smoked fish, cream cheese, tuna salad, egg salad, kugel (a baked noodle pudding) and challah — all of which can be prepared before Yom Kippur starts.

Passover begins with the 15th and ends with the 21st (or, outside of Israel and among Reform Jews, the 22nd) day of the month of Nisan (March or April). On these seven (or eight) days, all leaven, whether in bread or other mixture, is prohibited, and only unleavened bread, called matzo, may be eaten.

This act of gratitude is also recognized as a commemoration and celebration of the miracle of the oil. Other than these customary Hanukkah foods, it's typical to include a range of other sides, like challah, large salads, Brussels sprouts, or seasonal recipes, such as fried okra and late-harvest zucchini.