BBA Challenge #6 – Challah: The Spiritual Side of Bread

I love it when things like faith and food come together for me in meaningful ways. That happened last week when I made Challah.

If I may quote Peter Reinhart:

“Challah, the braided Sabbath bread of Judaism, is a European celebratory loaf symbolic of God’s goodness and bounty. The braids traditionally separate the loaf into twelve distinct sections representing the twelve tribes of Israel. The use of eggs in the bread was probably a way to use up excess eggs, as harvesting is one of many activities considered work in Orthodox Jewish communities.
…. garnishing the loaves with seeds, such as poppy or sesame, symbolizes the falling of manna from heaven and the covering of the challah with a cloth as it is served at the Sabbath meal represents the heavenly dew that protects the manna.”



I honestly did not know these symbolic aspects of the challah loaf. But it got me to thinking about it. And then I got into a bread discussion with a co-worker who enjoys making bread in his bread machine for himself and his kids.

The thing is, that bread is spoken of throughout the Bible and is a food that has many spiritual implications for us. The Passover consisted of a Festival of Unleavened Bread where the Israelites were to remove all yeast from their houses (Exodus 12:15). Manna was called bread from heaven (Exodus 16:4). There was a table for the bread of the Presence in the tabernacle (Exodus 25:30). Christ quoted the Deuteronomy 8:3 when he rebuked the devil and stated that man does not live on bread alone (Matthew 4:4) and referred to himself as the Bread of Life (John 6:35). I know my list could have gone on and on, but I wrote the bulk of this in the car and the rest of it without my chain reference Bible.

I have mentioned this video of Peter Reinhart before. It is worth a watch.

I know that we have “traditional” ways that we spiritually look at some of the elements of bread making, but hang with me here for a minute.

Think about this for a minute… as Mr. Reinhart points out, when we get the wheat into our hands, it is dead. Then, we introduce the yeast and it introduces life. Then, in the process of baking, the yeast dies to bring a transformation.

DO YOU GET THAT?

I know we normally view yeast as bad stuff (see Matthew 16:5-12), but can we think of it in a good light for a moment? Like the yeast, Christ came to bring life to us and gave up his life so that we (the flour), who were once dead in our sins (flour is technically dead wheat) could be transformed into a new creation (bread).

I don’t know about you, but the entire bread baking process is just amazing to me, much like salvation. One of the most amazing things is the wild yeast in a starter, but that’s another post for when we do sourdough. But just the thought that the yeast must die in order for there to be transformation from dough into bread just as Christ had to die for there to be transformation in my life from unrighteousness into Christ’s righteousness… it’s mind boggling.

Anyways, I know that’s a much heavier topic than just talking about the bread itself for this post, but it’s what has been on my heart from the time I began reading about this bread.

So on to my experience with the challah.

Mine didn’t turn out as pretty as I had hoped. I had a hard time getting the kind of stretch that I wanted to achieve the window “pain” test. And then, I may have braided my loaves a little too tightly. Therefore during proofing, at least one strand ripped. Then during baking and with a pretty decent oven spring, several more strands ripped and or broke.



Uses:

We ate some with our evening meal one night. I also made French toast one morning for the kids and that was pretty good. In the past, I have purchased challah to make my Chocolate Bread Pudding so I’m looking forward to being able to make my own bread for it now.

Overall impressions:

I have purchased challah loaves that were much softer with a more tender crust. I’m not sure what is more authentic and I’m not saying that it might not have been baker error that caused mine to be drier than it should be.

Will I make this again? Yes, but I may look around at other formulas and try some different ones. Do you have any suggestions?