Bread — shaping it, baking it, blessing it and sharing it — is part of almost every Jewish holiday.
The bond among Jews, God and bread goes back to the first five books of the Bible: As the Israelites are about to end their exile, God commands them to show gratitude by setting aside a portion, or “challah,” of all the bread they make after entering the Holy Land.
But nowhere in Jewish scripture is it written that challah is a braided, sweet, yellow, deliciously squishy bread of the kind familiar to most American Jews, which comes from the rich tradition of Eastern European baking.
There is another world of challah that evolved from the Middle East and North Africa, where the Sabbath breads were sometimes plain (the better to eat with the region’s tangy, fiery and salty dishes) and sometimes sweet and spicy, with honey, dried fruit, caraway, sesame and — especially significant for Hanukkah — olive oil.
“That this could be challah was a revelation to me,” said Jessamyn Rodriguez, the founder of Hot Bread Kitchen in Manhattan, who grew up in Toronto and learned about “alternative” challahs in a Jewish baking class.
Now, one of the breads turned out by her East Harlem bakery is a Sephardic challah: a round, golden coil, eggless and unsweetened but crunchy with sesame, caraway and cumin seeds. “When I developed the recipe, I was thinking about the bread I’d like to eat with a Moroccan tagine,” she said, “and I also love it just dipped in honey — the spicy and the sweet together.”
In most of the modern Jewish world, the term “challah” now refers to a soft yeasted bread with an even, airy crumb. But that consensus didn’t happen overnight.
Traditionally, challah is defined as any bread that is made for use in Jewish ritual. During the first few thousand years of Jewish life, challah included everything from rich layered breads baked overnight in Yemen, pita pockets in Syria and lepeshka flatbreads in the Caucasus. Later on, as challah traveled with the Jews, the bread took on a Hungarian costume of poppy seeds, soaked up orange blossom water in Libya, and mixed with pumpkin in Spain.
In the Ashkenazi world — that of the Jews who made their way over time to Central and Eastern Europe — challah evolved into the fluffy, egg-enriched, sugar-laced, six-stranded braid that we recognize.
Among the Sephardic Jews of North Africa and the Middle East, who trace their ancestry and traditions back to Spain before the Inquisition and often to the Roman Empire before that, challah evolved in different directions.
Eggs and sugar were relatively scarce, but spices, honey and oils from olives, nuts and seeds were plentiful.
“You often find olive oil used in challah recipes from that part of the world, used to enrich the dough instead of egg,” said Maggie Glezer, the author of “A Blessing of Bread,” a compendium of Jewish breads, with dozens of recipes for challah.
And so special regional challahs evolved: doughs liberally sprinkled with sesame or poppy seeds, scented with aniseed or cardamom or coriander, and enriched with almond or olive oil. Spices like saffron and za’atar, orange flower and rose water all found their way into these elaborate challahs, as did candied fruit and nuts. Unlike smooth Ashkenazi challahs, these loaves are often studded with whole nuts, streaked with sweet fillings, or bumpy with whole spices.
Linda Capeloto Sendowski, a cooking teacher in Los Angeles, had two Sephardic grandmothers — one from the island of Rhodes in Greece, the other from Gallipoli in Turkey — and the family’s round, coiled challah is laced with aniseed and raisins, then liberally sprinkled with sesame seeds. “It was perfect with our Shabbat meal,” she said: chicken with vegetables deeply braised in tomatoes and onions, typical of Turkish and Greek cooking.
Across the same region, the Mizrahi Jews, whose ancestors have lived continuously in North Africa and the Middle East since ancient times, also have a distinct challah style.
Most Mizrahi challahs are plain and simple, with only a touch of sugar and no fat. In some bakeries, the lean loaf is referred to as “water challah.” Some are spiced but not sweetened, making them better for swiping up the huge spreads of dips and mezes that are served as the Sabbath meal in the Mizrahi tradition.
Water challah is the style on Djerba, an island off the north coast of Tunisia that is the home of Africa’s last thriving Jewish community. Uri Scheft, who is head baker at Breads Bakery in New York and who is writing a book about the breads of the Middle East, recently visited Djerba’s communal Jewish oven, or kusha. As in most ancient towns around the Mediterranean, Djerba’s kusha knits the community together: Bringing the challah to the oven for baking is a weekly ritual.
“Every woman has to make her challah a little different from the others, so that she can identify it when it comes out of the oven,” Scheft said. The loaves are expertly shaped into fish and flowers, braids and hands.
In bakeries in the United States and Israel, all three traditions are being synthesized into new variations. The typical Israeli challah is leaner than Ashkenazi challah, richer than Mizrahi and often seeded like a Sephardic. And many modern challahs develop according to the taste and training of the baker. Although it’s not traditional, Glezer devised an olive-oil-rich challah recipe especially for Hanukkah when writing her book; the oil gives a moist crumb and, if the oil is very fresh and cold-pressed, a green-gold tint to the dough.
Scheft, who was raised in Israel, has created a “festive challah” that reflects the favorite seeds and spices of the Middle East: nigella, sunflower, poppy, sesame, pumpkin and flax. His newly invented “holiday” challah tastes quite American. It is as salty as a pretzel, and savory with carrots, parsley and celery.
And the next frontier? It may be in the Jewish bakeries of Buenos Aires, he said, where the Sabbath bread is called jalá. “They are already making challah with chocolate chips,” he said.
Sephardic Challah With Whole Spices
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Yield: 2 round loaves
Ingredients
1/2 cup/75 grams raisins, dark or golden or a combination (optional)
1 tablespoon/10 grams plus 3 tablespoons/30 grams sesame seeds
1 tablespoon/10 grams caraway or coriander seeds
1 tablespoon/10 grams anise, cumin or poppy seeds
1 envelope/7 grams active dry yeast
5 cups/600 grams bread flour, more for dusting work surface
2 1/2 tablespoons/30 milliliters/30 grams extra-virgin olive oil, more for oiling bowl and pans
2 to 4 tablespoons/30 to 60 grams honey (depending on how sweet you like your challah)
2 eggs, at room temperature (optional)
1 tablespoon/16 grams kosher salt
Cornmeal, for dusting
2 egg yolks
Preparation
1. If using, cover raisins in 2 cups/500 milliliters warm water and let plump for 30 minutes. Drain well and set aside.
2. In a skillet, toast 1 tablespoon sesame, the caraway and the anise or other seeds over moderate heat until fragrant, 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate and let cool.
3. In a small bowl, combine yeast with 2 tablespoons warm water (you can use the soaking water from the raisins if handy). Let stand until thoroughly moistened, about 5 minutes.
4. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine flour with olive oil, honey, eggs (if using) and warm water (3/4 cup/120 milliliters if using eggs; 1 1/2 cups/360 milliliters if not).
5. Mix at low speed until a very soft dough forms. If it is stiff, add warm water a tablespoon at a time. Add salt, yeast mixture and toasted seeds and mix at medium-low speed until the dough is supple and smooth, 10 minutes. Mix in raisins. Using oiled hands, transfer the dough to a large oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand in a draft-free spot until the dough is doubled in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
6. Lightly oil two small cookie sheets and dust them with cornmeal. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and press to deflate. Cut the dough in half and let rest for 5 minutes. Roll each piece into an 18-inch-long rope and let rest for 5 minutes longer, then roll each rope into a 32-inch rope. Take one of the ropes and, starting from one end, form the dough into a coil; tuck the ends under the completed coil. Repeat with the remaining rope.
7. Transfer each coil to a baking sheet and cover each loaf with a large inverted bowl. Let stand for 1 hour, until the loaves have nearly doubled in bulk. (The risen loaves can be frozen, wrapped, for up to 2 weeks; top and bake just before serving.)
8. Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, whisk egg yolks with 1 tablespoon water. Brush the egg wash over the loaves and let stand uncovered for 30 minutes. Brush with the egg wash once more and sprinkle with the reserved sesame seeds. Bake the loaves side-by-side in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, until they’re golden and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Transfer the loaves to racks and let cool before serving or slicing.
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