Challah Holiday Variations

[Gifted Gourmet]

The significance of using round challahs for the Jewish New Year is usually well understood, yet, in posting this thread, basically I am interested in the various types of challah people make for the holiday. First a little background:

On Rosh Hashana, a round Challah, often with raisins for extra sweetness, is used. In its round form, the challah represents the cycle of life and the wholeness of the universe...  Among Jews originating from Tripoli, it is customary, particularly on the New Year, to make challah with caraway seeds, a symbol of fertility. Among Moroccans, challah is made with raisins, nuts and anise in the dough and served with a hard-boiled egg placed on top. These are all symbols of sweetness and fertility. Many Central European Jews also add raisins to their challah dough and serve it with a little bowl of honey in the center.

source for quote

So, with that in mind, I know some of the variations include chocolate challahs which our own, Comfort Me, bakes, as well as other variations.recipe from Recipe Gullet for Chocolate, Chocolate Challah and Swiss Kaese mentions apple challah in a post here as well.

various challah recipes from Aish.com for the curious, of which I am one ...

Any variations you are aware of for the holiday of Rosh Hashanah?

[Jason Perlow]

I'm pretty much a challah purist. I don't like raisins or any other foreign objects in it.

Challah for me can be either round, or not round. That's pretty much all I'll accept.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I'm pretty much a challah purist. I don't like raisins or any other foreign objects in it.

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I rather like the words "foreign objects" here ... challah straight is pretty good on its own, hot from the oven, with a dollop of sweet cream butter, I have to concur ...

but, for a "challah day," I find the variations interesting as well ...

[Swisskaese]

The Apple Challah is for Rosh Hashanah.

I make a Shavuot Challah that has various dried fruits and nuts.

Edited September 20, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[Jason Perlow]

I rather like the words "foreign objects" here ... challah straight is pretty good on its own, hot from the oven, with a dollop of sweet cream butter, I have to concur ...

Yup. I also like to immerse cut of slices of it into the leftover matzo ball soup broth in my bowl, and quickly yank them out with a spoon before they disintegrate. Sort of like soup sponges.

[slbunge]

I'm pretty much a challah purist. I don't like raisins or any other foreign objects in it.

Challah for me can be either round, or not round. That's pretty much all I'll accept.

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I'm noone's idea of a Jew so I get to have my challah however I wish without needing to worry about honoring my ancestors or upholding tradition. That said, I'm absolutely with Jason on this one. Unadulterated challah is the way to go. Don't mess with the shiny-skinned, soft-bodied, eggy goodness.

[Pam R]

I pretty much am a purist as well. But at Rosh Hashana I like my (plain) challah slathered with creamed honey. mmm.

[mhadam]

I prefer challah with raisins or dried currants for a twist.

[JFLinLA]

I actually make a variety of challot for different holidays. However, it has more to do with what they look like than with what's in them. Yes, of course a round one for the new year . . . actually two, one with raisins and one without.

For Sukkot -- with a lulav and etrog on the front -- this one's really gorgeous

For Hanukkah -- shaped like a menorah with different colored sugars sprinkled on the "ends" of the candles to simulate flames

For Purim -- shaped like a rather large hamantashen, be sure to sprinkle poppy seeds in the top where the hamantashen "filling" is peeking through

Just about any holiday but Pesach.

My original inspiration is from a book that's about 20 years old -- The Hallah Book: Recipes, History and Traditions by Freda Reider. Except for the Sukkot design, the others I came up with myself but this book got me started thinking about different designs or shapes for challot. The book has a lot of different recipes which you may or may not like but I really like getting inspiration from the designs and learning the history of where and when they originated and what they signify.

[mizducky]

Not a Rosh Hashanah challah as such, but back in the 1980s when I was hanging with a hippy-dippy Havurah, I used to make whole-wheat braided challah from a recipe I got out of one of the Vegetarian Epicure books. It would come out pretty danged good, if I do say so myself--good eggy flavor, *relatively* light texture for a bread with whole-wheat flour in it, and boy did it ever look purty.

Edited September 21, 2005 by mizducky (log)

[bloviatrix]

We will go with the traditional eggy, cakey, raisin challahs.

However, I was paging through Maggie Glezer's A Blessing of Bread and she has a recipe for Sephardic Pumpkin Challah which looks promising. Apparently the symbolism for Rosh Hashanah is

Food made with pumpkin is served to express the hope that as this vegetable has been protected by a thick covering, God will protect us and gird us with strength.

Glezer also has a recipe for Apple Challah.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Do you think this might work?a Pumpkin Challah recipe .. I would be afraid that adding the moist pumpkin might make it rather heavy ... 2 and a half cups is a lot of pumpkin ...the recipe for Sephardic Pumpkin Challah bloviatrix mentions but this has only a half cup of the pumpkin puree ...

A Sephardic specialty adapted from Gilda Angel's out-of-print book "Sephardic Holiday Cooking," this gently spiced, ultra moist bread has a velvety pale orange crumb and stays soft for days, thanks to the pumpkin puree (which otherwise brings little flavor to the bread).

[jackal10]

Round (coiled), with raisins and possibly yellow with saffron for me

[Daniel Rogov]

There is a rumor going around, quite popular in fact, to the effect that "...on the seventh day God rested". That is simply not true. On the morning of the seventh day God spent time in the kitchen and made French toast from the simplest white challah, sighed contentedly and said "its good" but then sighed again saying "it could be better". Thus, just before noon on the seventh day, God created maple syrup.

[Carrot Top]

You have research to back that up, right, Rogov?

[Daniel Rogov]

Not research - just a personal conversation with Her.

[Carrot Top]

Ohhhhh. I am remembering again why I love you.

[cakewalk]

... Thus, just before noon on the seventh day, God created maple syrup.

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As Lenny Bruce would say (I am sure he would say it), maple syrup is goyish!

Just sprinkle some sugar on that challah French toast, and all is well with the world.

[Carrot Top]

cakewalk is right, Rogov.

That maple syrup does sound awfully goyish(e).

When you spoke to G*d about this, are you sure you dialed the right number? So much switching in the telephone systems . . maybe you got transferred to the wrong number.

For really, now that I think of it, maple syrup sounds like something they might use to tar Herbie.

You remember Herbie. The thing with feathers.

But then again, maybe maple syrup was created for the leftover challah tossed to the Shabbitz Goyim. Yeah, I'll take it.

[Daniel Rogov]

Just two metaphysical comments to the not-at-all-epistemlogical questions raised above: (a) If, as she says, God invented maple syrup the claim on it is universal and (b) it's kosher!

Truly chuckling

[Gifted Gourmet]

Returning to the topic at hand, if you don't mind:

Any variations you are aware of for the holiday of Rosh Hashanah?

Thanks ...

[Rachel Perlow]

The traditional Rosh Hashanah challah (for my family at least) is the round ones. We usually get one with and one without raisins, as there are lovers and haters of same in the family. That's the only variation I know of for Rosh Hashanah versus a regular braided challah. Oh, and sometimes there's poppy seeds.