Friday, October 21, 2005

No Shabbat here

Ok, well I'm not Jewish. So technically I don't have a real need for Challah, a delicious Jewish bread that is often made for Shabbat. Nor do I have ancient family recipes that will provide me with instruction for making the best Challah ever.

Instead, I have the internet. There are thousands of Challah recipes out there, half of which are for making Challah in a breadmaker. Alas, this Greek-American household is sans breadmaker. It would make the Challah baking life so much easier, it seems. While in theory the recipes don't seem that difficult, they seem to require a kitchen that has a lot more counter space than mine. Not to mention a cook with a lot more patience than I have. So after a thorough investigation of Challah recipes, which include lots of admonitions to prevent 'dead' yeast (I admit that scares me a little bit) and yelling at my husband repeatedly "we need a breadmaker! we need a breadmaker!" I have decided there will be no Challah-making in this kitchen.

Now, I suppose, you might be wondering why this sudden need for Challah? Well, I would have gone the rest of my life never knowing what Challah was, if it wasn't for the Great Harvest Bakery in Nashville, who made such delicious Challah every Friday I could consume a loaf and nothing else all day. So now I am missing the delicious Challah. And I will have to scour the streets of Thessaloniki looking, perhaps in vain, for a Jewish bakery.

3 comments:

melusina said...

Yea, I read that article, it was quite illuminating. I honestly had no ideas there were or ever had been any Jews in Greece, mainly because the country is so overwhelmingly Greek orthodox. It was a nice story.

But no, it didn't mention bakeries. =(

Mir said...

You know, I'm in possession of some pretty good challah recipes passed down in my family. None of them involve a breadmaker. Maybe I'll slip them into the package of stuff I have every intention of sending you now that I found a box!

melusina said...

That would be very cool M! Thanks!