The Smell of Friday Afternoon

By Rabbi Elyse Winick
KOACH Associate Director

There's a bakery in Jerusalem, tucked behind the Adam school on Emek Refaim. It's a French bakery, down some narrow stone steps and like a tiny one room schoolhouse filled with hallah and rugelach. Sitting here at my desk in the frozen tundra (Boston), I can smell the sweetness of the bakery air and taste the hallah as it melts on my tongue.

That's not the hallah that I bake. That is the hallah of dreams; mine is the hallah of our waking hours. That is the hallah of eternity; mine is the hallah of here and now.

I don't aspire to bake that hallah, but oh, how I aspire to eat it. I aspire to spend my days breathing in air redolent with Jerusalem hallah. That hallah, like Shabbat herself, is me'eyn olam ha'bah, a taste of the world to come.

And yet, with all that Jerusalem hallah evokes for me, there's a part of me which would be loathe to part with the smell of hallah baking in my own oven on Friday afternoon. Where that hallah is delicate, like the food of the gods, my hallah evokes the heartiness of our ancestral heritage, the depth of flavor of diaspora life, the challenge of being contemporary and still rooted in the past.

It's not a competition. It's about liminality, about hanging in the balance, about your heart being big enough to love more than one.

Let's make a deal. I'll share my hallah recipe with you; you promise to sample sweet hallah in Jerusalem. While it may be true that you can't have it all, sometimes I think you can come pretty close.

Whole Grain and Dried Cherry Hallah

Tools
2 9" round cake pans
Spray oil
Ingredients
4 ½ t active dry yeast
1 t sugar
2 c lukewarm water
½ c honey
½ c barley malt syrup
2 large eggs
2 ½ c whole wheat flour
1 c mixed cracked grains (try the bulk foods section at a natural foods store)
½ c ground flaxseed meal
½ c wheat germ
6 T vital wheat gluten
2-3 c white flour, as needed
1 c dried cherries
1 egg, beaten with 1 t water

Combine the yeast, sugar and water in a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer). Let stand for ten minutes to proof (if it doesn't foam up, the yeast is dead. Throw it all out, rush to the store for fresh yeast and start over.)

When the yeast is proofed, add the sweeteners and the eggs and mix thoroughly. Add the whole wheat flour, half a cup at a time, until it is all included. Add the grains, wheat germ and vital wheat gluten, mixing until they are all fully incorporated. Next, add as much white flour as is needed for the dough to lose its stickiness. At this point you can either remove from the bowl and knead by hand until smooth, or use the dough hook on the stand mixer until the same effect is achieved. When the dough is smooth and even textured, spray top with oil, return to bowl and cover with a clean dishtowel. Allow dough to rise for 2-3 hours.

Punch down dough and knead once more to incorporate dried cherries. Spray cake pans with oil. Divide dough in half, setting one half aside. Pull off golf ball size pieces (or smaller) of dough half and roll between your hands until smooth. Place dough balls in prepared pan, arranging in a pattern, preferably in a single layer. It's fine if they are cozy; it's also fine if they don't quite fill the pan, though this is unlikely. Repeat with second half of dough and second prepared pan. Cover with dishtowels and allow to rise again for about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush tops of hallah with beaten egg. Place hallot on middle rack in oven. Bake for about 30 minutes, checking top for deep color. If you're unsure as to doneness, carefully tilt hallah out of pan onto dishtowel to check if the bottom is done. The hallah can be returned to the oven for five to ten additional minutes if needed. Remove from pans to a rack to cool. For serving, pull apart, rather than slice.

(our favorite way to eat this hallah is slathered with European butter and sprinkled with coarse sea salt)

[Posted 1/25/09]