Danielle’s Challah Recipe
I have a mind and body that crave order and beauty.
I also have certain wiring that can create chaos and clutter.
It can be quite a tension to hold.
Ritual is medicine that helps me heal, integrate, and grow.
Like habits and compulsive behaviors, rituals tend to be acts of repetition, but unlike habit, ritual is an act you bring deep awareness to, and unlike compulsive behaviors, when we participate in ritual we’re not so much trying to squash a feeling but rather deepen our connection to life.
I love ritual, and what I have learned over the years is that for a ritual to work in my world it needs to be enjoyable and feel meaningful, and if it’s intended to happen regularly - it’s gotta be simple.
One ritual that’s become a staple for me is making challah on Fridays.
TBH I tend to both crave and feel shy around claiming and participating in cultural and spiritual rituals, even the ones connected to my bloodlines.
As a child, I was born a seeker who often wanted to talk about god, and as a teen dated religions like I was trying to find my one true love.
It’s taken me years to get out of my own way and give myself permission to try on prayers and practices that came from my bloodlines and incorporate them into my world in ways that work.
In the last year or so, this has looked like deciding to take on weekly challah baking.
Time-consuming and effortful enough to get my attention and simple and enjoyable enough to be sustainable.
Some Fridays I’m proofing yeast by 10 am and other Fridays I’m dragging myself into the kitchen at 3 pm to just get started already! Some Fridays have been hijacked by a migraine and became Saturdays which worked beautifully as well. This is never about perfectionism.
This week has been a doozy, and I didn’t want to do it, I thought about just not doing it, but something inside needed to do it. This is what happens when a ritual integrates and becomes a part of your magic and medicine.
As I measured and mixed, I felt a new naturalness move in my hands. A new ease and comfort and familiarity that goes back further than this practice.
Each week when I make the bread, as I sift and pour and knead and braid - I think of the people I love, the people who are hurting, the warrior work that’s being done to create real change in our world. I think of my frustrations, and wishes, and struggles, and hopes, and pains, I think of my work and how I can serve best, and I think of how many women before me have stood in their kitchen doing this same quiet, unassuming, potent making.
I imagine how their hands would move with the bread as they lived through their own trials, troubles, and triumphs. I imagine their strength and wisdom and resilience awakening in me, awakening me as I work.
I imagine it, and I feel it.
It’s a busy time on Friday afternoons when I’m at the braiding stage of my making. I’m often talking, or wrapping up business tasks, and/or mothering while I work. However, the magic is still there in my hands as they move and braid with just a tinge of new and comforting effortlessness.
We are on a wild ride, my friends.
We need ritual even more right now.
To anchor us and re-member us and help us to make sense of the disparate parts of our lives and world.
So sing your songs, and light your candles, and hold your prayer beads, and tap into your history (even if you have to make some of it up), and if you want to join me in making challah on Fridays keep reading for my recipe.
With love and magic,
Danielle
>> 10 cups flour of choice - fluff it with a big spoon first or sift to avoid it getting to heavy (for generative abundance)
>> 2.5 cups very warm water (to awaken the magic in each ingredient)
>> 5-ish Tablespoons instant yeast (for the rise)
>> 2 + 1 eggs of choice - we usually use duck, but flax, or chicken work too (for life)
>> ¾ Cup Maple Syrup, because it’s the yummiest and weaves in my birth place (for sweetness)
>> 2 t Salt (to ground and bless)
>> ¾ Cup Olive oil (for peace and health)
Mix and knead until dough is comes together as a whole, but don’t overwork it.
Put it in a bowl and cover with a cloth that means something to you or one that you’ll use each week until it does.
Let it rise for an hour or two, somewhere warm is nice.
Roll it out onto a lightly oiled surface, create 6 balls and then roll them each into 12” ish ropes.
Braid two 3 strand braids tucking in the ends, or one 6 strand round.
Place them on their baking sheets, cover and let them rest (for rest sake).
After about 30 minutes crack and mix an egg white with a little water and brush it on top of your loaves. Sprinkle them with salt and cinnamon and coconut sugar or whatever you’re feeling.
Next, you’ll pop them into a 350-degree pre-heated oven and let them bake for about 30 minutes.
Enjoy one with dinner or as an appetizer and use the other for Saturday french toast (because the things we make feed us for days to come).
