Hava Nagila

So, for my Children's ministry class, one of my classmates and I prepared an Old Testament Feast and we celebrated during class. Now, feast normally implies food (and all the Feasts do include eating [unless it is a fasting Feast]), but really Feast in this sense means celebration. It was more about the remembering what has happened in the Hebrew history and celebrating God's goodness. Yet, you cannot do a class project that has the word Feast in it without cooking something!

I made Challah (braided bread), Kreplach (like a meat dumpling), and Potato Kugel. Therefore this blog will be intense on the recipes and pictures!

Challah
Ingredients:
2 packages of dry yeast
2 c. warm water
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. oil
4 tsp. salt
3 eggs, slightly beaten
7.5 c. flour

Pour the water in a large bowl. Make sure it is warm, not too hot, not too cold, but juuuust right!
Soften the yeast in the water (pour the contents of the packages in the water and let it soak for about 5 minutes).
Add the sugar, oil, and salt. Blend in the eggs (keep a Tbsp. of egg whites for brushing later!).
Add 3 c. flour - beat well, no lumps allowed!!
Let it rest for 5 minutes.

Resting

Gradually add the rest of the flour.

Adding flour

Oil your hands! And the table or board or whatever you will be kneading on.
Knead for 10 minutes.

Knead Me

Place the kneaded dough back into the bowl, cover it with a clean cloth, and leave it in a warm place.

Ready. Set.

Rise!

Let it rise for 1.5 hours.
Now it's time for shaping/braiding the bread!
Divide the dough into 6 parts (the recipe makes 2 loaves!).
Roll out the 6 parts into 6 logs.
Make an asterisk (*) out of 3 logs. Cross the sides on the bottom and top halves.
Repeat with the other 3 logs.
You can sprinkle cornmeal on the bottom to texture it if you'd like, but I didn't (mostly because I didn't have any).

Braided and Rising.

Now brush the tops of the loaves with the reserved egg whites.
You can top the loaves with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, coarse salt and finely chopped onions, or you can just leave it plain with the egg wash!
Now, let the loaves rise for 1 (more) hour.
Bake at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes. The bottom should sound hollow if you tap on it!

Challah!

Holla!!

Kreplach
I used the recipe from here.

Potato Kugel
I used the recipe for Bubby's Potato Kugel.

They both turned out really well and I'll probably update this to include those recipes on here, as well. But for now, you've got the links!