Braiding Challahs: Three Strand Crown & Round & The Best Honey Challah Recipe

As you all know, I am really obsessed about challahs. It's a bit of a surprise I am not all challah'd out considering how many loaves I've baked in the last couple of weeks or so. I baked these stuffed challahs that were published in The Washington Post last week, all three, twice. The second batch which I baked at home went to our lucky neighbors, since I can't keep anything tree nuts in the house. I shouldn't have baked anything with tree nuts at home to begin with. I was so paranoid about tree nut contamination that I got rid of the half opened flours, leftover nuts and anything remotely in the vicinity, even the working surfaces. Yikes.  

Milk Halwa; An Indian Jewish Rosh HaShanah

When I started the blog in 2009, one of the motivations was telling the stories behind the recipes and preserving my family's history, culture and recipes. Especially since the community from which I come from, the Bnai Israel (Sons of Israel) Jewish Indian community, is dwindling. It's not only dwindling in numbers but also in preservation. Just to illustrate, I am the only one, out of the six kids, cooking the entire spectrum of Indian food just as my mom did while we were growing up. Some of the dishes are super complex in technique. To understand the complexity and de-mystify the dishes takes interest and practice. Documenting it hopefully for others to pick up the "habit."

Date Walnut & Silan, Fig & Spelt & Marzipan Almond (Crown) Challahs

We will be welcoming the Jewish New Year at sundown this coming Sunday, September 13, 2015. It will be the year 5776 in the Hebrew calendar. I half asked/half stated to Jonathan, that's since creation, right?! His response, we need to look at the earliest fossil records?! So irreverent, I smiled.