Am I the only one that never bakes challoth?

miami85

Thu, Nov 16 2023, 11:03 am

When we lived in NY, there was a bakery that dropped off their "leftovers" late Friday afternoon, so there was very little incentive to go through the motions to bake challah--it's time consuming and our family wasn't big enough, no freezer space, that it was worth the trouble. Now we live where there is not really a bakery option, and our family is bigger so we go through more challah its more kedai to bake our own. It's really a matter of what your family needs/likes. No shame in that.

amother

Zinnia

Thu, Nov 16 2023, 11:07 am

amother Viola wrote:

No the point stands.
Most of us mothers are exhausted.
We get bombarded with lists and lists of things to do, all in the name of bringing Bracha to our home, for the benefit of our kids. And you know what, the pressure is immense.

Personally as I said earlier I bake challah because I have allergic children and it's more practical. My mother baked every week, and as a child I hated it. It added so much pressure to the house. The screaming.

I didn't want to bake. I started because of allergies.
But can we please stop loading up the Jewish mother guilt on us.

I'm sorry that you associate making challah with pressure, stress and screaming. Not everyone has the same experience. (you are not supposed to yell when making challah, it doesn't let it rise properly as an aside)

Your mother should not have made challah it seems.

Many people associate challah with the yummy delicious smell that permeates the house and they associate it with the calm of shabbos.

Either way, it still doesnt take away from the fact that it's a huge mitzvah for a woman and it does bring shefa and brocho down to the world. If this mitzvah is not doable for you right now, no problem, you don't need to stress about it, but please don't take away the appetite for doing this mitzvah from others.

mizle10

Thu, Nov 16 2023, 11:35 am

amother Cherry wrote:

Challah is a woman's special mitzva. One of my teachers told us that we should rather buy cakes/kugel/ soup but challah is the one thing we should make.
Good for you op!

In theory, sure.
Practically, cookies for shabbos would cost me about $25. Takes me 15 min to make
Soup take 10-15 min to put up a huge pot. A tiny takeout container is at least $5, I would need 3-4
Challah takes hours out of my day to make and costs me $4x2 to buy.

cholentfan1

Thu, Nov 16 2023, 12:13 pm

I grew up on bought challos, I can possibly count on one finger the amount of times my mom made challos.
As a newlywed, I had too much time on my hands and decided to try making challos. And it made my new husband so happy to have homemade challos, and I loved the taste better as well. And then I just fell into the habit of making my own.
I usually make enough for 2-3 weeks, so I'm not making every week. I love the smell of freshly baking challos, yum.
My current recipe is from a kind poster here, when I asked for a good recipe by hand. https://www.imamother.com/foru.....84151

I've been making the recipe from essie14 now for over a year and it comes out delicious. I will admit the first time I made it I wasn't reading it that closely and I added 3 eggs, rather than separating them, and it comes out fine, so that's how I always do it as I can't be bothered separating the eggs then dealing with the other part.

SuperWify

Thu, Nov 16 2023, 12:31 pm

I wish I can treat myself to the convenience of store bought Challah.

But…
1. I hate the taste, nothing compares ot homemade challah.
2. It’s so expensive.
3. I one time had to buy because I left my dough rising all night out (I suffer from Mommy Brain which gets worse when I’m tried) and my kids wanted to get a new mother 😏.

amother

Petunia

Thu, Nov 16 2023, 12:58 pm

amother Butterscotch wrote:

I am 40 and only baked challah for about 3 years. At one point in my mid-twenties I didn't work on Fridays. That was the only time I got into it and it was doable. I can't get to it these days.

I don't bake challah on Fridays unless I have a day off. I bake on Sunday and freeze it. I make a big batch and it lasts a few weeks.