shabbat questions for beginners, round two - music, candles, menu

[doubledutch]

all right. dh is on alert that today & tomorrow are "preparing" days because, um, our house needs to be cleaned but i also have a little shopping to do. namely, candles. what to get, where to buy, does it matter?

also, music. music has always been a big part of my spirituality (as well as a big part of our family/parenting) and i was wondering if anyone could recommend a cd or songs to download on itunes so that i could learn some of the songs that would traditionally be sung friday night or saturday.

menu. sme, out with the challah recipe! will this still be yummy friday night if baked thursday night, or not? friday morning could happen if needed. also i read meat is traditional, but as a vegetarian, well, i realize probably anything would be fine but for example, spaghetti and vege-balls just seems wrong! so if anyone wants to suggest any friday-night favorites, i'm interested.

[flminivanmama]

Originally Posted by doubledutch

all right. dh is on alert that today & tomorrow are "preparing" days because, um, our house needs to be cleaned but i also have a little shopping to do. namely, candles. what to get, where to buy, does it matter?

candles you can get at the supermarket - any candles will do... even tea lights (in fact many families I know use those)

i always get a giant box or two when they are on clearance after Passover LOL. then they last all year. Our custom is to use two in my family - some people use one for each family member... up to you

also, music. music has always been a big part of my spirituality (as well as a big part of our family/parenting) and i was wondering if anyone could recommend a cd or songs to download on itunes so that i could learn some of the songs that would traditionally be sung friday night or saturday.

I love craig taubman. all his music is on itunes. I am also sure there are many many imixes people have made. search with the word shabbat

menu. sme, out with the challah recipe! will this still be yummy friday night if baked thursday night, or not? friday morning could happen if needed.

don't get stressed over time. of course it tastes "best" fresh baked but I always make 4 at a time and freeze 3 and you know what? those 3 taste perfect too.

here's my recipe

you can sub honey for sugar in equal amounts if you wish

1 T sugar
2 pkt yeast
1/4 c very warm tap water
Mix that and let it proof (get foamy)
Add 1/2 c sugar
1 t salt
1/4 c oil
2/3 c very warm water
2 whole eggs plus 1 white - save the 3rd yolk to brush tops of challah
4 cups of flour

Mix untill dough ball forms.
Turn out onto floured surface and knead till elastic
Wash bowl in hot water and dry. Put small amount of oil in bowl and turn dough to coat. Cover & let rise until doubled – about an hour. Reknead and let rise again. Knead a third time and braid and let rise again. Brush with the yolk thinned with a little water.

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes

also i read meat is traditional, but as a vegetarian, well, i realize probably anything would be fine but for example, spaghetti and vege-balls just seems wrong! so if anyone wants to suggest any friday-night favorites, i'm interested.

I think as long as you have candles, wine, challah it will feel like a special meal. flowers & white table cloth can make it really nice too. IMO f you have a pizza - as long as you are all together - it's all good.

but if you eat fish and you are looking for traditional - fish fits the bill.

also we serve the same meal each week... I think there is something to be said for that... you know? not co-incidentaly it is the same meal my mom served every shabbat

[zinemama]

I always bake my challah on Friday. I make the dough in the morning before taking the kids to school so it has plenty of time to rise twice. I experimented with a lot of challah recipes before deciding this one was the best:

1/2 + 1/3 cup warm water
2 tsp yeast
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
2 tsp. salt
3 eggs, beaten
4 and 1/2 cups (approx!) flour
poppy or sesame seeds

Mix yeast and sugar into warm water. (In the bowl of a kitchenaid mixer if you have one).
Add oil, salt and eggs (reserve about a tablespoon of beaten egg for brushing loaves).
Add one cup of the flour.
Let all this sit for 10 minutes. (I know, it seems counterintuitive to mix all this up without letting the yeast foam first, but trust me).

Put dough hook on the mixer. Add 3 cups of flour and start mixing. Add as much more flour as you need until a ball of dough forms that isn't sticky.

Coat with oil and let rise till doubled. (Time depends on warmth of your house)
Divide dough in half. Divide each half in thirds and braid. Place on baking sheet.
Let braided loaves rise again till puffy.
Brush with egg and sprinkle with seeds.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes, then check. Turn and bake for 5 more minutes.

Do not overbake! Not overbaking is the secret to moist, rich, yummy challah!

[flminivanmama]

how much salt?

[zinemama]

Ah! I knew there was something I forgot. 2tsp.

[Faliciagayle]

A good friend of mine (also a Rabbi) once commented that all he needed for it to "feel like" Shabbat were "candles, wine, motzi, and Shalom Aleichem."

I wish I had a good source for that tune, but I don't.


When I think about it, I make a quadruple batch of challot so I have enough for this week and another. Also, and I don't know if this is kosher, but for my second loaf I make a small roll style challah. We are a family of 3, one of whom is 17 months, so baking 4 full size challot each Shabbat is way too much.

[smeisnotapirate]

Falicia, PM me your # and I'll sing it to you over the phone.

We make challah in BIG batches, too.

Ok, here it is - remember 6,3,3,13.

6 cups water
3 tbsp salt
3tbsp yeast
13 cups flour

braid, let rise for 40 min, put on a cookie sheet sprinkled with corn meal, put a pan of water in the oven and bake at 450

That's what I do when I make it, because I'm no bread afficionado. DH - who is our cook - makes it better, and here's his recipe (1lb dough):

1egg + enough water to make 3/4 cup
2tbsp oil
1.5 tbsp sugar
1tsp salt
2c bread flour
1.5 tsp yeast

braid, grease pan, let rise for 40 min, bake at 375 for half hour-ish.

[doubledutch]

lol, you ladies have got me digging around itunes, where the most fun version of shalom aleichem so far comes from "meshugga beach party: twenty songs of the chosen surfers" but then i don't get words. i'll keep looking.

sme, that is what i'm talkin' about! let it rise twice? um. i can't remember the last time i baked something that had to rise once. but i can wait 40 minutes. making a big batch and freezing is probably the best option for someone who gets home from work at 4:30 so i appreciate that suggestion from the "complicated recipe" people too.

the candle thing - about five years ago, i overheard a woman saying to her husband, "don't let me forget we need more shabbat candles," which made me think there was something different about said candles, but the funny thing (in retrospect) is this was AT the grocery store! they were probably picking them up *there* but that didn't occur to me at the time.

thanks everyone!

p.s. i found a few more practical options on itunes in the 45 minutes or so since i started typing this, (siddur audio, magevet, and craig taubman "friday night live") but i totally ordered a used copy of meshugga beach party from amazon.

[Chavelamomela]

I use the challah recipe from the "artisan bread in 5 minutes a day" cookbook, with some slight modifications. Here's the original recipe, and I'll describe my modifications at the end:

Makes four 1-pound loaves. The recipe is easily doubled or halved.

1 ¾ cups lukewarm water
1 ½ tablespoons granulated yeast (1 ½ packets)
1 ½ tablespoons salt
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup honey (increased from 1/2)
½ cup unsalted butter, melted (or neutral-tasting vegetable oil such as canola), plus more for greasing the cookie sheet. - I use coconut oil with a lot of success.
7 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of water)
Poppy or sesame seeds for the top (I skip this)

1. Mixing and storing the dough: Mix the yeast, salt, eggs, honey, and melted butter (or oil) with the water in a 5-quart bowl, or a lidded (not airtight) food container.

2. Mix in the flour without kneading, using a spoon, a 14-cup capacity food processor (with dough attachment), or a heavy-duty stand mixer (with dough hook). If you’re not using a machine, you may need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour. (I just use a big spoon and my hands)

3. Cover (not airtight), and allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2 hours

4. The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is easier to handle when cold. Refrigerate in a lidded (not airtight) container and use over the next 5 days. Beyond 5 days, freeze in 1-pound portions in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks. Defrost frozen dough overnight in the refrigerator before using. Then allow the usual rest and rise time.

5. On baking day, butter or grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-size) piece. Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.

6. Divide the ball into thirds, using a dough scraper or knife. Roll the balls between you hands (or on a board) stretching, to form each into a long thin rope. If the dough resists shaping, let it rest for 5 minutes and try again. Braid the ropes, starting from the center and working to one end. Turn the loaf over, rotate it, and braid from the center out to the remaining end. This produces a loaf with a more uniform thickness when braided from end to end.

7 Allow the bread to rest and rise on the prepared cookie sheet for 1 hour and 20 minutes (or just 40 minutes if you’re using fresh, unrefridgerated dough).

8. Twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 350˚F. If you’re not using a stone in the oven, 5 minutes is adequate. Brush the loaf with egg wash and sprinkle with the seeds.

9. Bake near the center of the oven for about 25 minutes. Smaller or larger loaves will require adjustments in baking time. The challah is done when golden brown, and the braids near the center of the loaf offer resistance to pressure. Due to the fat in dough, challah will not form a crackling crust.

10. Allow to cool before slicing or eating.

So my modifications (listed above in the ingredients) also include the following changes to the process:

I make the dough on thursday nights, allowing it to rise, then shape the dough into loaves. For the ones I am using for shabbat, I wrap them in saran wrap (with some extra space but sealed) and place them on a cookie sheet in the fridge. It will rise slowly overnight this way.

The loaves I will freeze I wrap tightly in saran, and freeze them (also on something flat) and defrost them on a thursday night when I want them again.

Then, On friday afternoon, I take the loaves out of the fridge for 20-60 minutes (just to take the chill out), preheat the oven, and do the egg wash.

What's nice about this recipe is that it only needs to rise once before shaping, and it's a no-knead recipe.

It's super yummy. The trick is to make sure that once the loaves are baked, store them in an airtight ziplock bag, because it does dry out fast otherwise.

Also, if you double recipes, be aware that you have the opportunity to do a special mitzvah called taking "challah" -which is applicable when you use 12 or more cups of flour.

[Faliciagayle]

ooh I have that cookbook, I use it all the time but I haven't tried to do challah that way. I'll try tonight!....

[Faliciagayle]

Originally Posted by doubledutch

lol, you ladies have got me digging around itunes, where the most fun version of shalom aleichem so far comes from "meshugga beach party: twenty songs of the chosen surfers" but then i don't get words. i'll keep looking.

[Ruthla]

Originally Posted by Faliciagayle

Also, and I don't know if this is kosher, but for my second loaf I make a small roll style challah. We are a family of 3, one of whom is 17 months, so baking 4 full size challot each Shabbat is way too much.

Absolutely it's kosher! You simply need two whole loaves of bread, and enough total bread for each person to have at least a mouthful. So you can have one huge loaf and a roll. You can have two rolls. And it doesn't have to be challah specifically. You can use matzah, or rolls, or even pitas.

I've had times when Shabbos guests came after the meal began, and we had enough sliced challah to feed everybody, but still needed whole loaves, so we'd use whatever bread we had on hand (matzah, small rolls, mini pitas, etc) and then give them slices from the big challah after they made the blessing over the two small loaves.

This is probably more complicated than you needed. Making rolls, or mini-loaves, or using whatever kosher unsliced bread you're able to purchase, is fine.

The menu is supposed to be something a little fancier than you eat during the week. It doesn't have to be any specific menu. Matzah ball or noodle soup is a traditional way to begin the meal, and is very easy to make in a veggie version. Really, any soup (that might otherwise be a whole meal) followed by a baked meal (that would otherwise be a whole meal even without an appetizer) followed by some kind of dessert (homemade or purchased baked goods, or ice cream) is already fancier than you'd eat during the week just because you have more courses.

Meatless balls and spaghetti might seem to "weekdayish" but if you made a meatless loaf instead of balls, and served it with rice or pilaf instead of spaghetti, and added a green veggie to round out the dish, you have a very elegant meal.

It looks like the candle questions have already been answered (even stores that con't carry "shabbos candles" in big boxes usually have the same thing in boxes of 4 labeled "emergency candles", or you can use tea lights and not even worry about locating candlesticks) and I don't know much about music. We don't do much singing in our family on Friday nights.

[doubledutch]

:

thank you, everyone.

i don't know why i was all overwhelmed at the idea of serious baking last night - probably because i was awake in the middle of the night after falling asleep putting the kids to bed at 7:30, so i was just in a funny state.

i appreciate all the thoughts and personal/family traditions - it's cool to see that everyone finds their way.

[ChampagneBlossom]

Um... stupid question... but what is the difference between challah and regular bread? The shape?

[smeisnotapirate]

The shape and also, that they're parve (no milk and no meat derivatives) so you can serve them with a meat or milk meal and not have to switch recipes.

[Faliciagayle]

What Sme said, and there is also a whole amazing set of laws and rituals surround challah.

This article from Chabad (lengthy) is a good intro: http://www.chabad.org/library/howto/...Is-Challah.htm

Any bread meeting specific requirements - amount of flour, liquid, others, is challah by virtue of the fact you have to "take challah" from the bread. The presentation of traditional Sabbath challot set it apart from regular daily bread, and thus, are part of a bigger mitzvah of Shabbat - to make it separate and holy.

[doubledutch]

thanks for being so helpful with all my questions - here are my boys being as patient as humanly possible at our first (quite humble with the jam jars for glasses) shabbat table:

http://i43.tinypic.com/24b9jt1.jpg

[Ruthla]

But you had a white tablecloth! I don't even have one of those (red hides wine stains better. )

[SaraFR]

Originally Posted by doubledutch

thanks for being so helpful with all my questions - here are my boys being as patient as humanly possible at our first (quite humble with the jam jars for glasses) shabbat table:

http://i43.tinypic.com/24b9jt1.jpg

Looks good!

[smeisnotapirate]

Originally Posted by Ruthla

But you had a white tablecloth! I don't even have one of those (red hides wine stains better. )

I don't have a white tablecloth either!