This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts.
In the video bellow, using the Czernowitzer challah recipe published by Maggie Glezer in “The Blessing of Bread” as a basis, Rukhl Schaechter and Eve Jochnowitz, co-hosts of the Forverts cooking show, “Eat In Good Health,” demonstrate how to shape the challah in several ways, ranging from sophisticated to simple enough that a child can do it.
As Glezer writes in the book:
“In the late nineteenth century, the city of Czernowitz, known as the Vienna of Eastern Europe, was famous throughout Austria-Hungary for its tolerance, civic beauty, culture, and learning. Frequently renationalized over the last millennium, Czernowitz has passed through Romanian, Ottoman, and Austrian control and is now a Ukrainian city called Chernivtsi. At its cultural peak at the turn of the twentieth century, it was populated and governed by Jews from Poland, Russia, Austria, and Romania — it even hosted the first-ever Yiddish-language conference in 1908. Of course, World War II destroyed this idyll, and most of the city’s Jews were deported to Auschwitz.
This recipe for a classic European challah (pronounced “chern-o-vitzer”) comes from the late Lotte Langmann. It is not terribly sweet or eggy, but it is generously enriched with oil. The Austrians traditionally use a four-stranded braid, but this dough holds its shape so beautifully during baking that it is a great choice for showing off any fancy shape.”
Enjoy the show, and as we say in Yiddish: “Est gezunterheyt!”
WATCH: How to Make a Czernowitzer Challah
WATCH: How to Make a Czernowitzer Challah
Author
Rukhl Schaechter
Rukhl Schaechter is the editor of the Yiddish Forward (Forverts) and is both the first woman to hold that position since its founding in 1897 and the first editor of the Forverts to be born in the United States.
