Challah is a very basic food staple in a Jewish household. Therefore, making sure people have the ability to put challah on the table is something that is very important to us at Masbia. This is why it’s included as part of the basic staples that are distributed to the needy. Challah also poses a dilemma. What type of challah should be offered? Being that it is so popular also means that there are various takes on it, or what happens to someone who does not need challah?

The solution Masbia came up with is to give out ingredients to make challah. Masbia calls them DIY (Do It Yourself) Challah Ingredient Kits. These kits are made up of the shelf-stable items that are needed to make challah. The kits include flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and oil. All these items are basic household staples that people can use to make challah or if they choose, use them to cook or bake something else. Masbia packages these items together for the sake of making challah but they do not have to be exclusively used to make challah.

Assembling these DIY challah kits has been a great volunteer opportunity for synagogues, schools, and Bar/Bat Mitzvah kids. But most notably, our clients – especially mothers picking up food to feed their families – are very excited to receive them.  

Challah is more than just braided bread. Challah gets its name from the mitzvah you do with the dough prior to braiding. The threshold to make that blessing is 5 pounds of flour. Therefore, all of Masbia’s challah kits include at least 5 pounds of flour and enough from the other ingredients to at least make that one dough.

For only $8, you can sponsor one DIY Challah Ingredient Kit. Click here.

Challah Recipe Links:

For a variety of challah recipes and challah braiding techniques with videos from JoyOfKosher.com click here.

For a variety of challah recipes from Kosher.com click here.

For friend of Masbia, Joan Nathan‘s ultimate challah baking video for Tablet Magazine, click here, for the recipe, click here.

Traditionally, Rosh Hashanah challah is round, here is why, from MyJewishLearning.com by Shannon Sarna.

For round challah braiding/weaving techniques check out, chabad.org, Melissa Clark for New York Times, and Aish.com. 

Keep up with the latest in the kosher foodie world, follow our own (Masbia Board Member) Naomi Nachman of The Aussie Gourmet and don’t miss her show, Table for Two on the Nachum Segal Network on Friday mornings. For the YouTube feed, click here.

Ordering Challah Online

Yoni’s Pretzel Challah donated thousands of delicious pretzel challahs of all their varieties to feed the needy at Masbia. They recently started selling them online via Amazon. We recommend patronizing them. To order their challah online, click here.  

Leah Hadad of Tribes A Dozen, is a good friend of Masbia and sells challah mix online via Amazon for the basic traditional mix, click here.

Strauss Bakery, based in Brooklyn, donates all the bread and all the challah needed for our Shabbos meals. They don’t have an online ordering option, but they have a great website that works as an online catalog. Check them out here. 

Special thanks to Chavie Lieber, Senior Reporter at Racked for the beautiful challah braiding photo in her kitchen at her Upper West Side apartment.

---