Comments on: Yid.Dish: Apple Cider Challah

By: Kt

Kt — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 14:03:23 +0000

Great recipe … thanks for sharing your early morning creation!

By: Aaron

Aaron — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:07:31 +0000

This is really neat. I tried using apple cider for most of the water but there are a couple of things that struck me about the rabbinic arguments as posited here.

First, replacing the water with fruit juice is very different from replacing ALL the liquid with fruit juice, particularly in challah. Both the eggs and the oil are liquid. Even if I used butter as my fat, I could use clarified butter and that too would be a liquid. All of those go into the calculations of how much flour should be added. The decision to use honey or granulated sugar for the sweetness affects this as well.

Next, a batch of bread needs to be five pounds for a bracha? Do the rabbis who wrote this opinion know how big a five pound batch of challah is?

Thanks

By: Naf

Naf — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:22:11 +0000

Rachel,
In Michael Pollan’s “The Botany of Desire” there is an entire section devoted to the apple that has (if I recall correctly) plenty of great information about cider and Johnny Appleseed!

By: Rachel Kahn-Troster

Rachel Kahn-Troster — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:41:17 +0000

So, oddly enough, most American apple cider is non-alcoholic, so much so that as alcoholic cider has become more popular here in recent years, it is referred to as “hard” cider. I believe the switch has something to do with Prohibition, as American cider during colonial times was alcoholic. It is a little unclear what the difference is here between unfiltered apple juice and apple cider.

For those interested in American folklore, I have heard that the reason Johnny Appleseed planted all those trees across the country was so that people could have cider…but right now I can’t seem to find a source.

By: shev

shev — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:26:29 +0000

Okay, British question here: what is apple cider? Where I come from, it’s fizzy alcoholic apple juice – which might make an EXCELLENT challah! What are you using?

By: Moe

Moe — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:30:09 +0000

Oh this sounds wonderful. I’ve never made challah myself, actually. I think this recipe has inspired me to make my first attempt.

Thank you for sharing!

By: Leah Koenig

Leah Koenig — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:46:51 +0000

Thanks everyone for these insightful comments. I hadn’t thought about the fact that using juice instead of water might render this challah cake – even though it looks nothing like cake and everything like challah. Good to know…I’ll definitely check in with my parent-in-laws to be before making it for them on Rosh Hashanah

By: Ron

Ron — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:38:13 +0000

YUM!

By: Larry Lennhoff

Larry Lennhoff — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:17:18 +0000

You should definitely consult a rabbi since there are contradictory rulings. According to Chabad.org if the primary liquid ingredient isn't water, technically the result is not bread, but cake. However, The Vaad of Queens makes it clear that in their eyes if it looks and tastes like bread it is bread, regardless of the liquid used. For a really detailed look check out the section "The Fallacy of Mezonos bread" in The Laws of Brachos by Rav Benjamin Forst.

By: Eric Schulmiller

Eric Schulmiller — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:05:52 +0000

This sounds amazing, Leah. I'll have to try it while I still have some summer free time left. As for your "Sesame Street moment", were you thinking of these guys? I have to pull Gen-X rank and give mad reading props to the soft-shoe silhouette gang at the Electric Company. Long live Morgan Freeman (aka Easy Reader)!