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A Baking Challenge Produces a Surprising Family Transformation

Years after the pandemic, gathering to enjoy fresh-baked challah still binds one family together

Dr. Lisa Winer teaching a class
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Published on: January 27, 2025

child and mom making challah together
Photo:
iStock

When my son was a teen, he had sports practice sometimes until dark. I would shuttle him home, another commitment checked off my endless list. My husband would have dinner waiting, but by the time my son showered off the day, his food was inevitably cold. He’d eat quickly, then retreat to his room to do homework. This was my rhythm for years: rinse, repeat. It was the same with my friends and their families — a whirlwind of obligations and routines.

And then came COVID-19.

Suddenly the world slowed down, and so did we. In the stillness, something unexpected happened that forever changed our family’s fast-paced dynamic: the baking of challah.

It started one day when my friend offered a challah baking class on Zoom. She sent out a list of ingredients, and about 15 people joined the call, some from the same family.

There was something magical about how the yeast bubbled with the warm water and the way the velvety dough felt in my hands. It sparked a creative energy, reminiscent of the pottery class I had taken several years before.

Roasted garlic and rosemary challah
Roasted garlic and rosemary challah. Photo: Marc Winer 

Interestingly, everyone on the call had a different experience, even though we all had the same recipe. Some people’s dough was too sticky, others found theirs too crumbly. As we chatted away and kneaded the dough, the troubles of the pandemic seemed to drift away for the moment.

My challah came out kind of flat, but the taste brought me back to my childhood. When I was a little girl, my grandmother would buy me a “chally” roll from the grocery store as a special treat. Its eggy richness tasted like pure joy. Encouraged by this memory, I tried again, but this time, my husband, Marc, a seasoned baker, was hovering over me with suggestions. Finally, I turned to him and said in earnest, “Why don’t you just do it?”

He did.

Soon, we struck a deal: He would make the dough, and I would braid it. That arrangement lasted a week. Before long, he fully took over, but I somehow felt more fulfilled. (He would argue it was because I didn’t have to do any of the work!) But there was something deeply soothing about watching him tinker with the recipe, perfect the dough’s rise, and experiment with the braiding variations he picked up from YouTube. It brought me a profound sense of peace as if I were being cared for in a special way. After more than 30 years of marriage, I thought I understood the depth of Marc’s devotion to our family, but this took it to a whole other level. What started as a fun experiment became a labor of love and, eventually, a cherished tradition.

Teddy bear shaped challah
Teddy bear challah. Photo: Marc Winer  

By then our “COVID pod” had formed, and every Friday night, Marc’s sister, Caren; brother Glenn; Glenn’s daughter, Taylor, and her husband, Daniel; their newborn son, Peyton; and our family friend Lori we gathered to enjoy my husband’s delicious challah. At first, I searched on Amazon for conversation cards I’d seen at other social gatherings, worried we’d forgotten how to connect amid our busy lives. I purchased Our Moments Conversation Starter Cards for Families and Kids, designed to build relationships with prompts like “What is your favorite childhood memory?” and “What is the best thing about being your age?” hoping to create a bond between the generations. It was fun discovering the best thing about being a 30-year-old versus a 65-year-old through the cards, but after a few weeks, we got sidetracked with natural and effortless conversations. Consequently, the cards were soon tucked away in their box, and I’m not even sure where they are now.

From 2020 to 2023, our family enjoyed challah just about every Friday night, often with various flavors, such as chocolate chip or raspberry and cream cheese. Our family started making requests, and Marc tried his best to fulfill them. As 2024 got underway, I challenged my husband: Could he make a different challah every week for a year?

And so, on Jan. 5, 2024, our 52 Weeks of Challah Challah-enge began, and our family got into it, too. We created a shared Google doc to list possibilities, ranging from classic sesame seed challah to unconventional options like challah monkey bread with bananas and chocolate.

Sesame see challah
 A classic sesame seed challah. Photo: Marc Winer  

My husband chronicled the year on Instagram, sharing photos of each weekly experiment not just with our friends and family, but also with the world by using hashtags such as #challahbake and #homebaker.

Family favorites included both sweet, like stuffed s’mores challah, and savory, such as cheddar jalapeño challah. During holidays or cultural events, Marc went with the theme. He made a Mardi Gras challah that was modeled after the traditional king cake. It was decorated with sugar icing and sprinkled sugar in Mardi Gras colors. For the Olympics, Marc made five interlocking rings, colored with sprinkled sugar. The rings, though, weren’t as fluffy as his normal challahs. My favorites were the just-out-of-the-oven stuffed peanut butter and jelly challah (drool!) and the pretzel challah.

The only downside? If you loved a particular challah, you had to wait until the year was over to enjoy it again.

And of course, there were the failures, like this fall’s nonexistent pumpkin challah, which got thrown out after the first proofing because it was too liquidy; or the stuffed challahs that “blew out” in the oven and would have to be cleaned up a bit for presentation. (These stuffed challahs tasted great, with or without explosion!)

Our little pod expanded over time. My niece and nephew welcomed a second “COVID baby,” Morgan, and challah became one of the first foods she tasted. We all cheered with delight the night she took her first steps at our house during one of our challah gatherings! It was a treasured moment that the extended family would have missed entirely if not for our weekly tradition.

Peppermint bark challah
Peppermint bark challah. Photo: Lisa Winer

Today, visitors still come and go on Friday nights, and when our son’s medical residency allows him to visit, he always makes it a point to be here on a Friday. Other relatives and friends know they are welcome to be a taste tester for our baking experiments whenever they are in town.

These days, life has mostly returned to its pre-COVID hectic pace. My husband and I are back at work, but he now works from home on Friday afternoons to begin the baking process.

Each week, we all look forward to walking through the door to the irresistible aroma of freshly baked bread, a scent that warmly greets us and lures us inside. Fridays have become a priority unless we have a major commitment — our only obligations are to unwind and break bread!

Rainbow challah
A colorful rainbow challah. Photo: Marc Winer  

Through this tradition, we’ve fostered intergenerational connections — like the special teddy bear challah my husband baked for our grandnephew’s first birthday. My husband was thrilled when our other niece and her then fiancé asked him to bake challah for their wedding. After a practice round, he created a beautiful six-strand challah with a three-strand braided skirt. This special honor and memory would never have happened if it weren’t for the weekly gatherings that weaved us all together, much like the braids of challah.

These shared moments nourish not just our bodies, but also our souls. Eating challah on Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, holds deep symbolism in the Jewish tradition, commemorating the manna, or bread from heaven provided to the Israelites during their exodus from Egypt. Since everyone came over on a Friday, it felt like the perfect opportunity to start our own Shabbat tradition.

Growing up, I watched my grandmother light Sabbath candles on Friday evenings, but before we began baking challah, I had only lit my own candles a handful of times. It never used to be a priority. Now, surrounded by family, I light the candles every week, formally welcoming the Sabbath into our home. My husband recites the Jewish prayer over the wine (kiddush) and then over the bread (hamotzi), following the traditional order. These rituals, once distant, have become an integral part of our weekly rhythm.

The Hebrew phrase l’dor v’dor translates to “from generation to generation,” a concept that has organically unfolded in our family. Once, while we were out of town, our niece and nephew held their own Shabbat celebration. They later shared how Peyton, then 2 years old, stopped them mid-prayer to point out that they were saying the blessings in the wrong order! That moment revealed the power of establishing a family tradition. Even something as simple as baking challah fosters a sense of continuity and connectedness, bringing deeper meaning not only into our lives, but also that of our future generation. It goes beyond simply savoring 52 varieties of challah.

Challah has become more than just the tasty treat I cherished as a child; it’s now a meaningful way for the whole mishpocha to slow down, reconnect and appreciate not just the deliciousness of challah, but also the tradition it symbolizes.

More meaningful family traditions: 

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