Challah bread for The Choice
The book: The Choice by Edith Eger
Genre: Memoir
Published: 2017
The bake: Challah bread
What’s the story?
This is the story of an incredible woman, Edith Eger who survived Auschwitz and is STILL alive today at 93 years old! If that is not a complete victory over the evil Nazi regime and Holocaust, I don’t know what is! The Choice is her memoir and her story begins as a young woman living with her parents and two sisters, Magda and Klara, in Hungary. Edith is the youngest and she writes that Magda was the beautiful one and Klara, an accomplished musician, the talented one. Their father is a tailor and seems to have had a jolly disposition. Their mother did not have such a sunny personality, and it’s interesting to read a bit about their family dynamics before the horror that would rip them apart.
In May 1944 Edith and her family are deported to Auschwitz. Only Klara escapes because she was away from home at the time of the deportation. Edith and Magda cling to each other and they will live through unspeakable things before they see the end of the war in 1945.
The Choice is more than just the story of Edith’s experiences in Auschwitz. She moved to America where she became a celebrated psychologist. Her specialty is the treatment of post-traumatic stress. The book also tells of her relationship with her husband Béla, and her children. Most importantly, it tells of her interaction with her patients. And how she grew to accept and move forward from her own traumatic experiences.
Why read it?
When I started The Choice, I thought it would be mainly about Edith Eger’s experiences in Auschwitz. I did not know that it is actually more about her life before and after the war. This is a book you need to read slowly, because every now and then she drops a real gem that you really need to think about. There are so many ‘quotable quotes’ in this book, life lessons that I feel like printing out and sticking to my fridge, my mirror, next to my desk. The title of the book basically sums up her philosophy – you have the choice of what happens in your life. Yes, sometimes things happen that are out of your control, but you still have a choice about how you react to it. It is your choice to become negative and to drown in misery. OR to rise above circumstances and live a life worth remembering.
This is truly a remarkable book written by a remarkable woman. She learned to make the choice: to never allow what happened in the past to ruin our future. This did not happen overnight for her, and it even took a return to Auschwitz in the 1990s to help her heal. I have so much respect for the survivors of the Holocaust, and it is a privilege to read this book and to think that Edith Eger is still alive and working to improve the lives of others.
Pair it with: Challah bread
Edith Eger is of course Jewish, and I felt I had to make a special bread of Jewish origin to pair with this book. Eger mentions eating challah with her family in The Choice. Challah is a special bread of Eastern European origin. The bread is usually braided and eaten on ceremonial occasions. ‘Braided’ when it comes to this bread means a braid made with six strands, and I had to find a YouTube video to help me with this! The end product came out quite beautifully. It does take a while to make this bread, but it’s worth it. There’s lots of time needed for the bread to rise, and if you do one of the rises in the fridge overnight, it really improves the flavour. Challah is best eaten on the day it’s baked, but it also makes fabulous French Toast and bread-and-butter pudding.
I made this bread with the amazing stoneground flour from Gideon Milling. This is my favorite flour at the moment and I use it to make everything from pancakes to vetkoek. It gives this bread a wonderful taste and chewy texture.
Challah
6
servings1
hour40
minutesMakes enough for one challah bread. You can easily double the recipe. Adapted from smittenkitchen.com and lifeasastrawberry.com.
Ingredients
6 g active dry yeast
6 g sugar
215 ml lukewarm water
60 ml vegetable oil
2 large eggs
50 g sugar
7 g salt
550 g white bread flour (I used stoneground flour from Gideon Milling)
1 egg, whisked
Poppy or black sesame seeds (optional)
Directions
- Dissolve the yeast and the first amount of sugar in the lukewarm water in the bowl of your stand mixer. Set aside for a few minutes until foamy.
- Whisk the oil into the yeast, then beat in the eggs, one at a time, with the rest of the sugar and the salt. Gradually add the flour. When the dough holds together it’s ready to knead. I used my stand mixer fitted with the dough hook to mix and knead the dough.
- Once the dough is smooth, turn it out of the bowl. Clean out the bowl and grease it, then return the dough to the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour until almost doubled in size.
- Punch the dough down and turn it over. Cover and place in the fridge to rise slowly overnight. Take it out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature (about three to four hours) before proceeding.
- Turn the dough onto a floured surface, punch it down slightly and cut it into six equal pieces. Roll out and place parallel to each other. I watched a video here to help me braid the six pieces into a loaf.
- Place the bread on a greased baking tray and allow it to rise until almost doubled in size (about an hour). Brush the beaten egg over the loaf, sprinkle over the seeds (if using) and bake at 180 °C for 20 minutes. Pull the bread slightly out of the oven and brush with more egg. Bake another 20 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy the same day you baked it.
2 Comments
Mariette
Dit lyk heerlik Karla! Definitely gonna give it a try asap!
The Bookworm
Thanks Mariette! Yes, the bread is delish and the book is just amazing!!