In a previous post, I lamented on my experience baking a ceremonial Hallah for a Bat Mitzvah party. After I was not pleased with the appearance of my second attempt, I tweaked my technique. With this change, a beautifully braided Hallah emerged from the hot oven. So, I was both surprised and disappointed when the ceremonial Hallah I baked this week did not come out as appealing. Just like with children, you can apply your best skills and experience, but each Hallah seems to have a mind of its own. This left me pondering —am I the Amy Chua or the Wendy Mogel of Hallah baking?
With my first attempt, the triple- recipe, four-strand Hallah looked gorgeous after braiding. When baked, though, it had a fissure the size of the Grand Canyon running through its middle. A seasoned Hallah Baker, I am used to producing good-looking Hallah loaves. Not that I equate myself with my Hallah, but, when I send my Hallah into the world, I want it to reflect my best skills. That is why I had to find a way to produce this humongous loaf with its structure intact. I thrive on solving problems, and this is where my training as a lawyer comes in handy. After some thought, and drawing on my experience as a Hallah baker, I realized I had a weight issue, the Hallah that is.
Each of the four strands weighed approximately 1 lb.! That’s heavy! Gravity did it’s trick, pulling the strands down and a apart. The solution: make each strand lighter! How? Bake a six-strand (!!!) ceremonial Hallah. As I never baked a six-strand Hallah before, I hit the books and, then, practiced on twine. Braiding six strands of dough was still a great mental challenge, akin to evil Sudoku. But it was worth it. The Hallah met my approval in all respects—flavor, texture, color and appearance. I would be bragging if I said that it was perfect, but, ‘perfect’ is also not the yard stick by which I choose to measure things. It was excellent!
In my Hallah baking, I combine the precision and exactness of a science laboratory with some intuition born out of my experience. Alas, yeast bread is finicky! There are too many uncontrollable factors that make it hard to achieve the same results time and again. My second try with six strands, did not yield quite the same results in appearance, but I am on the right track. When I asked for my daughter’s opinion on the results, she alluded to my standards being too high. Was that a rebuke saying I am parenting the same way?
Between Amy Chua — the Tiger mom — and Wendy Mogel — the blessing of a b minus— I tend to think that I don’t fall into either category. I am also an experienced mother. I know that we have to love and respect our children for who they are. Children are different from one another, and accepting the child you have rather than the child you wished you had could be a parent’s greatest challenge (or accomplishment). Unlike with Hallah, there is no timer that goes off to tell you a child is ‘done.’ Good enough is sometimes pretty awsome. And, if not excellent, the appearance of this Hallah is more than good enough.
