Firstly, Carly needs to explain what these challah covers actually are. As the saying goes, the name itself reveals the purpose. Well, as they say, the name on the tin gives it away. There is no hidden meaning, in fact. They are used to cover the two loaves of challah that are eaten at mealtimes on the sabbath (Shabbat) by Jews. Particularly on Friday night and for Saturday lunch. Challahs are a bit like brioche and often plaited. They are covered with egg to make them nice and shiny and oftentimes, they are decorated with poppy or sesame seeds. In South Africa, there is a tradition to make them with raisins for festivals. And nowadays you can get loaves made with organic dark brown rye flour. But, Carly isn’t enamoured with this type. They are so heavy. Carly feels her stomach falling to the floor just looking at them, let alone eating them.
Now she is living alone, she is often left with rather a large amount of challah if she has had guests over on Shabbat. Previously, her ravenous children would have gobbled it all up. Along with the dogs and the guests. So, Carly slices it up while it is still fresh and freezes it. Gosh does it toast up well and can even be used for desserts. À la Nadiya Hussein who once won one of Carly’s favourite competition reality TV shows – the Great British Bake Off (known throughout the UK as GBBO). Nadiya now has lots of different series and the one recipe that is most memorable is one with croissants, jam, butter, chocolate drops and ice-cream that you bake. The ice-cream turns into a type of custard. Delicious, if a bit heavy. And Carly will normally switch all the ingredients around. I mean why waste ice-cream when you can whip up some quick custard with some Bird’s powder and a load of milk. And, actually, it requires a lot of patience. No, Carly has none of that. And this explains why her custard is so very lumpy and she always has to sieve it. But it is way cheaper than ice-cream. Although the margin is less of a cost saving when you consider the lumps. And, anyway, now Carly lives in a hot country, so having something frozen for afters is really called for. She wonders if the heat has something to do with not being able to buy fresh custard in Jaffa? Probably there just isn’t enough demand.
But why do the two challahs need a cover? Carly knows the answer as to why there are two challahs in the first place. When the Israelites left Egypt, after the ten plagues with Moses, Aaron and Miriam, they ate for 40 years in the desert. A portion of ‘manna’ was there every day for sustenance but on Friday there was a double portion to last for all of Shabbat too. She is fairly sure that most people accept this reason. But as for the cover. That answer is a bit more precarious. Carly was told that as the wine is blessed first, the challahs get upset at being second place and so the challah cover is to hide their second-class citizen ranking from them. It seems rather far-fetched to consider that an inanimate object such as bread, however lovingly crafted, would have feelings of jealousy or envy. With the ease of checking things on the internet, Carly has investigated if there are other more seemingly serious reasons for this cover. She finds none, and anyway, the one she knows about seems to be rather charming. So, Carly will stick with that explanation.
Traditionally challah covers are made from fabric, often embroidered with gold and sometimes a braided edging. Carly finds them, for the most part, dreadfully dull. They are likely to be used for years and so should be a thing of originality and beauty. An art form really. And the fabric should be sumptuous but is often polyester, so it is easy to wash. But that is part of the challah cover’s charm. All the stains tell a story. So now when she donates the challah cover to a lucky recipient, Carly writes a note to NEVER wash them. And this obsession by so many people trying to keep germs at bay. Don’t get Carly started on that one. Germs are good – well up to a point. And certainly, all this endless washing and cleaning really isn’t good for the environment or the gut microbiome.
Making challah covers does allow Carly’s creative streak to be aired. And it is sewing rather than knitting which makes a nice variation to her default crafting obsession. And the end product is something unique and wholly Jewish that she can give to others. Often as an engagement, wedding, or birthday present. Sometimes just because she wants to. It is always difficult to know how much to involve the recipient. It seems social protocol says that everyone should delight in any and every gift they receive. But Carly knows that there is often no accounting for taste. It reminds her of a mantra of her wonderful paddle-boarding instructor who often says. “The one thing you can say about common sense, is that it is not that common!” So, what Carly considers as the height of good taste may be seen as utterly ghastly by someone who will receive her gift. Thus, Carly has had to come up with a compromise. She tries to involve the recipient in the planning process. Like choosing the fabric, colour, motifs and size. Maybe a beach scene or a favourite city like New York. Carly must be allowed some decision-making and this feels like an excellent and cooperative way forward.
Sometimes she makes challah duvets. Of course, the bread is not about to go to sleep or curl up and read a book under it. Carly merely uses this terminology to explain that this genre of cover is padded and cosy. She made a number with fuchsia pink silk her father bought her in Thailand. The sheen was sumptuous, and the colour changed depending on how you viewed it in the light. This was because the warp (north to south thread) was a slightly different colour to the weft (east to west thread).
Carly invariably makes four tassels, one for each corner. She has this process down to a fine art and recently; to add interest and noise, she has attached a bell to at least one of the tassels. On the back she sews in a label to let everyone know she made it. However, Carly doesn’t like being seen as a show-off. So, she carefully hides the label under a flap or ribbon to conceal what could be misconstrued as boasting. Recently she replaced the tassels with gender-specific Anime keyrings, one to represent each member of the family of five. She had considered making a pentagon-shaped challah cover to be able to decorate each of the corners with a keyring, but the shape was proving a headache, so used a dreamcatcher motif and there were five feathery hanging components instead.
Carly usually gives them to individuals, couples, or families. Once she made a bespoke, purple challah cover for the entire Jewish community in Pune, India. They were very grateful, and Carly hopes it will get well used and soon become covered in stains!
Carly, ever the extrovert, has tried to inveigle her way into leading a session on the power, beauty and provenance of challah covers at Limmud, a Jewish Learning festival, in Jerusalem this year. She has petitioned the organisers to run a challah cover workshop. Most of the sessions are political or text based. Carly’s will have to just be a little bit different. She feels, after some introductory blurb, she will provide attendees with some lovely fabric, and they will have all manner of pens, pencils, paints, stencils, stickers, buttons, and beads to decorate. Carly feels she can awaken their creativity and help them reach their potential. Carly is so excited about this potential opportunity to galvanise others to banish boring challah covers to the scrapheap. So far, however, she’s received no word to say she’s been chosen to run such an event. “What a shame”, thinks Carly. “They really are missing out…”
