January : Shabbath shalom !

This months class was taught by Sophie Tolub. We all headed to Maisons Lafitte, where we were welcomed by Dorothy and Gabriel Timonier. A big thank you to Aviva for having us and letting us take over with organised mayham in her kitchen thanks to Sophie!

Sophie Tolub took us through the traditions of shabbat, we read a story about the creation and then headed to the kitchen where we baked our challah. Each child kneaded the dough and braided his/her bread before putting it into the oven. It was cold outside with signs of snow, but indoors the warmth of the kitchen warmed the house and the smells warmed our appetites. Before tasting our home-made challah we went over the blessings for the wine and the blessings for the challah and tucked into our tasty, warm bread.

Thank you to Sophie for the preparation and for a fun-filled class...

Challah recipe :

This recipe makes 2 plaited loaves or 10 small loaves.

Where it may be eaten with meat dishes, milk and butter are ommitted and oil or margarine and water used.

Yeast : fresh yeast bought at your local boulangére or instant yeast bought at local supermarket. 25g fresh = 1 sachet (15ml) instant
The fresh yeast must be a pale grey colour. If you mix it with a little sugar, it becomes liquid and can then be added to the other ingredients.

1 packet instant yeast or 25g fresh yeast
45ml (3tbs) sugar
5 x 250ml flour
15ml (1 Tbs) salt
3 eggs, lighly beaten
60g (1/4 cup) soft butter, margarine or oil
310ml (11/4 cup) warm water or milk (approx)

Sift all dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl. Make a well and Add yeast according to your type. Then add lightly beaten eggs and milk, mix together with wooden spoon. Then add softened butter. Start mixing with fingers.
Turn it out onto a well-floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic (This takes max. 10 minutes). Do not overwork dough as it may avoid dough rising.
Place the dough in a large bowl (at least 3 times bigger than dough) lightly oil sides of bowl to avoid it sticking, cover with a warm damp cloth or cling wrap and leave in a warm place to rise to double its size. Then cover with cloth
After the dough has risen, return it to the floured surface; divide into two for loaves. *
Divide each half into 3 and roll each piece into a long sausage.
Plait crossing the braid over and not under. Do not braid too tight.
**Cover and leave to rise till double its size
Brush with yellow of egg and sprinkle poppy or sesame seeds or just plain.

Bake at 180°C for about 25-30 minutes or until golden.

*/**If you intend freezing stop at this step or just after braiding.

Braiding : divide into three long sausages. Pinch the tops together and fold under. Cross the right over the centre and then left over the centre through till end of bread. Pinch bottoms together and fold under. Ensure that the tops and bottoms are well pinched together and folded under to avoid it separating during baking...

March : Passover is already here !

Sunday, March 21st, we went to the eastern suburbs to start celebrating Passover. It all started off in song with 'Baby Moses' and once we came to the point where Moses was all grown up and living in the "palace" we set up around the table and had a short "seder" where we learnt about the traditions, discussed the seder plate, and sang the Mah Nishtanah.


At the point where we usually break for the meal, we headed to the kitchen to bake our matzah.
(Recipe below)

Thank you to Rebecca who hosted the class and for opening her home to what was the longest Sunday Funday 'goûter' we ever had !

Homemade Matzah recipe :

Ingredients :
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
water

Preheat the oven to 450° (or higher).
In a large bowl mix the flour and water until you have a soft, kneadable dough.
Knead for 5 minutes
Let the dough rest for a couple of minutes
Break off egg-sized portions of dough and stretch each portion as thin as you can
Then roll it into even thinner oval slabs
Prick each slab with a fork to form a line of wholes
Place slabs in the baking sheets and palce it in the oven.

Bake until matzah is crisp and buckled 8-10 minutes. Cool

NOTE : You only have 18 minutes from the time the flour meets the water to put the matzah in the oven or the dough will begin to rise.

CHILDRENS PASSOVER BOOK IDEAS :
Age 3 : Only 9 chairs - Deborah Uchill Miller
Age 4 : Too Many Cooks : A passover parable by Edie Stolz
Age 5 : Nachsin who was afraid to swim by Deborah Bodin Cohen

Le premier pessah de sammy Spider et je colorie pessah qui est disponible dans les trois bibliothèque autour de rue de Rosiers à Paris

Thank you to Rebecca who hosted the class and for opening her home to what was the longest Sunday Funday 'goûter' we ever had !

February: Purim parades

At our February class, the kids came all dressed up and in high spirits to learn about the brave Esther and how she saved her people. Rabbi Tom was there too and we got to look at a real 'megillah' - the scroll we read from at Purim.

We had an animated reading the megillah Sunday Funday style as the purim parade moved around the room with music and dance, making lots of noise and most importantly listening to the story of Queen Esther and how she became queen and uncovered a plot that would change our destiny, Mordechai, Esthers uncle who guided her during her reign and who instituted the celebration of this holiday , the king of Persia who made Esther his new queen and Haman the kings advisor who made a plan to destroy the jewish people. After which the kids were hard at work making paper puppets of the main characters of the story and decorating their crowns.