Seven heavens challah for Shavuot

Not as glorious as Rosh Hashanah, not as holy as Yom Kippur, and lacking that perfect timing of Passover, right in sync with spring break, Shavuot was relegated in American Jewish life to a second tier holiday. Sure, everyone knows that this early summer holiday actually commemorates the most significant moment in turning the Israelites into a nation – receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai. But as far as culinary traditions are involved, most would just write Shavuot off as the dairy holiday, the day of blintzes and cheesecakes.

But that would only add insult to injury to the holiday known as the Festival of Harvest, deeply rooted in the Jewish people’s agricultural practices in Israel. Centuries-old tradition tie Shavuot to the baking of speciality breads perfectly fitting the wheat harvest season and following the Temple-era demand of bread offerings. This tradition, kept in many Jewish communities, can transform your Shavuot menu and, hopefully, help redeem the holiday.

Shavuot is not the only Jewish holiday connected to the agricultural cycle. There’s also Sukkot, Tu B’Shvat and Passover, to name a few. The latter kicks off the counting of the Omer, seven weeks of grain harvest in biblical Israel that started with barley and ended with the harvest of wheat and with the holiday of Shavuot (weeks in Hebrew). When the temple still stood in Jerusalem, the first offering of the wheat crops was brought to the temple where it was baked into large loaves of bread that priests would sacrifice to God.

“From your dwelling places, you shall bring bread, set aside, two [loaves] [made from] two tenths [of an ephah]; they shall be of fine flour, [and] they shall be baked leavened, the first offering to the Lord.” (Leviticus, 23:17)

These two loaves of bread were made of the finest local wheat and were leavened, unlike most sacrificed breads. They were baked into loaves of seven handbreadth (tefachim, a biblical measurement unit) long and four handbreadth wide (about 22 inch long and 13 inch wide) and four fingers tall. Two lambs were sacrificed with the loaves and the bread was consumed by the priests.

With the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem sacrifices ended but in Jewish communities around the world, from Libya to Thessaloniki and Germany to France, a new tradition of sprouted: baking of special breads for Shavuot. 

One of the most elaborate Shavuot breads must be the Sephardi Siete Cielos (or Los Siete Sielos in Greece) challah, the seven heavens bread, referring to the seven heavens of the universe mentioned in Jewish scripture (as well as Islam and Christianity). Israeli food writer and historian Pascale Perez-Rubin writes that in some versions, the challah is stuffed with dried fruit and nuts. According to Ronit Treatman’s excellent article on the subject, this tradition dates back to 8th century Spain, where Jews adopted the idea of decorated Easter bread from their Christian neighbors.

The Cookbook of the Jews of Greece by Nicholas Satvroulakis gives a detailed description of the festive bread. It consisted of a round center, symbolizing Mount Sinai (El Monte) surrounded by seven rings of dough. The rings are then decorated with shaped dough symbols relating to the story of giving of the Torah, like the Table of the Law, a Torah scroll with a hand, the serpent that healed the Jews in the dessert, Miriam’s well, quail that the Israelites ate in the desert, and a ladder, that Satvroulakis refers to as Jacob’s ladder, but other interpretations see it as the ladder Moses used to climb up to meet God.

A seven steps ladder returns on top of round Ashkenazi challahs for shavuot, not only for the seven heavens Moses had to pass in order to reach God on Mount Sinai, but also since the numeric value of the word ladder in Hebrew is equal to the word Sinai. Similarly, French Jews used to make a ladder-like fougasse, a flat bread that was decorated with candied cherries or orange peel, according to Joan Nathan.

Libyan mothers used to bake Torah related shaped cookies named shkak. Those are large cookies flavored with orange juice that require old-world patience in shaping the dough into dozen different formations. There are always Torah scroll-shaped cookies; hamsa and evil eye ones for good luck; birds to remember that during the giving of the Torah, “not even a bird chirped”; glasses and backpack shapes to read the Torah that is carried in the bag; a basket that carries the new produce; scissors for the first time haircuts are allowed after the counting of the Omer; and, you guessed it, a ladder, to symbolize Moses’s ascent to Mount Sinai.

All those cookies were tied with a thread into a necklace for each child in the family. The sweet necklace was then tied to an eggshell that was decorated with beads and colorful threads and was given to children and to married daughters as a special treat.

Interestingly, the same cookies appear in Sephardi communities in Turkey and Jerusalem, where they were called reshikas or folar respectively. The same shaped cookies, though, were baked especially for Purim, where the ladder symbolizes the way Haman the evil was hanged. This may suggest that the origin of these carefully shaped cookies was not necessarily related to Shavuot. 

Kolach is an Eastern European braided ring dairy challah that serves as a Christmas bread in the Czech Republic and Ukraine. Jews of the area, and in France and Germany, used to make the bread especially for Shavuot when dairy meals were served. The shape of the bread, like a crown, resembles the decorated crown on the Torah scroll.

Middle Eastern food Historian Nawal Nasrallah, connects the word kolach to the Jewish challah, and to the ceremonial breads in ancient Mesopotamian new year festivities of the Akkadian mythical goddess Ishtar. Ishtar was, among other things, the goddess of grains, and women of the time would braid special ring shaped breads in her honor. 

In some Ashkenazi communities women would bake a four corner rectangular challah resembling the biblical description of the temple-era offering of two loaves. The four corners also refer to Genesis 2:10 “and a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became four heads.”

With all those beautiful old ideas from around the Jewish world you’d think that the tradition of Shavuot special baking would have been revived by now. Instead, a new Instagram-worthy tradition blooming in Israel is to bake a basket shaped challah, symbolizes the baskets full of first produce of the season for the holiday of harvest, or a wheat sheaf challah influenced by the American Thanksgiving and British Harvest Holiday’s breads. It’s a kind of a revival, I assume.

Siete Cielos challah (seven heavens challah)

Recipe by Vered GuttmanCourse: Pastries u0026amp; BreadsCuisine: Sephardi, Jewish, GreekDifficulty: difficult

Yields

1

challahs

Prep time

45

minutes

Baking time

35

minutes

Dough rising time

1

hour 

45

minutes

Total time

3

hours 

5

minutes

This challah recipe is based on several different sources that describe it as a dairy challah that consists of a central round “Mount Sinai” part, surrounded by seven rings to represent the seven heavens and decorated with symbols related to the giving of the Torah.

In some communities, Shavuot is also known as the festival of roses, and rose petals and greenery were scattered around the synagogue during the holiday. In honor of that tradition, I decided to add some rose water to the recipe. Rose water, optional for this recipe, is available at Middle Eastern supermarkets and some Israeli supermarkets as well as online.

I highly recommend using SAF Instant yeast (it’s available online and can keep for months in the fridge.)
When using instant yeast, you should skip the process of proofing the yeast.
If you’re using active dry yeast, start the recipe by proofing the yeast and continue as usual.

The recipe makes one large siete cielos challah, as for Erev Shavuot (the eve of Shavuot), unlike Erev Shabbat, you do not need need two challahs.

INGREDIENTS

• 750 grams (1 lb. and 10 oz.) bread flour

• 8 grams (2½ teaspoons) instant yeast (or active dry yeast, see note above)

• ½ cup sugar

• 270 m”l (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) warm milk

• 3 large eggs, at room temperature

• 165 grams (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature

• 2 teaspoons kosher salt

• 1 tablespoon rose water (optional)

• For the egg wash

• 1 egg yolk

• 2 tablespoons water

• 1 teaspoon honey

DIRECTIONS

• If you’re using DRY ACTIVE YEAST, skip to instruction number 2.
  If you’re using INSTANT YEAST, in a stand mixer with a dough hook mix flour, yeast and sugar for 1 minute on medium speed. Add milk and eggs and mix for 2 minutes longer. Now add butter, one tablespoon at a time, and knead for 7 minutes to create a soft dough. Add salt and rose water (if using) and mix for 1 minute longer. Remove bowl from stand mixer. Remove the dough from the bowl, lightly flour the bowl, then put the dough back in. Cover with plastic wrap or with a towel and put in a warm place until dough doubles its volume, about 1 hour. Skip to instruction number 3.
• If you’re using DRY ACTIVE YEAST you need to proof it first. Put ½ cup warm milk, the yeast and a teaspoon of sugar in a glass and stir briefly. Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes until it visibly foams.
  In a stand mixer with a dough hook mix flour, yeast mixture, the rest of the sugar and the rest of the milk for 2 minute on medium-low speed. Add eggs and mix for 2 minutes longer. Now add butter, one tablespoon at a time, and knead for 7 minutes to create a soft dough. Add salt and rose water (if using) and mix for 1 minute longer. Remove bowl from stand mixer. Remove the dough from the bowl, lightly flour the bowl, then put the dough back in. Cover with plastic wrap or with a towel and put in a warm place until dough doubles its volume, about 1 hour.
• Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
• When the dough is ready, punch it down, transfer to a lightly floured working surface and divide to 6 portions using a dough scraper. If the dough is very sticky, roll it in the flour on your countertop first, kneading it a little until it’s easier to work with, and only then divide to 6.
• Divide the first portion into ⅓ and ⅔. Use the larger portion to make a ball shape and place it in the center of the baking sheet. Keep the smaller part for later.
• Use your hands to roll each of the 5 other portions to a long rope of about 30 inch, as even as possible. Wrap the ropes around the ball on the baking sheet in circle that become larger and larger. Repeat until you have 7 circles around the main ball.Cover the challah with a kitchen towel and let it rise for 45 minutes in a warm place (like above the stove.)
• For the challah decorations, roll the small part of dough you have left to a very thin rectangle, cut it to 2 long stripes and 7 short stripes to create a 7 steps ladder, going up from the seven rings to the mountain.
• Use leftover dough to shape a Torah scroll, the tablets of law, a bird, hamsa, a serpent or any shape you desire. DO NOT place the decoration and the ladder on the challah yet. Do that only after it rises.
• Cover challah and the little decoration pieces with kitchen towel and let stand until it doubles in size, 30-45 minutes.
• Turn oven to 180 C (350 F) degrees.
• Place the ladder and other decorations on the rings of the challah. Make an egg wash by mixing all the ingredients and gently brush the challah.
• Bake challah for 30 minutes or until golden brown and fully baked. Serve the same day, if possible. the challah will keep covered in cloth or paper (ok, a plastic bag too, if there’s no choice,) for a couple of days.