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02/01/2007: "Esther and the Very Best Bread"

Our friend Esther is not only a delightful human being and great friend, she has amazing talents! For one, Esther knits her own socks, hats, scarves and sweaters. And what's more, she loves the farm, the critters, and helping with all the gritty, grimy work involved. And she makes fantastic challah bread. I'm one of those people that assumed bread came from a machine in a warehouse somewhere and was dimly aware that it could, theoretically, be made in one's own kitchen. Esther has not only mastered breadmaking, she's turned it into an art. She came by over the weekend to teach me how to braid bread.

After making the delicious dough, she let it rise, twice. After the second rise she cut the dough in half, then divided each half into thirds. Result: six lumps of dough. The dough is then rolled out into foot long snakes. The ends are tied together, the dough is fanned out, and the magic starts.


There's a fairly simple pattern to braiding the bread that I've completely missed the boat on. It goes something like: 2nd to the left snake goes to far right. Far left snake goes to middle. Repeat from other direction. Luckily, Esther worked the braids and let me snap pictures of the unfolding miracle.

Here's Esther modeling her handiwork. The bread was allowed to rise in the warming box, then she and Nate wrangled the oven under control and popped the bread in.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get a picture of the finished loaf because it was eaten before I had a chance to say "cheese"! Thanks Esther!

Gale R. of Salem comments: A remarkable person, indeed, this Esther girl!!