Food in Israel

My Sister in law has turned a bedroom into a bakery.Getting this behemoth into the apartment was tough. Luckily it did fit in the elevator, but doors were removed and hinges taken off. They aren’t moving anytime soon. They also had to rewire, since this is an industrial oven.Making the starter. Sarah works with both sourdough starters or in this case – homemade yeast water. The yeast water was a few days old, bubbling away, from this stage until baked bread – it took 1.5 days.She made the yeast water starter on Wednesday night. By Friday morning the dough itself was ready to be formed.Each ball is rolled out, then twisted into this little braid, it’s not a challah, it’s much smaller.Letting them rise some more, then they are dipped in water and poppy seeds.She mentioned a German name, seeing that see grew up in Austria, I know it has the word Muhn in it, since that means poppyseed.  These are not sweet at all, but oh so yummy.Using the same dough and this finger trick, she also made Jerusalem bagel, which is covered on both sides with sesame seeds. Same dough, different taste because of the seeds.This is true sourdough made from spelt. Yup, all kinds of interesting grains out there and each needs it’s own starter.

There were Challahs as well, I didn’t get a picture because we were already at the table when they came out, and nothing survived.Obligatory images of the piles of vegetables at the open market. As well as fruit, the citrus season is ending just as the strawberry season starts. I know, it’s not food, but I did deliver the quilt, the parents are thrilled.The baby couldn’t care less.