C

c

a

Robert Rogers places the loaves
in the oven.

Next, Buntea mixes the dough.

Mike Buntea of Zeman's pours
flour to make challot in the giant
mixer.

dough with each batch of
bread she makes. It is to this
small piece that the term
challah actually refers. The
mitzvah to "take challah," is
one of three required of
women. The other two are
taharat hamishpacha, fami-
ly purity, and lighting
Shabbat candles.
The portion set aside,
which must be burned,
recalls the days of the Tem-
ple when a dough offering
was given to the Cohanim
(priests).
Like Bayla Jacobovitz,
Carol Israel says its vir-
tually impossible to ruin her
challah recipe. The friends
and family, for whom Israel
bakes challah at weddings
and b'nai mitzvot, give her
bread rave reviews.
Israel, a member of Tem-
ple Beth El, said her recipe
comes from friend Sue Rose:

3 packages yeast
3 cups scalded water
1 cup lukewarm water
1 heaping cup sugar
12 tablespoons
shortening
5 eggs
7 tablespoons salt
14 cups flour

Dissolve shortening, sugar
and salt in scalded water. In
another bowl, dissolve yeast
in lukewarm water, then
add eggs. Pour yeast into
shortening mixture. Stir in
14 cups of flour, adding as
necessary. Knead for five
minutes. Put in greased
bowl, cover and let rise for
one hour.
Turn out and form loaves

Gerhard Wrush (left) and Ben
Goldner weigh and braid the
bread.

or braid. Let rise again until
double in size, or let rise
overnight in refrigerator.
Place in greased pans.
Beat 1 egg yolk (egg white
also may be used) with water
and brush over loaves.
Sprinkle with sesame or
poppy seeds. Bake at 375
degrees for 45 minutes.

Rene Lieberman, a
member of Adat Shalom
Synagogue, received from a
cousin the recipe she uses to
make her challah.
Lieberman prepares her
challah on Thursday night
for Shabbat. Her recipe:

2 packages dry yeast
2 cups lukewarm water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 slightly beaten eggs
2 1/4 teaspoon salt
7 cups flour

Mix together water, yeast
and sugar. In a second, large
bowl combine flour and salt.
Make a well in the flour and
pour in yeast mixture, then
the eggs and oil. Stir, then
knead until dough is smooth.
Up to 1 additional cup of
flour may be used during
kneading.
Place mixture in bowl and
cover with plastic wrap.
Refrigerate overnight.
By morning, dough will
have risen. Punch down to
remove air bubbles, then set
aside to rise again at room
temperature to double in
size. Then punch down and
form into challot. Let rise for
one hour. Brush with water
and sprinkle with poppy or

sesame seeds. Bake 45
minutes at 325 degrees.
Lieberman said her
challah recipe was responsi-
ble for guaranteeing her
daughters a Shabbat dinner
while they were studying at
the University of Michigan.
"They were known as the
challah bakers," she said.
"They were invited to innu-
merable Friday night
dinners because they would
always bring challah. I just
loved that."
Her daughters Lisa,
Rachel and Patti still make
challah with their mother's
recipe, Lieberman said. "It's
like they're carrying on a
tradition."

"My daughters
were known as the
challah bakers.
They were invited
to innumerable
Friday night
dinners because
they would always
bring challah. I
Just loved that."

Z

eman's on Friday
mornings and after-
noons is not a place for
the meek. A crowd already
has gathered by 8:30 a.m.
All the customers want some
kind of challah. They want
another specialty, too, but
they're not exactly sure
what it's called. Inevitably,
one of the women behind the
counter will have to hold up
six different items until at

last, the buyer exclaims,
"Yes, that's it!"
Zeman's was founded by
Louis Zeman, a Russian
immigrant who in 1913 pur-
chased the bakery owned by
Joseph Liss. Located at 635
Hastings between Eliot and
Rowena (now Mack), he
named his business the New
York Bakery.
Zeman later moved the
bakery to 12th Street. He
owned it until 1947, when he
sold it to three brothers who
moved the business first to
Dexter and then to Oak
Park. They later sold the
bakery to its current owners,
Morris Weiss and Morry
Mertz.
While other businesses in
town offer kosher baked
goods, Zeman's is the only
one that makes kosher
bread.
Mike Buntea is the man
behind the challot, the
cookies with the sprinkles,
the bobka cake and all other
goods at Zeman's.
Born in Transylvania,
Buntea began working in a
bakery in 1966. But his first
job wasn't making bread. "I
started with a broom," he
said.
Buntea received a number
of promotions at the bakery
in Transylvania. Then in
1982 he came to the United
States, where he found a job
as an assistant baker at
Zeman's.
Inside the kitchen is as
busy as outside at the
counter. Plastic containers
filled with bright red and
blue food coloring, used to
design cakes, rest on shelves

on the right. Industrial-sized
bags of flour, sugar and salt
sit near large, yellow-brown
crates in which the raw
dough is carried.
Buntea comes to work at 1
p.m. and stays until the
bread is finished, which may
mean 1:30 a.m. Other bakers
arrive at 2, 3 or 4 p.m.
Their day begins and ends
with flour, sugar, water and
eggs. Buntea estimates he
uses about 200 pounds of
sugar a day and 16 gallons of
eggs.
All the basic ingredients
are poured into a mixer,
which resembles an antique
bathtub. It takes two men,
wearing surgeons' masks, to
empty each 100-pound bag of
flour into the mixer. Next
they add the water, pouring
it from a bucket above. As
the mixer is turned on, it
makes a loud clanking noise.
The whole room smells of
yeast.
After the dough is mixed,
it is brought to a long table
in the center of the room.
The men can tell by sight
whether the dough will be
good. Then, like a precisely
timed, complex machine,
they begin their work.
One cuts off a chunk of
dough and weighs it. A se-
cond takes and kneads it. A
third rolls it into shape, puts
it in the pan and sets it on a
metal rack, where it will be
taken to one of the store's
two ovens. In less than one
minute, the men have 16
loaves ready to go. Their
white uniforms are covered
with flour.
They say the kneading is

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