The Leaf in a Page

  Winston Knot Challah baking in the oven.   Challah is a Jewish Celebration Bread and has much significance to the culture. It is often braided with three strands standing for truth peace and justice. Twelve humps on a braid stand for the miracle of 12 loaves for the 12 tribes of Israel. If you shape your braid into a circle it means no beginning and no end. Each style are used in different celebrrations. The cultural meaning of so many breads gives us much to learn. Wait until I do the white bread post! For a spiritual meaning of the ingredients I found one from a web site: https://www.ohelsara.com/women-and-the-home/hafrashat-challah/the-symbolism-of-challah/ which reviews the ingredient and the significance of each. It is interesting, but the main point of bread for most is that we share it, it tastes great and it fills us. Challah has loads of protein because of the milk and eggs, which makes it especially perfect for sharing and filling you up. It makes a beautiful f...

War Cake Big Raisins The first time I ever heard of War Cake was when dating David. His mom was making it around the holidays and it was Dec 1977. I asked why they called it war cake and his mom Edie, told me it was an easy, affordable cake with no dairy or eggs that people could send off to the men at war during war times. Edie also said the spices provide a way to preserve the cake so it will last for a while. I found more information at http://www.bcfoodhistory.ca/canadian-war-cake/ which has a very good write up about the history of war cake which agrees with Edie’s explanation.   Edie MacPherson circa 1978 The recipe I am sharing came from a cookbook she gave me so I could recreate the war cake for David. She changed it a bit and I made that version a few times but after reading a few others I noticed one with baking powder, whilst most of the originals have 1 or 2 tsp of baking soda only depending on the amount of flour the recipe called for. T...