Bat Mitzvah Challah Bake

B”H

I’m so excited to share with you all a recap of my daughter’s Bat Mitzvah! Yes, you saw her here, and now she’s 12 years old, a Bat Mitzvah! And what did she want for her special celebration? A Challah Bake at home with her friends led by renowned speaker and author Mrs. Rochie Pinson! It was so much fun and so meaningful! You can get her fabulous book, Rising: The Book of Challah  here. And trust me when I tell you that you will love it! You can also listen to my interview with Rochie on Jewish Latin Princess Podcast here. Ok, so, how does one make a Bat Mitzvah Challah Bake?

I have to start with some family pictures… because well… how cute are these precious children!?

But, let’s also step back and say that everything about this celebration, was intentional. Our family is very particular that celebrations have to have some spiritual depth and meaning, and not just be beautiful and fun. If you’ve been around here before, you know this. And creating this, requieres thought. It’s much easier to throw money at food, music, pictures and voila, have everyone come celebrate. But, how do you create a celebration that also has meaning and is centered around the depth of the milestone celebrated? That’s really the key. And that’s what I think my husband and I, with the help of the many people involved, including Rochi Pinson, were able to achieve.

Ok, let’s get started…. First, I have to give credit, where credit is due. This is my friend Joyce, the talented lady behind Tova Events & Flowers. She’s responsible for keeping me sane throughout this process by: listening to my trillion voice notes, bouncing off ideas, helping me set up and transform my house, hand picking the most spectacular flowers, and then turning them into the magnificent flower arrangements. Oh and if that wasn’t enough, she suggested her cousin Diana from Design Arts in Panama to help with the design.

You think I could have done any of this without her? You’re right, I couldn’t have!

Rochi Pinson is experienced at challah bakes, obviously, so she guided me through the process of the challah bake itself. And this is how it worked:

• Every girl had all her ingredients pre-measured for 1/4 challah recipe set up to mix and knead.
• My daughter had a full recipe rising and ready to go, which was then used for the braiding demo.
• Then, the girls would braid their own challah dough (from each of their 1/4 recipe).

We also had a small booklet with the entire recipe, illustrated steps to make the challah,  and the blessing of hafrashat challah. This was as a gift for everyone to take. I wish I had a picture of these because they are so stunning, but here’s a little video that I posted on my Instagram Stories when everything arrived and I saw it all for the first time. You can see the pretty illustrations on the booklet.

As I said, I had everything made in Panama by DesignArts.

The dessert table turned out magnificent. And of course, I had to have my friends at  Dulceria Events in Miami make some delicious sweet treats for us. One of the founders of Dulceria is my dear college friend, and old roommate in NYC, which made having her be a part of this all the more special.I mean, are all these flowers out of this world, or what?

The order of events was:

1- Delicious dairy lunch catered by the fabulous Laykies Gourmet and Photo Booth by EZ Bar Mitzvah.

2- We read the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s letter with blessings to a Bat Mitzvah.

3- My daughter spoke beautifully about the meaning of challah. (And yes, she wrote her speech herself. I have to admit that I pushed for changes and she insisted that she had it nailed down. And, I was blown away. Because yes, it was genuine and beautiful. So, I’m happy that I didn’t push!)

4- This was followed by Rochie’s delightful talk about the mitzvah of challah.

5- The girls were now ready to bake!

6- I said a few words and blessed my daughter.

7- She gave tzedakah and passed along the tzedakah box for every girl to give tzedakah.

8- She led us in a chapter of Tehillim (Psalms).

My daughter had the full challah recipe already on the table ready for her to make the blessing and mitzvah of Hafrashat Challah for the first time as a Jewish woman.

9- Challah Braiding Demo time! Rochie did an awesome challah braiding demo, and taught us all some cool braids and shapes.

10 – The girls then tried to attempt some braiding on their own.

At the end we showed a slide show of our daughter. Oh and I can’t forget that after everyone was gone and it was just the family, my husband and I gifted my daughter this beautiful watercolor print of the Lubavitcher Rebbe made by Chaya Toron. (Sadly, we didn’t capture this moment very well, but my daughter loves the art work!)

The entire event was magical. And to top it off, we shared our famous speaker with one of the Chabad Houses in Houston – Chabad of West Houston in honor of our daughter’s Bat Mitzvah. So that same evening we went to that beautiful women’s event where my daughter shared some short words of inspiration, Rochie gave a beautiful talk, and led a challah braiding demo. Stayed tuned for some pictures of that event!

Thank You to Elisheva Golani Photography for the beautiful pictures.

P.S.

Let me know if you have any questions about the event.