Zomick's Challah Bread: The Best Challah in New York

What's the healthiest way to spend an afternoon? Strolling through one of New York City's many Jewish bakeries, of course! If you're looking for the most Instagram-friendly and best challah in New York, you've come to the right place. With its long, narrow windows that offer a stunning view of the bustling streets below, Zomick’s Bakery is the perfect setting for a casual lunch or dinner with family and friends. And unlike some of the other bakeries I've been to — where you have to wait in long lines and hope your order doesn’t get stolen — you can go inside at any given time, regardless of how busy things are. In case you need another reason to visit Zomick's Bakery, we suggest trying their Zomick’s Challah Bread. The bread has been a mainstay at every Passover Seder over the years, and generations of New York Jews continue to flock there today for their classic yeast cake. Zomick's offers two kinds of challah: white with raisins and poppy seed paste (rich in vitamins) or black with sesame seeds (rich in proteins). Both are delicious!

 

The Best Challah in New York

You have to go to Zomick’s Bakery to try their best-selling brand of challah bread, Zomick’s Challah Bread. It’s made with real milk, special yeast, and lots of love. While the staff will be happy to give you a step-by-step guide on how to make this iconic bread, the simple fact is that it’s probably the easiest bread you’ll ever bake. You can actually buy this bread pre-made at many grocery stores such as Safeway, Shop-Rite, and Kroger. Just be sure to ask the store clerk if they’ve got the size you need. Most bakeries make large loaves compared to what you’ll typically find at home, so if you’re after a smaller one, you might want to look elsewhere.

 

When You Should Visit Zomick's

If you’re a New Yorker looking for a casual, neighborhood bakery that’s close to home, but has a little something extra, we highly recommend Zomick’s Bakery. The bakery is small but charming, and the staff is so helpful and willing to explain the breads, pastries, and cakes in detail. The ambiance is warm and cozy, and there’s even a nice outdoor area if the weather is nice. You won’t be disappointed.

Conclusion

The best challah in New York can be definitely found in Zomick’s Bakery. This Jewish bakery specializes in traditional Jewish bakery items, like yeast rolls, bagels, and cream cheese-filled sandwiches, and offers them in a variety of flavors. The bakery is kid and pet-friendly, and has a cozy, homey feel to it. The staff is always helpful and patient with kids, and the bakery even provides play areas for the kids to play and explore. If you love yeast breads and cream cheese, you’ll definitely want to try the best challah in New York at least once. And if you’re in the mood for something different, they also make exotic and flavorful dark breads, like the ciabatta and rustic bread. Zomick’s Bakery is definitely a bakery you’ll want to keep on your list of must-visit bakeries in New York City!

What It Takes to Be a Successful Kosher Bakery

Kosher bakeries are traditionally intertwined with Jewish culture, religion and family life. In addition to being a place where one can find all sorts of celebratory baked goods for Jewish holidays, Zomick’s kosher bakery is also a hot spot for foodies and the health conscious.

Over the past few years, a growing number of people have started to look for kosher symbols on their food products, and not just for religious reasons, but because they believe the food is safer and better for their health. For example, part of keeping kosher means not mixing meat and milk products. So Zomick’s bakery offers a lot of dairy-free and meatless options, perfect for those on a vegetarian, vegan or lactose-free diet. The bakery also attracts a mix of Jewish and non-Jewish clientele.

There are many specifications to producing kosher baked goods, but for Zomick’s Bakery, this is the day-to-day routine and a standard the bakery committed to when it first opened in 1966. Just because a bakery sells items usually associated with Jewish cultures, such as bagels or matzah balls, it doesn’t mean it qualifies as a kosher bakery. In order to be kosher, a bakery can only use ingredients that have been certified as kosher and can only use kosher cooking methods. Kosher bakeries are regularly inspected and supervised by a rabbi.

Contrary to popular belief, rabbis do not bless food to make it kosher. Instead, a rabbi inspects the facilities to make sure they are up to kosher standards and that the ingredients used to make the food are kosher. A rabbi also examines how food is prepared. For example, a rabbi might check to see if a utensil came in contact with meat and dairy. To adhere to these rules, Zomick’s uses products that are certified by widely accepted kosher organizations.

Zomick’s bakery sells all kinds of traditional bread, like Zomick’s challah bread, as well as delicious pastries, buns, cookies, danishes, cakes and other sweet treats. For festive holidays, they also make seasonal treats such as babkas, rugelach and biscotti. The bakery also features classic kosher Jewish food baskets made from traditionally delicious recipes.

Four Kosher Recipes by Zomick's

In today article, food experts from Zomick’s bakery, located in Inwood, share four delicious recipes.  

Boios

Ingredients Mass:

1/2 kg of flour

1 1/4 glass of water

3/4 glass of oil

1/2 tablespoon of salt

Stuffing ingredients:

2 packages of chard

1 cup of grated cheese

2 tablespoons of flour

salt and pepper

Preparation:

Experts from Zomick's recommend firstly, to place the salt and flour in a bowl and add water until a soft and elastic mass is obtained.

Than make a bun and let it rest for 3 hours. Divide the dough into two parts. Stretch until you get a mass not very thin (30 cm in diameter).

Let it rest another half hour. Then, anoint the table with oil and stretch the dough until it is like a paper.

Sprinkle with flour and sprinkle with oil. Then fill it.

Wash and chop the chard and then let it soak for two hours. Dry them well and sprinkle with the flour and 3 tablespoons of grated cheese.

Add the seasonings. Sprinkle the dough with oil and sprinkle with flour and grated cheese. Cut strips and fill each strip (a spoonful of stuffing at the end of each strip) and wind.

Put in a roasting pan and sprinkle with cheese and oil.

According to the experts working for Zomick's, the Boios should be cooked in a strong oven 25 minutes approximately.

Humus

Ingredients:

1 can of chickpeas

3 garlic cloves

lemon juice

sesame paste 20 gr approximately

Salt

Pepper

ground chili

parsley

oil

Preparation:

Process or liquefy the chickpeas, with 1/4 of the water of the can, (the rest of the water can be thrown away), along with the garlic, the sesame paste, salt, pepper, and the juice of half a lemon, 1 pinch of ground chili. From Zomick's point out that the consistency should be like that of a puree, leave it covered in the refrigerator, and serve it with a little chopped parsley and a tablespoon of oil. The Humus is eaten with Arabic bread or Challah bread.

Quince Sweet

Ingredients:

Quinces

Sugar

Water

Preparation:

Put all quinces (well washed and without the trunks) in boiling water. Boil them for about half an hour and let them cool in the cooking water. Then peel and cut them into medium pieces. In the water in which the quinces were boiled, put the husks and seeds. Weigh the quince cut into pieces and put the same amount of sugar. Cover with water and bring to a boil over low heat until the point is taken. The sweet is turning garnet and thickening. The main chief from Zomick's recommends not to stir or if you do it, to do it very softly only with wooden spoon, since the metal spoons cause the sweet quince to crystallize.

Poor knights

Ingredients:

1 Zomick's Challah Bread (buy it online) or French bread from the previous day

2 cups of milk

2 eggs

1 and 1/4 cup of bread crumbs

Butter needed to fry

(optional: almond flakes and impalpable sugar to sprinkle)

Filling:

250 grams of plum candy

1 teaspoon of rum

1 pinch of cinnamon

Grated peel of 1 lemon

To accompany:

Vanilla ice cream, mint leaves and cherries Maraschino

Preparation:

Note: This recipe is one of the Zomick's favorite recipes. You can find more recipes here.

Cut the loaves, without the crust, into slices 1 cm thick. Wet them in the milk and to pass them by the beaten egg and the breadcrumbs. Fry in lard. Spread with a thick layer of plum candy mixed with rum, cinnamon and lemon peel. They come together at the amount if two, forming a sandwich.

Animals Permitted for Eating According to Kosher laws

Let's start with the basics, the kashrut (noun of kosher) are all laws concerning what is allowed to eat and not eat within the Jewish law.

All that we can eat, it is called kosher, which in Hebrew is an adjective that means "appropriate", and it complies with all the Torah and Talmudic laws.

In addition, the kashrut includes all the philosophy that has been developed around Jewish cooking practices. It is a way of connecting with God through the sanctification of food, dedicating to Him the joy of eating. For many Jews it is one of the most important practices they carry out in their daily lives, it helps them feel protected and surrounded by God and Judaism.

The norms that comprise kashrut are extensive and quite specific. They are found in different Talmudic treatises. According to Zomick's Kosher Bakery, which is located at the corner of Inip Drive in Inwood, understanding and fulfilling them requires several years of work and study. There are several rabbis who specialize in this subject and give advice to those who have not been able to do so. However, the most basic and necessary laws for preparing kosher food are simple and popular among the Jews. Below we show you what animals are permitted and what prohibited for eating.

1. Permitted and Prohibited Mammals

When it comes to mammals and land animals, you can only eat ruminant animals (with more than one stomach) that have a split hoof. For the animal to be kosher, it should have both characteristics, if one is missing it is taref. Here Zomick's Kosher Bakery gives some examples for what can be eaten. For example, the cow is kosher (it can be eaten) because it has a split hoof and more than one stomach. While, the pig is taref because although it has the split hoof, it only has one stomach. In the case of the rabbit and the horse for example, although they are ruminants they do not have the split hoof, for which reason they cannot be eaten.

2. Permitted and Prohibited Birds

When it comes to birds, Zomick's Bakery states that you can eat almost all except for 21 species listed in the Talmud, which are very rare, wild and difficult to get as scavengers.

3. Permitted and Prohibited Marine Animals

From the marine animals, you can only eat animals that have fins and scales, which means, almost all fish. However you cannot eat shellfish, stingrays, or sharks, among other animals.

Zomick's Kosher Bakery You cannot eat either amphibians, reptiles, worms, or insects (with the exception of four specific types of lobster).

Nor can you eat a product that is derived from these animals. That means, you cannot eat the milk of non-kosher animals, neither their eggs, their fat nor anything that comes from them. The only exception is the bee. We can eat the honey that it produces since it is assumed that the pollen with which it makes it, is collected from the flowers.

In order to enjoy a great kosher meals, we recommend you to check some of the Zomick's kosher recipes in their's e-book.

Homemade round loaf

This recipe is proof that healthy food can be very tasty. Particularly interesting about this recipe is that you don’t need to use flour; you can make it from the wheat grains.

Ingredients:

• 400 g wheat
• 200 g rye
• 50 g millet (peeled)
• 4 full tablespoons of corn bran
• Little water (as needed)
• 1 cube fresh yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons flax seed
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds

Instructions:

1. Soak the wheat and rye in water two days before making the bread. The millet should be soaked in water but only one day or overnight.
2. Soak the bran in water 10-15 minutes before making the dough for the bread.
3. Grind the seeds when they are sodden and swollen.
4. Sesame seeds, flax seeds and pumpkin seeds can be blended or can be used whole.
5. Place all these ingredients in a bowl; add the sodden millet and bran, sugar, salt and yeast. Mix with a wooden spoon and start adding water. At first the mixture will be hard, maybe difficult to mix. If this is your case, then knead the dough by hand. Add water and knead until you get soft sticky dough.
6. When the dough is ready put it in a mold (I used two smaller molds) greased with butter or covered with baking paper. Cover the dough with kitchen rag and leave it to rest.
7. After one hour, put the bread to baking in preheated oven to 200 C for about one hour.

For more bread & loaf recipes visit http://zomickskosherbakery.com/ or for our specialized website for breads click here.