A Recipe For Success

By Emily Raij

I f you’ve been fortunate enough lately to get your hands on one of the freshly baked challahs sold on Friday mornings in The Roth Family JCC lobby, you may have noticed a familiar flavor. The braided bread uses the famous recipe from the former Ben’s Bake Shop (also known as B&K Bakery), which supplied challah to the JCC from 2000 until closing in 2015.

Baker extraordinaire Ben Breslauer shared his treasured challah recipe with Shalom Orlando’s RAISE employees.

Although the bakery’s namesake, Ben Breslauer, has shared his unique recipe with the JCC, he’s not the one making the challah this time. All of the mixing, baking, packaging, and selling is being done by employees from RAISE (Recognizing Abilities & Inclusion of Special Employees), the work and social-skills training program for neurodiverse adults offered through Shalom Orlando. The program has a fun, catchy name: RAISE ‘n Challah, with a sweet tagline of “Baked Together – To Be Enjoyed Together.”

The idea to make and sell challah was something that Rachel Slavkin, RAISE inclusion director, had wanted to pursue for a while. When Robin Merkel, the JCC’s registrar and welcome center supervisor, noticed the name Ben Breslauer on her sign-in sheet one day, she knew she had to connect him with Rachel.

“It very organically and very serendipitously happened,” says Rachel. “Robin had said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could get Ben’s recipe?’ I didn’t know him but used to buy his challah at the JCC. That was a Monday. Tuesday, Ben walks in wanting a tour of the JCC. Robin calls me over, and I explained RAISE and the challah program desire. I asked Ben, ‘Would you be willing to share your recipe and help?’ He said, ‘Sure! Both!’”

Like any good recipe, the RAISE ‘n Challah program began with gathering the right ingredients and equipment. Ben and Rachel spent a day shopping together so Ben could point out exactly what to buy. Local firm KlugerLegal donated four mixers, and FASTSIGNS of Orlando-Central contributed toward startup equipment as well.

shhh! It’s a secret

Next, Ben took Rachel and the job coaches, who work one-on-one with RAISE employees, through a trial run over the summer so everyone could practice Ben’s recipe – which will remain a secret to customers. “Everyone signed a non-disclosure out of respect for Ben and his intellectual property,” says Rachel.

There were a few more details for Rachel to work out in between the practice session with the job coaches and training the RAISE employees. She marked lines on the measuring cups for water and oil, bought smaller squeeze bottles and funnels for the secret ingredients, and scaled down huge, heavy bags of sugar and flour into labeled bins so employees could scoop more easily.

“I made sure we found measuring cups and measuring spoons that were color coded so that it would be easier to write out directions,” adds Rachel.

She also filmed a set of training videos for RAISE employees to watch with their job coaches and parents before Ben’s lesson so they would be familiar with setting up their scales, using the mixer, braiding, setting the oven temperature, and other tasks. When Ben gave his baking lesson in October, things went pretty smoothly. And it certainly didn’t hurt to be able to practice in the recently renovated Shayna’s Village Nutrition Kitchen.

Mixing things up

Mixing Things Up During the baking session, Ben led five employees and their job coaches through each step.

“I gave them the formula, and I gave them the know-how, the instructions,” says Ben.

After two successful batches of dough were made and set to rise in the refrigerator, it was clear employees came in ready. A couple of weeks later, Ben returned to lead a braiding lesson.

“This is such a beautiful thing for Ben to share his recipe and then work us through step by step,” says job coach Barbara Chasnov.

In a debriefing session after supplies were cleaned and put away, employees shared that they enjoyed the hands-on learning and felt accomplished, especially after working through minor issues.

“The first batch was kind of challenging, but the second went better,” says RAISE employee Katherine Clarke.

“This went like satin!” agrees Ben

selling like hotcakes

RAISE employees are in the kitchen on Wednesdays and Thursdays, completing each step from making the dough to braiding, baking, and bagging. While everyone waits for the dough to finish mixing, they handle tasks such as washing dishes, wiping down scales, and cutting parchment paper. Another RAISE employee handles challah sales on Fridays starting at 8:30 a.m. The first week, RAISE ‘n Challah loaves, priced at $10 each, sold out within a half hour.

After a few weeks, RAISE ‘n Challah was able to start taking some pre-orders, and Rachel is hoping that the program will expand in terms of quantity and adding online ordering. For now, she is impressed with how quickly everyone learned and how well they worked together.

“It exceeded my expectations,” says Rachel. “All of our RAISE employees were prepped because of watching the videos and doing the practice before Rosh Hashanah. They asked questions, and all of the job coaches guided without doing. I also loved that all of our RAISE employees worked as a team. I’m very happy, and now my head is spinning around how we can expand.”

To learn more about how to support RAISE, please visit OrlandoJewishFed.org/raise.

This story was originally published in print in Winter 2024.