The Challah Question

Germany bakery shelves are stock-full of A MILLION amazing baked goods. However, my favorite happens to be Mohnkuchen: a deliciously moist cake/bread loaf treat with layers of poppyseed filling and glazed with a gooey icing on top. And today, finally, for the first time since I've been back in Germany, I found (and devoured) some:

Mohnkuchen: the Deliciously Glazed Outside

Mohnkucken: the Moist and Gooey Inside

Well, not just some. I actually inhaled about a quarter of a loaf. See, in most bakeries you have to buy either one half of or a whole loaf of Mohnkucken at a time. Unfortunately (and fortunately - heehee), it doesn't come by the slice. And after perusing bakery after bakery, day in and day out for my favorite German delicacy, I decided to split half a loaf with Steve for lunch/dessert (after our cheese covered pretzels)...oopsies:

Me, Stuffing My Face with Mohnkuchen
(Posing just for the camera, of course!)

Feelings a little sick to my stomach, but very happy, I walked (most of the few miles) home lamenting over whether or not I will be able to find Mohnkuchen on say, a Wednesday (or any other day that I want it, for that matter) and contemplating Steve's new query:

See, today we learned that Mohnkuchen is likely baked only on Fridays - potentially for German Catholics who are supposed to (commanded to?) eat fish and sweets at the end of each week. Similarly, after visiting several bakeries today in search of a decent lunch (and Mohnkuchen!), Steve and I noticed raisin Challah (Rosinenzopf) at every shoppe. This led us to question the similarity between Jews eating Challah on Shabbat and Catholics eating sweet braided breads on Fridays. We wondered if this had anything to do with the development of Reform Judaism in Germany and liberal-minded German Jews wanting to incorporate aspects of German customs into the Religion.

Funny enough, today when I got back to the Werner's house there was a cake cooling on the counter. The Werner family is not Catholic, but they are German... So, if you know the answer to our question, please enlighten us! For now, I must go stuff myself with more cake. Happy Friday and Shabbat Shalom, wünsch ich Euch alle!