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"She was the first person I saw making challah, and it was amazing. It just seemed to be magic to pull challah out of the oven like that," Heller said.
Now it is Heller who amazes her family and friends as she bakes dozens of loaves of challah for the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur holy days.
She was so inspired by her friend's mother that she set her mind on learning to make challah.
"I was determined to make it after watching this lovely lady, and that got me started," Heller said. "I had time on my hands and I was able to learn, but it was not easy."
She started making it a few years after she left teaching to start a family.
Heller began giving her challah to friends and soon word spread about her baking prowess. She laughed when she recounted the story of a woman who asked to be her friend after learning that she baked challah and gave it away.
Her husband, William, also plays a role, working as the deliveryman. Audrey sometimes delivers them herself.
"I have a lot of friends, and they have lost their husband and so I take it over," she said.
However, most people now stop in to pick up the challah, including her friend Dorothy Landress. She said Audrey's challah is special — and it's not only because it is delicious.
"It's lovely, and we know that they are baked with love and Audrey is such a good baker," Landress said. "Our guests always enjoy her challah. So it is very nice to receive them, and also we know Audrey enjoys doing it."
Audrey said she's happy to be able to bake and grateful that she has the energy to do it.
She is very particular about her challah and explains why it is circular.
"They must be round," she said. "The year begins and ends, but we don't feel there is an ending to the year. It's a complete revolution. No beginning, no end and the challah has to be round."
Heller came to Stamford in 1958 from North Adams, Mass., to teach first grade at the Stark School. She soon met William Heller, and the two married in 1959. Within a couple of years she became pregnant with the first of their three daughters; back then, a pregnant woman could not teach. She left the public school system but later taught and worked at the Long Ridge School.
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