It’s the time of year when every blog and website is putting up their “best of” list. Instead of going through all our recipes from the past year or naming some of the trends of 2014, I wanted to do something a little more fun, and a little more personal: a review of all the crazy I created this year.
In the past few months a lot of people have asked, what’s with the challah? Why do you like creating such crazy flavor combinations?
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I’ve been baking challah since I was 16 years old, not based on a family recipe I use, but from my own that I have worked on over the last 15+ years. We didn’t have a classic challah on our table each week (we didn’t have Shabbat dinner at all), so I don’t bring the same challah baggage as others with stronger challah family traditions. It is perhaps for this reason that I don’t mind throwing caution to the wind, and mashing up the classic challah with a variety of stuffings and flavors to suit my mood or the season.
It’s also in part to my involvement with Pop-Up Shabbat that I have taken on the task of creating more and more challah creations. At these bi-monthly pop-up dinners, a brand new Shabbat dinner menu is created on a specific theme, and I am tasked with creating a corresponding challah recipe. It has been such a fun and challenging exercise that has truly expanded even the way that I think about my beloved bread.
So if you’re ready to expand the way you think about challah, check out one of my unique creations of 2014, or even better: create your own.
Summer Pesto and Gruyere Stuffed Challah
Butternut Squash Challah with Sage
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