Challah Bread

Challah Bread, the traditional egg and honey bread for the Jewish Sabbath. But I find it useful for the other six days of the week as well.

I first fell in love with Challah when working at a Christian summer camp on the Oregon coast (which was not Messianic Jewish in any sense- to this day I still cannot eat bacon because of that camp). The baker would make it about every week, and it was delicious. I even believed that it might have healing powers. (Yes, there is a story behind that: At one near-capacity camp, the staff ate outside to save space in the dining hall, but naturally, no one had set bread out at our picnic table. One staff member grabbed a loaf from inside, but he forgot to get a board or a knife. So we passed it around the table and each took turns biting off a chunk, even though many of us had cold-like symptoms. We called it the communal bread, and it was a much better communion than those wimpy wafers and miniature shot glasses of grape juice. Miraculously, the next day, no one had any cold-like symptoms.)

Years later, I moved to another state, started working at another camp, and suddenly had a craving for Challah bread one night. Since my new camp sadly lacked a baker (or even a full-time cook, for that matter), I decided to see if I could make my own. Lo and behold, it is possible!

I found my Challah recipe here. But I've since made a few modifications. First, I don't use vegetable oil. Coconut oil is so much healthier, and gives it a moister flavor. Secondly, I've made it with a variety of different types of flour, and all of them work pretty well. I've also found that you can bake it in a bread pan for sandwich bread, or on a cookie sheet for pull-apart style. Lastly, the recipe calls for three eggs, but one of them is for the "glaze". It really only takes about half an egg for this, so I save the other half in a container in the freezer and thaw it out the next time I need them.