The New York Times featured the lesser-known challah traditions of the Middle East and North Africa, including our Sephardic challah, a unique, eggless bread that’s peppered with cumin and caraway.
The Sephardic challah is available seasonally (for Rosh Hashanah and Hanukkah), for purchase online, at Hot Bread Almacen (1590 Park Avenue) or our Greenmarket locations from Saturday December 5 through Monday December 14th this year.
“That this could be challah was a revelation to me,” said Jessamyn Waldman Rodriguez, the founder of Hot Bread Kitchen in Manhattan, who grew up in Toronto and learned about “alternative” challahs in a Jewish baking class. Now, one of the breads turned out by her East Harlem bakery is a Sephardic challah: a round, golden coil, eggless and unsweetened but crunchy with sesame, caraway and cumin seeds. “When I developed the recipe, I was thinking about the bread I’d like to eat with a Moroccan tagine,” she said, “and I also love it just dipped in honey — the spicy and the sweet together.”
