One to Share
and a recipe for Claire's Challah
You’re In Good Company is here! If you love reading stories about food and friendship (with recipes!), this book is for you.❤️
I learned to make challah in the kitchen of a chapel turned college boarding house.
The kitchen to me then was not the kitchen to me now. I was a sophomore—no longer with access to the all-you-can-eat dorm meals with a mere swipe of my student ID, yet not totally competent in feeding myself. I lived off Trader Joe’s microwavable orange chicken, individual cartons of yogurt, baby carrots, and takeout. Truly home cooked meals were a mystery.
Each week, I watched my flatmate, Claire, make challah in preparation for Sabbath. I watched her knead the dough, let it rise, punch it down, let it rise again, and braid the loaves. That flour, yeast, water, oil, and honey could come together to make the fluffiest, most beautifully braided loaves of bread? That was magic.
Her recipe made not one, but two braided loaves—a double portion—symbolic of the double provision of manna that came before Sabbath to feed the Israelites wandering in the wilderness.
To me, it simply meant: she had one to share.
With four children of my own now, I’m fluent in recipes that double or triple easily—like Ina Garten’s Weeknight Bolognese or Sarah’s New Mom Meal. But my very favorite recipes are the ones that don’t require any recalculations of measurements, recipes that on their own make a double portion.
It’s recipes like this one that remind me: what we already have is more than enough to share.1
Claire’s Challah
Group A:
5 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
Group B:
⅓ cup honey
⅓ cup olive oil
2 eggs
1 cup water
Group C:
1 tablespoon (or one packet) yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ cup water
Egg wash: 1 egg white
Instructions:
Mix Group C ingredients: yeast and sugar with ¼ c. warm water. Set aside to proof.
Mix together Group B ingredients. Add yeast when it is bubbly. Stir in Group A ingredients and knead about 50 times.
Put dough in buttered bowl and cover with wet towel. Place the bowl in a warm place. Let rise ~2 hours, then punch. Then let rise ~2 more hours, punch again.
Braid into two loaves and brush with beaten (lightly beaten) egg white, and sprinkle with salt or sesame seeds if desired.
Bake at 350° for ~30 minutes or until top is golden-brown and bread sounds hollow when knocked upon.
Ruth Gyllenhammer is a writer and content director for Coffee + Crumbs. She lives in Southern California with her husband and four children and writes about home and habits in her Substack, Home Making.
Photo by Jennifer Floyd .
Hospitality without the hype. Friendship without the filter.
You’re in Good Company: The Gift of Friendship, Motherhood, and Showing Up mixes personal stories, reflections, and helpful ideas, all based on the belief that hospitality doesn’t need to be perfect to matter. Order today wherever books are sold.
Read the entire essay, Unexpected Fruit, in You’re in Good Company.