Challah with Spiced Apple-Raisin Filling for Rosh Hashanah

I am certainly not the only non-Jew whose life revolves around the ancient Semitic, especially Jewish, languages and cultures. But sometimes I wonder. Do other people get a curious glance whenever they show any familiarity with all the High Holidays on the Jewish calendar? Do they get a tight-eyed, sustained stare when they involuntarily blurt out things like, “Hey, tomorrow is Rosh Hashanah!”

After all, I’m just stating fact; it’s not like I’m telling them about my imaginary Eastern European grandmother.

Though I don't observe Shabbat, have a weekly Shabbat meal, or regularly make the rich, eggy Shabbat bread, I love challah. I love saying its name. Every linguist I know has this dark addiction to the sounds of the gutturals, and I am no exception. There’s something strangely addictive about the act of uninhibitedly and exuberantly producing the voiceless fricative sound of the ח, the initial consonant of the word, "challah." I love its beautiful braided appearance. I also love the history behind it as well as the way in which and the occasions for which it’s made. Most of all, I love to eat it.

The only thing I don’t like about challah? The braiding of it.


In all the years I’ve been making challah, I have never once made a decent-looking braid. If they’re not crooked, they’re lopsided. I’m just not good at braiding bread dough, my hair, … anything. And so Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, presents a great opportunity for me to hide any aesthetic imperfection my challah might have. You see, while the challah traditionally served at Shabbat meals throughout the year is in straight, braided loaf form, Rosh Hashanah challah is typically made more special by conjoining the two ends of the braid to form a round circle – a turban-like shape – to represent the cycle of the year (among several other things, depending on whom you ask).

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the best I can do. Really.
And since apple and honey are also part of a typical Rosh Hashanah meal, I decided to make a more elaborated version of the bread. I used my go-to challah dough that is sweetened with honey. [The recipe was halved because I only wanted one 8-inch round. Notice that the full recipe calls for 3 large eggs. To halve the recipe, beat together 2 eggs and reserve about ½ an egg’s worth of beaten egg to make an egg wash with which to brush the pre-baked bread.] I also wanted to fill the challah with some apples and raisins.

So I made a batch of my spiced coconut apple filling and filled the three dough strands with it. I did tweak the spiced coconut apple recipe a bit. Four ounces of brown sugar was used in place of the 2 ounces coconut sugar, the butter was omitted, ½ cup of raisins were added, and the filling was cooked a bit more to achieve a thicker and drier consistency.

This reminds me: you can't get a decent-looking round unless you start out with a decent-looking braid.
When forming the challah, I separated the dough after the first rise into three equal pieces, rolled each of them out with a rolling pin to form a 4”x12” rectangle, placed 1/3 of the apple filling in the middle of each rectangle leaving about 1.5 inches around the edges, sealed the edges tightly all around, and braided the dough as usual with extra care since the dough strands were filled.


Once I got a braided loaf, I brought the two ends together to form a round, sealed the seams, and placed it in a greased 8- to 9-inch round cake pan with at least 2 inches in height. I let the dough rise once more, brushed the top with half of the egg wash (reserved beaten egg mixed with equal amount of water), sprinkled some poppy seeds over the top (optional), and baked the challah at 350° F for 45-60 minutes. Half way through baking, I reinforced the glaze and kept the poppy seeds in place by brushing the top of the bread with the remaining egg wash.

The honey challah with apple-raisin filling was left to cool completely in the pan, on a rack and covered with a towel.