Pumpkin Challah

For Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, I was looking for a new challah recipe. Since fall began a few weeks ago, I have been obsessed with everything pumpkin. Pumpkin scones, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin candles, even pumpkin colored clothing! I am all about burnt orange these days.

I scoured the internet to find a good pumpkin challah recipe. To my surprise, there weren’t many of them! I found one on the Kveller website by Leah Koenig. Her recipe was adapted slightly from A Blessing of Bread by Maggie Glezer. It sounded simple enough, so I decided to try it.

I didn’t have any cardamom in the house, so I substituted pumpkin pie spice instead. I also skipped the optional cornmeal, and used a little more than a 1/2 cup of canned pumpkin. I really wanted the pumpkin flavor to be strong!

The recipe was pretty easy to follow, though, when I initially combined the flour mixture with the yeast/water mixture, it didn’t seem like everything was going right. I proceeded with the recipe anyway and, in the end, it worked out beautifully! We like our challah a little chewy and dense, and this was just perfect. Our guests enjoyed it as well! I will definitely be making this challah again soon, I hope for Sukkot!