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Over the last decade, bakers have been experimenting with olive oil in all kinds of nontraditional ways, and I’ve been right there with them. I’ve added it to cakes, swirled it into lemon bars, even baked it into zucchini bread — all to the good.
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One of my favorite discoveries has been making olive oil challah.
Olive oil adds a rich, earthy intensity that really brings character to the loaf, making it a lot more complex without obscuring the eggy sweetness that makes challah so delectable. Using olive oil also makes challah particularly appropriate for Hanukkah, which celebrates an oleaginous miracle.
Or course, it helps that I had an excellent challah recipe to begin with.
It’s from Myrna Aronson of Providence, R.I., my friend Robin’s mother, who passed the recipe on to Robin, who made it for my family one Rosh Hashana so many years ago, when I promptly stole it.
I didn’t change Myrna’s egg-to-oil-to-flour ratio, which was, to my mind, perfect. Nor did I mess with her use of orange juice in the dough, which gives the bread a citrus brightness. All I did was substitute olive oil for canola, and add a touch of the grated orange zest as well, to accentuate that citrus flavor.
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