Fig-stuffed Challah

A new year is upon us, as mentioned in the last post.  It's hard not to reflect on the last year when entering a new one.  I have to say, it's been pretty good.  I married a very wonderful woman.  I opened a cafe.  I lost a terrible job but immediately found a good one, which then lead to an excellent one.  I feel blessed, but I want this coming year to be even sweeter.

On Tuesday, we read the story of Sarah and Isaac - the story of a woman blessed with a child at such an advanced age that she laughs.  But it's also the story of Hagar, a woman cast out into the desert to perish with her son.  It's a painful story, one of two women and their sons, all bound together by the patriarch Abraham.

At the beginning of the story, Sarah is blessed with a son.  But as quickly as one woman is blessed, another may be scorned, and Hagar, finding herself dying of thirst in the desert, places her son in the shrubs so that she might not see him perish.  But God remembers Hagar, just as God remembered Sarah, and she and her son are given water to drink.  Even more astonishingly, God promises that Hagar's son will father a nation.  From despair comes hope; in the desert rises a covenant.

We are all Sarah and some point, and we are all Hagar at others.  We feel blessed and forgotten, we hope and we despair, we pray and we are heard.  We soldier on, and sometimes we bake figs into our bread just for the heck of it.

Fig-stuffed Challah
Makes one loaf

For the bread:
2 1/4 t active dry yeast
1/4 c plus 1 t honey
1/3 c olive oil
2 eggs
2 t kosher salt
4 c flour

For the filling:
1 c chopped figs
zest of one orange
1/4 c orange juice
salt and pepper

1 egg

Whisk yeast and one teaspoon honey into 2/3 cup warm water.  Once foamy, add remaining honey, olive oil,  and eggs, and mix well.  Add salt and flour, and mix until dough holds together.  Knead by hand or in a standing mixer for about five minutes.  Coat bowl with a little olive oil, cover with towel, and let rise for an hour.

In small saucepan, combine figs, zest, juice, and a little salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, and cook, storring occasionally  about 10 minutes.  Let cool.  If there is lots of liquid left, strain some out so that figs are mostly dry.  Blend in food processor until you have a paste.

Once dough has risen for an hour, turn it out onto a floured surface, and divide in half.  Roll first half into a rectangle, and spread half of the fig filling evenly over the dough.  Roll dough into a long log, and stretch as long as possible.  Divide into two logs.  Repeat with the second half of the dough and filling.

Arrange two ropes of dough perpendicular to two other ropes, joining in a tic-tac-toe fashion in the middle, woven together where they meat.  You have eight ropes coming out from the center, with four ropes coming from underneath and the other four over the others.  Take the underneath ones and move to their right, jumping the next rope over.  Then take the ones you didn't move and jump to the left.  Tuck anything hanging out under the whole loaf, and form a round.

Place loaf on a greased baking sheet.  Let rise for another hour, and preheat oven to 375 in the last 15 minutes.

Beat the egg and brush over the top of the loaf.  Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

Consume immediately, and if you don't manage to finish the whole thing, make unto fresh toast tomorrow.