One of my customers told me that she and her brother purposely made sure that there were leftovers of the challah from the sabbath meals. They wanted to make sure that there was enough for French Toast on Sunday morning. Challah is perfect for French Toast because it is porous and absorbs the egg quite well.

Besides French Toast we include a number of recipes that lend themselves very nicely to the challah. If you have any favorites, send them to me and I will post them on this site if they meet the high standards of our taster (that's me).

Challah is the perfect type of bread for French Toast. It is porous and will absorb the eggs nicely. The following recipe is simple, but feel free to experiment, and if you feel proud of your recipe, drop me a line and I will pass it along.

The recipe below will yield approximately 8 pieces of French Toast. I figure on 2 slices of bread for each egg.

A good friend of our's, David Levine, gave us this recipe over a wonderful Shabbat dinner we enjoyed with his wife Julie and their two lovely children. I've always loved the combination of peanut butter and bannanas, but it never occurred to me to make them part of French Toast.

Basically, you take a couple of thin slices of challah, spread some peanut butter on both slices, spread some bannana slices on the peanut butter, and make a sandwich. Then you take the sandwich and dip both sides of the sandwich in the egg batter and proceed to make the French Toast.

Like me, his inspiration for this recipe came about when preparing Sunday breakfast for his children. I bet we could put together a book of these children inspired recipes.

I added the garlic because it seems to add a little punch to the recipe.

INGREDIENTS

• 1-1lb challah
• 4 eggs
• 2-3 cloves garlic (minced finely)
         - or -
  1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Peanut Butter and Bannanas

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Wait for the pan to get nice and hot.
2. Meanwhile in a bowl, mix the eggs, garlic and milk.
3. Pour the egg mixture into a shallow pan. Cut the challah into ½ slices and place the slices into the pan.
4. Spread peanut butter on 2 slices and places bannana slices on the peanut butter. Put the 2 slices together and form a sandwich. Cut the sandwich in half.
5. Place the sandwich halves in the pan and let the slices sit in the egg mixture for approximately 2 minutes. Turn the slices over and let sit for another minute.
6. Pour a tablespoon or two of olive oil into the frying pan. Allow to get hot, but not to smoke.
7. Carefully place the challah slices into the frying pan.
8. Cook the slices for 2-3 minutes and then turn them over. Cook for another 1-2 minutes.

This recipe was actually stolen from the White House. I found it on the internet as the Creole Bread Pudding, modified the quantities, added apples and of course insisted on Irving's Premium Challah. Instead of butter (or margarine) I use olive oil. Though the recipe works well with fresh challah, I found stale challah easier to work with.

INGREDIENTS

• 1-1lb challah
• ¾ cup Sugar
• ½ cup pecan pieces
• ½ cup raisins
• ½ cup apples (diced)
• 2 cups milk
• 8 eggs
• ½ cup olive oil
• ½ teaspoon each of allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375°f.
2. In a bowl take a 1 lb challah and tear it into pieces, mix in the sugar, pecan pieces, raisins and apples.
3. In another bowl mix the milk, eggs, olive oil and spices.
4. Take both bowls and empty their contents into the pan. The challah should be soaked.
5. Place in the oven and bake for 1 - 1.5 hours.