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Peyton Merrill is excited about Bunny & Babe's second location in Winnetka P18
NORTH SHORE FOODIE Spice up summer cooking with Tarragon Chicken Salad P16 FOLLOW US:
NO. 456 | A JWC MEDIA PUBLICATION
FOR THE LOVE OF BREAD NORTHFIELD COUPLE LISA AND JIM CHALLENGER ARE BAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE. BY ALLISON DUNCAN THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
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At the height of the pandemic last spring, avid bread baker Jim Challenger and his wife, Lisa, decided to bake bread every day for their North Shore community until the pandemic reached its end. They lasted 55 days—baking daily upward of 16 loaves from their home kitchen—but then had to slow down. “Bread has been the backbone of communities for centuries,” says Jim. “It’s a way to show and share love. People were bringing loaves to their 90-year-old parents in nursing homes, and bread baking became a viral quarantine sensation. You couldn’t find bread, flour, or yeast at the grocery store for months.” The Challengers still bake 20 to 60 loaves each week, using the revolutionary cast iron bread pan they developed under the name Challenger Breadware—which launched in 2019 and sold out almost immediately. To this day, their flagship bread pan is in hot demand and ships worldwide. Jim designed the upside-down Dutch oven with home bakers in mind. Made in Wisconsin and seasoned in Indiana, the pan features a shallow base for loading dough, a sealed environment to create the perfect amount of steam, top handles to easily remove the cover mid-bake, and a deep cover with plenty of room for your oven spring. “When I designed the pan, I thought it’d be something I could use and maybe give to friends but never considered it as a viable business,” recalls Continued on PG 10
Jim and Lisa Challenger at Blue Moon Farms. PHOTOGRAPHY BY KATRINA WITTKAMP