New to the OU: The Staff of Life – and Flavor! Crest Hill Bakery Delivers Both

Anyone who’s ever tasted fresh-baked challah would agree it comes pretty close to a Heavenly experience – one you’ll want to repeat. Often.

Crest Hill Bakery, producers of hundreds of handmade breads, is ready, willing and award-winningly able to satisfy the public’s craving as often as you like. Including OU-Kosher consumers.

Since 2006, Crest Hill founder David Neville and business partner Rod Teel have produced par-baked breads, rolls, and pizza dough using hands-on, old-world techniques. A growing list of notable grocery chains from the East Coast to the Midwest and Southwest have caught on to Crest Hill products’ rising popularity. OU-Kosher consumers can join the clamor for the Maryland-based company’s six-strand braided, sweet and savory challah loaves.

As with anything worthwhile, it took Neville time to perfect the challah-baking art. “It’s not only the braiding, it’s also the recipe,” he says. “We use the finest whole ingredients and I learned, like a fine wine, the longer the flour, water and eggs blend and bask, the richer it tastes.”

A time-intensive process coupled with an attentive hands-on procedure has become Crest Hill’s hallmark for all their breads. Every workday, the bakery bustles with the sounds of the bakery crew mixing, kneading and expertly fashioning the dough into loaves. A sweet aroma permeates the air, as the tall stone ovens ready the loaves for distribution to a waiting and appreciative public.

Crest Hill Bakery also turns out 120 other varieties of breads including robust Harvest Bread, Cranberry Walnut bread (a perennial favorite for holiday season), as well as Pain de Campagne (a generous loaf reminiscent of those enjoyed by Parisians), Pumpernickel and Deli New York Rye. All this, plus proprietary recipes for certain retailers.

And they can’t stop innovating.

Replicating the crackling crust and tender crumb of French baguettes, Crest Hill developed a recipe that could accommodate a grocery store scale production without compromising on texture or flavor. Enter the Artisan Baguette! This Crest Hill innovation turned the heads of executives at Whole Foods Market. The Bakery now supplies 30 types of bread sold as the Whole Foods house label throughout the Mid-Atlantic region in stores spanning Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and New York.

While selling to Whole Foods, Neville and Teel met Kosher consultant Eli Schlossberg for his expert advice. “He said he wished that there was a kosher bakery like ours,” reports Neville, “that products of our quality weren’t really available.” Crest Hill promptly selected OU Kosher.

“We’re proud of our breads and feel passionately that they are the best breads available anywhere,” says Neville. “It’s important that we apply the highest standards to everything we do. That’s why we chose OU Kosher certification.”

Check out Crest Hill Bakery online and ask for them at a grocery store near you.