Challah. How to Braid Challah for Shabbat, Holidays or Anytime. My Jewish Learning is a not-for-profit and relies on your help. My grandmother made Challah for Sabbath, so I was hoping to get the same type she made from this recipe.
You can cook Challah using 9 ingredients and 15 steps. Here is how you achieve that.
Ingredients of Challah
- You need 1/2 oz of active dry yeast.
- You need 1 tbsp of honey.
- Prepare 1/4 cup of warm water.
- Prepare 3 of large eggs.
- You need 4 tsp of salt.
- Prepare 1/2 cup of butter, melted.
- You need 2 cups of warm water.
- Prepare 7 cups of AP flour.
- You need 2 of egg yolks.
A bread enriched with eggs and oil, Challah, similar to French brioche, is served at important meals. Find challah stock images in HD and millions of other royalty-free stock photos, illustrations and vectors in the Shutterstock collection. Give your regular challah recipe a new life in Technicolor with this Challah with Cinnamon Honey Butter. Senior editor Julia Kramer's mother, Jill Weinberg, shared her family's challah recipe with us—it is truly revelatory.
Challah instructions
Whisk together the first 3 ingredients. Note: when baking recipes say 'warm water' they usually mean around 100F, maybe a bit higher. I usually just run water over my wrist until it feels a little warm..
To a separate bowl, add salt and eggs. Whisk in the melted butter and 2 cups warm water..
Whisk the second mixture into the first, the butter and eggs into the yeast..
Stir in the AP Flour. The dough should be pretty gooey. Once the flour is completely incorporated, put a moist towel over it and set it in a warm place for an hour or two, until it doubles in size..
Now for the tough part, forming the loaves. Turn out your big lump of dough onto a lightly floured surface and cut it into 6 pieces of roughly equal size. Place 3 of the balls back under the moist towel..
Grab 2 baking sheets, line them with tin foil, and rub a little butter on each piece of foil. This is mostly to keep your dough from sticking when you form it..
Take each of the 3 balls of dough and roll them into long strands, 15"-17". Add little dustings of flour to keep your dough from sticking. As you finish rolling the dough strands, line them up on one of the greased sheet trays. The strands should be of equal lengths..
Join the strands at one end by sorta folding them under and squishing them together. Then, braid them. Right strand over middle, left over right, middle over left, etc. until you reach the end of the strands. Fold the terminal end over and squish it a bit as you did with the beginning. This can take some practice. Don't beat yourself up if it's not perfect..
Repeat with the remaining dough balls and the other baking sheet..
Cover each formed loaf with a moist towel. You should probably do a little dusting of flour before putting the towel on top to keep it from sticking. Set it aside for an hour or so in a warm spot..
Preheat the oven to 325F..
Whisk up the egg yolks with a little bit of water and use a pastry brush to coat the first loaf..
Bake the first loaf for 10 minutes, then bump up the temperature to 425f. Bake for another 10-15 minutes. At this point, it should have a really nice golden sheen. Pull it out and put the oven back to 325f..
Once the oven has cooled, repeat the process with the second loaf. Egg wash, low bake, high bake..
Let your bread cool a bit, but not too long. If I were you, I'd break into the first loaf while it's still hot. Fresh bread and butter, yes!.
All we can hope is that our faithful version comes close. Vegan challah bread - this vegan water challah is made without eggs but is still wonderfully soft, fluffy and flavourful. It is easy to make and you can shape it as you like or follow my step-by-step. Challah is a special bread in Jewish cuisine, usually braided and typically eaten on ceremonial occasions such as Shabbat and major Jewish holidays. This wonderfully rich Jewish yeast bread resembles brioche, but tastes a bit sweeter.
