I intended to share this gorgeous challah with you about a month ago, but right after baking and shooting it, I got sick with a respiratory virus that knocked me out for most of April. I went for three COVID tests over 10 days and they were all negative, so it wasn’t that, but some other gem I somehow picked up. Four weeks in and I’m still coughing and tired but starting to feel better. Hope you’re all doing well.
When I first saw this 12 strand Black and White seeded challah on the Instagram feed of @misspetel, I was mesmerized. She is an insanely creative Tel Aviv based food blogger. For years, I have been baking the same 3 braid challah every Friday and it was getting a bit boring. It was time for me to upgrade my challah baking skills.
I’m not going to lie, you will be sweeping up poppy and sesame seeds for a few days after baking this, but the results are so worth it. The braiding looks complicated, but it’s really quite simple. I created a video for you to watch and see how it it all comes together.
I learned the shaping technique in the above video from a little e-book called “My Favourite Braids” from the talented German baker Katharina Arrigoni. Check out her Instagram account @besondersgut She’s a braiding wizard. The e-book is a great resource if you’re keen to learn more. The e-book is a great resource if you’re keen to learn more.
Slicing into the challah yields a beautiful swirly pattern of seeds and adds a great crunchy contrast to the pillowy soft bread. It’s a very impressive presentation. The best part is leftover challah on Saturday morning, slathered with butter, sour cherry preserves and flaky sea salt.
This week I’m wavering between a state of anxiety and denial. It feels like we are in the middle of a Margaret Atwood dystopian novel, but, make no mistake, COVID-19 is very real.
I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy and taking all the necessary precautions. Like most of my virtual friends, I’m staying in and baking. It helps me keep the anxiety at bay. There is even a hashtag for it, #stressbaking (over 22,000 posts on Instagram!). While I haven’t been hoarding toilet paper and Purell, I will admit to having a healthy stock of butter in my freezer. But that’s not because of the pandemic. I regularly have at least 8 pounds of butter in the freezer at any given time.
I have been wanting make this 5-strand braided challah for quite a while now. The inspiration comes from Katharina of the brilliant Instagram account @besondersgut. She is a bread goddess. I used my favourite challah recipe (2/3 all-purpose flour and 1/3 whole wheat) and her braiding and shaping technique. She calls it “Challah Chapelet”. I looked up the translation for chaplet, and discovered it means prayer beads, specifically, rosary beads. I thought it might be a bit sacrilegious to top my Shabbat challah with rosary beads, so my working title is, “Challah with Pearls.”
The shaping technique is actually very easy. The base is a 5 strand braid, which is one of the simplest to do. Once braided, you turn a 6th strand into a “string of pearls.” Check out the video I made.
https://youtu.be/gZ_hLoRjqbU
I was really thrilled with the results. I baked 5 challahs on Sunday and by the fourth I was fairly proficient with the shaping.
Any leftover challah is delicious for breakfast with butter, jam and honey.
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is just a few weeks away. It’s traditional to dip apples in honey, to symbolize our desire for a sweet year ahead. In my desire to be efficient and practical, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to bake my honey and apples right into the challah. I have been hard at work the past two weeks, figuring out just how to achieve that.
My starting point was my favourite challah dough. On Rosh Hashanah, challah is round, a circle without an end, to symbolize our wish for a year in which life and blessings continue without end. I was inspired by cloudykitchen’s Mixed Nut and Dulce de Leche Brioche Knot. Her clever twisting method was perfect for Rosh Hashanah.
After baking 5 versions of apple and honey challah, I believe I have nailed it. My husband, my chiropractor and my UPS man were happy to eat my experiments. None were a total fail, but there were a few issues along the way. The first hurdle to overcome was how to add the apples. Raw apples leached too much moisture into the challah, and made for a soggy bread. Sauteeing them first, solved that problem.
The apple flavour was kind of muted in the finished bread. In order to amp up the apple volume, I spread the dough with a thin layer of apple butter. Apple butter is simply very concentrated applesauce. There is actually no butter in it, only apples. It’s tangy and really packs a wallop of flavour. Some brown sugar, cinnamon and golden raisins provided a perfect counterpoint for all that zingy apple flavour.
Check out my video to see how it all came together.
https://youtu.be/KY80IAQMm14
Any leftover bread makes amazing toast the next morning. It’s a perfect way to segue gently from summer into fall. I’m not quite ready for pumpkin, but I will happily embrace apples in any form.
It’s been almost two weeks since I last posted. Lest you think I was slacking off, please be assured that I have been hard at work perfecting the babkala for you. While this mashup is not quite as well known as the cronut, it is most assuredly very delicious. I do believe that making 8 loaves of babkala in 10 days, qualifies me as something of an expert on the subject. With each attempt, I tweaked the recipe just a bit to improve it. I had many eager taste testers to help me on my journey. I do believe that my UPS delivery man has a bit of a crush on me now.
A traditional babka is made with a brioche dough, which is essentially a sweet yeast dough enriched with butter and eggs. I decided to forgo the brioche dough and just used my regular challah dough instead. I rolled out the challah dough and blanketed it with a buttery brown sugar and cinnamon spread and dotted it with raisins. The dough was rolled up, sliced and then twisted into loaves.
While some consider a cinnamon babka to be the lesser babka, I respectfully disagree. But if you must, you could fill yours with chocolate. I won’t judge. This is not really meant to be a Friday night challah. It’s more of a breakfast or brunch treat for a Saturday or Sunday morning. Or even a Tuesday afternoon. I have sampled it almost every day of the week, and trust me when I say it’s always amazing.
Tonight is the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Last week I created an apple beehive. It was adorable and very delicious. At around 4 am this morning, a vision of a challah beehive popped into my head. If I could build a beehive made out of apples, why not challah dough? I made my regular challah dough and pressed some raisins into it. It’s not a holiday challah without raisins. All you raisin haters can leave them out. The dough needs to rise to double in size. it will take about 90 minutes.
I decided to make mini beehives so I divided my dough into 3 and then made 6 ropes, each slightly shorter than the one before it, from each piece of dough. They looked quite pretty before baking, although they were leaning slightly. I let them rise for about an hour and then I gave them a gentle brushing with egg. I decided to leave them plain, without any topping so you could see the definition of the beehive.I’m not quite sure what happened in the oven, perhaps a hurricane blew through here, but they weren’t quite so beehive shaped after baking. One of them was a bit straighter, but not quite a perfect beehive. Perhaps we shouldn’t mess with Mother Nature.With a drizzle of honey, they were delicious. Wishing you all a Shana Tova. Sweet, Healthy and Happy New Year!
I have been making the same holiday challah for at least 15 years now. Everyone in the family loves it and looks forward to it. It’s possible I risk a mutiny if I dare to bake a different recipe. Yet, when I saw this challah in Uri Scheft’s book “Breaking Breads” I was enchanted. It looked like an everything bagel! I had to make it. Since Rosh Hashanah doesn’t start until Sunday night, I decided to do a test run for Friday night dinner at my son’s house.
Uri’s dough is much leaner than mine. Mine contains more eggs and oil. One recipe uses a kilogram (7 cups) of all-purpose flour. It’s enough to make 3 small challahs. A scale will be your best friend for dividing the dough. Each piece of dough gets further divided into 3 pieces and rolled out into 14 inch ropes.I like to start my braid in the center and work out toward both ends. Braid loosely. if the braids begin to stick to each other, give them a light dusting of flour. Wrap the braid into a circle, with a hole in the center. I found attaching the ends a bit challenging. I just sort of squeezed them together. Cover the challahs and let them double in size.
Now comes the fun part. Get all your toppings ready. I used sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, golden flax seeds, pumpkin seeds and nigella (black onion) seeds. I finished it off with a scatter of maldon sea salt flakes. Brush the braid with egg.Have fun with the toppings.Insert a small ovenproof bowl in the center so that the hole does not get filled in when dough bakes.Bake at 400°F for about 25 minutes. Let cool before serving.
Serve with honey in the middle for dipping.Or serve the honey on the side for drizzling. This challah dough is much denser than mine.A very different, but delicious challah experience. It really did remind me of an everything bagel. They are just so freaking adorable. We took a vote and decided to make both kinds of challah for our Rosh Hashanah lunch on Monday. I’ll let you know what everyone says!
Having baked over 1000 loaves of challah in my life, I think it’s fairly safe to say that I know a thing or two about this Friday night Shabbat dinner staple. 51 weeks of the year, I make a simple 3 strand braided challah covered with a crumble topping. (If you want to be really humbled, check out Rivka Malka Perlman’s you tube video, where she braids 6 strands! That is punching way above my weight!) However, one week each year, for Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) , I make a round challah. The round challah of this holiday symbolizes continuity and the endless cycle of life.
My challah recipe has not changed in over 8 years. The dough recipe comes from my friend Margo and the topping, crafted from sugar, flour and butter (or margarine), comes from my sister’s cousin’s friend, Elaine. As far as I know, Margo and Elaine do not know each other, but I am sure if they met, they would become great friends as the marriage of their recipes is a beautiful and delicious thing to behold.
The dough uses 2:1 ratio of white to whole wheat flour. I love the nuttiness that whole wheat adds to the finished bread. l make the dough on Wednesday or Thursday, cover it and put it in the fridge until Friday morning. The slow rise in the fridge really helps to develop the flavours of the bread. And, as a bonus, there is less to do on Friday! We always add raisins to our challah, you raisin haters can leave them out. I remove the dough from the mixer and push the raisins in by hand. They are more evenly distributed this way.The dough will double in about 90 minutes on the counter at room temperature, or you can cover and refrigerate for up to 48 hours.If you are making a round challah, a kitchen scale will make your life much easier. if you have ever been on Weight Watchers, then you have a scale lurking in the back of a cabinet somewhere.
A slice of this, drizzled with some honey is a very sweet start to the New Year. L’Shana Tova.
Shabbat dinner at our house just got a whole bunch more fun this week. If you have never heard of monkey bread, let me enlighten you. Essentially it is a yeast dough that is rolled into small balls, dipped in melted butter, then rolled in sugar and cinnamon and layered in a Bundt pan to rise. As it spends time in the oven, the little balls fuse together like pieces of an interlocking puzzle-cake. Once it is baked, everyone pulls off the little balls of delicious dough with their hands and pops them in their mouth. As much fun to make as it is to eat. More fun than a barrel of monkeys!
How it got the name, “monkey bread” is up for debate. Some say that since monkeys are known for pulling at everything, when humans pull the warm butter drenched, cinnamon and sugar coated balls of baked dough off the finished loaf, we resemble a bunch of monkeys. Others have suggested that the way it is eaten, torn, piece by piece off the loaf resembles how monkeys pick at their food. Whatever the explanation, monkey bread is irresistible.
When I opened my inbox earlier this month and saw that Alexandra Penfold at Serious Eats was struck by the genius idea to create monkey bread from challah dough, I knew I had to try it. I make challah every week. My favourite challah dough is made with 2/3 all-purpose white flour and 1/3 whole wheat flour. Alexandra said that bread flour is best for making this version, so I followed her recipe. My mom was visiting me this week, so we made it together. I made the dough on Thursday and stuck it in the fridge for a slow overnight rise. You can make this all in one day if you like, but I find it easier to make the dough a day or two ahead of time and let it sit in the fridge until the day I want to serve it.
The dough gets divided into 64 pieces and then each piece is rolled into a ball. My mom has lots of patience for these kinds of projects. It would also be a perfect thing to do with kids! My daughter wants to make it with me when she comes to visit later this month.
Then each little dough ball is plunged into a bath of warm melted butter, followed by a dip into a tub of brown sugar and cinnamon.The challah dough balls are then layered in a greased bundt pan. After a 90 minute rise, the bread is ready for the oven. Once baked, it needs to cool for a bit before you can turn it out of the pan and cover it in cinnamon bun type of icing.
The monkey bread elicited lots of oohs and aaahs as I brought it to the table. We made the blessing on the challah monkey bread and then everyone tore into it. If you envision the best part of a cinnamon bun, that gooey center bit of dough, then you will understand the genius behind monkey bread. Each piece of monkey bread that you rip off is coated in that perfect sticky goo! After dinner, I left the remainder of the bread on the counter. It was gone by morning. I suspect we may have been visited by a barrel of monkeys in the middle of the night.Thrilled as I was by the results, I was a little disappointed that the finished bread was a bit squat, not tall and majestic as I had hoped. I suspected that Alexandra used a smaller sized Bundt pan. I used a standard 12 cup Bundt pan. So, I did a little research and discovered that there is a smaller size Bundt pan, a 6 cup size. I ordered the smaller one and made a second challah monkey bread.
I used my challah dough in this version. The smaller pan filled up quite nicely.As the bread was baking, and filling the house with the insanely delicious aroma of cinnamon and brown sugar, I decided to take a peek into the oven. Ooops!I failed to take into account that the dough would continue to rise. I felt like Goldilocks in the Three bears story. The first pan was too big for the dough. The second pan was too small. Then I emailed Alexandra to find out what size pan she used. Apparently there is a 9 inch silicone Bundt pan that holds 10 cups… just right!
The overflowing disaster monkey bread disapppeared just as quickly as the first one. The feedback I got was that everyone preferred the softer texture of the dough made from the all purpose flour and whole wheat flour combo dough, over the chewier texture from the bread flour dough. I did briefly consider ordering the 9 inch pan and remaking it a third time so my photo would be perfect for this post. My family told me that as much as they loved the Challah Monkey Bread, a third one in the span of one week was just too much fun for them to handle.
Who knew that a German fruit filled bread could demonstrate my learning deficiencies so clearly? As I read through the recipe for Stollen, this week’s bread in Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, I knew that I had a real challenge on my hands. I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to shape this loaf. I read through the directions at least 4 times and it just didn’t make any sense to me. There were even some pictures to demonstrate the method but I still could not figure it out.
Full disclosure here, I am not really great with written instructions. (I can see my husband laughing his head off right about now as he reads this). I never the read instruction manuals that come with anything new I buy. I believe that things should be designed so that they are intuitive. Usually I end up breaking something before I give in and pull out the manual. I have never assembled anything from Ikea where I did not have at least 3 or more extra bolts or screws left over, leaving me wondering about the stability of whatever I just put together.
Sorry, got a little off track there. I proceeded to make the dough for the Stollen, without a clear plan on how I was going to shape it. I figured that I’d just wing it when I got to that part. The recipe begins with mixing some warm milk with flour and instant yeast to make a sponge.
This mixture is set aside for about an hour, to get all bubbly. The recipe called for golden raisins and candied fruit mix to be soaked in brandy or rum and orange or lemon extract. I remembered my experience with the Panettone bread I made back in November. I hated that bread with the dried fruits soaked in alcohol so I decided to forgo this step. As well, I decided to leave out the citrus extract. I figured I’d get enough citrus flavour from orange and lemon zest. I decided to skip the candied fruits as well and went with a combo of golden raisins, sultana raisins, dried cherries and dried apricots.
Once the sponge was all bubbly, it is added to all-purpose flour, sugar, salt, orange and lemon zest and cinnamon. Butter, an egg and a bit of water are added until a sticky dough is formed. Then about 3/4 of the dried fruit is added. The remainder gets added during shaping. I was feeling a bit lazy and decided to knead the fruit in by machine but it soon became apparent that hand kneading was in order. I dumped the mixture onto the counter and kneaded for about 5 minutes until I had a silky dough and all the fruit was evenly incorporated.
Then the dough was set aside to rest, covered for about 45 minutes. At that point I figured I’d better do some research to figure out what I was going to do about shaping this bread. I googled Stollen and came up with several variations and shaping suggestions.
There was a wreath shaped stollen from Martha Stewart’s mother. David Lebovitz formed his stollen into simple batards (oval-shaped loaves). My favourite, however, was the stollen shaped like Mick Jagger’s lips from Philadelphia Chef John Gallagher. Once baked, his version is dipped in melted butter and then rolled in a sugar-cinnamon mixture.
I was just about to make the Mick Jagger version when I decided to read the shaping instructions in the Bread Baker’s Apprentice book one last time. Eureka! After my 5th read through I thought I finally understood how to do this. It seemed that the shaping instructions were describing a simple letter fold. Because I am a visual learner, I videoed myself shaping the bread for all you other visual learners out there.
I was quite proud of myself for figuring out how to shape this bread, and I only had to read the instructions 5 times. I was just about to slide the stollen into the oven when a phrase in the instructions caught my eye, “Turn the dough seam side up….” Huh?? I read it one more time and it was on my 6th read through that I finally understood that Peter Reinhart was describing an accordion style fold. So I opened up my stollen and reshaped it.
Although the recipe called for brushing the baked bread with vegetable oil, I opted for melted butter. Then 2 coats of icing sugar and it’s done.
As I baked this bread on Friday, I used it as our Sabbath challah stand-in. I believe that the finished loaf is supposed to symbolize the blanket of baby Jesus. Oh well, the world needs a little more culinary coexistence. It was delicious and a nice change from our usual challah. It was even better toasted with butter for breakfast the next day.
P.S. I just discovered that fellow BBA challenger Kelly of Something Shiny figured out the accordian fold about a month ago and posted about it on her blog. She also originally thought it was a letter fold and only after making it a second time worked out the proper shaping technique.
This is the most delicious challah I have ever eaten. Anytime I am invited anywhere for Shabbat dinner, I offer to bring my challah. It’s amazing how often I am invited back. This recipe is actually a marriage of two different recipes. The challah recipe comes from my friend Margo. The topping part of the recipe comes from my sister’s cousin’s friend, Elaine. Elaine and Margo have never met, as fas as I know. My sister would like to introduce them. She thinks they’s like each other. In my little cyber world, they are already great friends!
What you need:
1 package or 1 tablespoon traditional yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup warm water (115 –120 degrees F)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine
1 egg, lightly beaten
What you do:
1. In a 2 cup liquid measuring cup, dissolve 1 teaspoon sugar in 1 cup warm water. Sprinkle yeast on top and let stand for about 4 minutes, until yeast gets all bubbly.
2a.To make the dough in a stand mixer: Place 1 cup white bread flour, sugar and salt in the stand mixer bowl, fitted with the dough hook. Mix briefly to combine. Pour dissolved yeast mixture into machine and mix for about 1 minute. Add egg and oil and mix again for about 30 seconds. Add remaining 1 cup white bread flour and 1 cup whole wheat bread flour and mix on low speed for about 10 minutes. If dough seems too sticky, add a bit more white bread flour. Dough should be soft and smooth but not sticky.
2b. To make dough by hand: Stir together both types of flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk egg and oil together. Add dissolved yeast and egg/oil mixture to flour mixture. Using a wooden spoon, mix until all the ingredients come together and form a ball. Sprinkle a bit of white bread flour on the counter and dump out the contents of the bowl. Knead by hand for about 10 minutes. As you are kneading, if the dough seems too sticky, knead in a bit more flour. You want a soft but not sticky dough.
3. If using raisins, use your fingers to poke the raisins deep into the center of the dough. Knead for a minute and then form the dough into a ball and transfer it to a large oiled mixing bowl. Turn dough until all sides are coated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit on counter until almost doubled in bulk, about 90 minutes, or you can cover and put it in the fridge overnight and continue the next day.
4. After the dough has risen , gently knead again, to punch the dough down. If you have a scale, weigh dough and divide into 5 equal pieces (or you can do 3 pieces for a simple 3 rope braid). Roll our each piece into a rope about 12 inches in length, making sure the ropes are slightly thicker in the middle and tapered at the ends. Lay the ropes out on the counter and attach them by pinching together at the top.
5. I learned how to do the 5 strand braiding method from Peter Reinhart’s book “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.” I consider myself to have poor fine motor skills, so if I could master this, you can too! Here is the pattern to follow:
Strand 1 over Strand 3, Strand 2 over Strand 3, Strand 5 over Strand 2
6. Just keep repeating this pattern until you get to the end. Gently pinch tip together when you get to the end.
7. Place braid on a parchment lined baking sheet. Spray loaf with spray oil and cover lightly with plastic wrap. Let sit at room temperature until the loaf has almost doubled in size, about 60-90 minutes.
8. While loaf is proofing, make topping. In a bowl, using your fingertips, mix butter or margarine into flour and sugar until you have coarse crumbs. I usually make a double batch of this and keep it in the freezer in a zip-loc bag.
9. After challah has finished proofing, brush gently with beaten egg and then sprinkle topping all over top and sides of bread. Set aside about 1/2 cup of topping to use later. Don’t worry about any topping that doesn’t make it onto the loaf and falls on the parchment paper. Just use your fingers to sweep the excess topping under the loaf. When it bakes, it forms little sweet crusty bits on the bottom that you can pick off and eat before anyone comes home.
10. Bake challah at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Remove challah from oven and brush with egg and sprinkle with reserved topping at the seams where the challah has swelled and newly exposed dough is showing. Turn down temperature to 325 degrees F. If challah is getting too dark, tent with foil. Return challah to oven and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes, or until an instant read thermometer, inserted into the brerad registers 190 degrees F.
11. Remove challah to a wire rack and let cool at least one hour before serving.
