Challah is a traditional sweet egg bread that is served on every Shabbat and other Jewish holidays. It is commonly made as plain but its taste can be increased by adding raisins, poppy seeds or sesame oil. It resembles hair braid in shape. It tastes quite well when dipped with wine and is not eaten only in Israel but in the most parts of the world. It doesn’t require special skills to prepare. Just a proper guide mentioned below will help you to make and enjoy the hot challah. Read on.
Complexity Level: Basic
Time Required: 30-40 minutes
Resources Required:
- Active dry yeast
- Sugar
- Flour
- Vegetable oil
- Warm water
- Softened butter
- Warm milk
- Eggs
- Salt
Instructions:
1. Mix yeast and sugar: The first step in making this delicious dough is to mix the sugar and yeast with lukewarm water in a bowl. Mix the solution vigorously for few minutes so that yeast and sugar are properly dissolved. The sugar makes it sweet in taste and yeast helps in preserving it for few days.
2. Combine eggs, butter and milk: Now, mix three eggs, butter or margarine and milk in a large bowl. Blend these three ingredients thoroughly. Transfer the mixture of these three ingredients in the earlier made yeast solution. Now, stir the solution to mix the ingredients very well with each other. Addition of butter makes it crispy and crunchy.
3. Add flour to make soft dough: Add required amount of flour gradually to the solution to make a soft dough. Transfer the soft dough onto a floured board and knead the dough on the floured dough until it becomes soft and elastic. The more you knead dough, more it will become smooth and soft and better challah will be made.
4. Make stripes: Once the dough gets smooth and elastic, divide it into six parts. Knead the six portions individually to make them completely smooth. Now, roll each individual portion into a long stripe. These six stripes should be of same size and thickness. If you make stripes of uneven size, the challah will not get its desired shape and takes more cooking time.
5. Make the dough braid: Place the stripes side by side on the flour stand. Take three stripes and join the three stripes at the top and then interweave the three stripes together very closely. Be careful about overlapping and overstretching the dough strips. Repeat the process for remaining strips.
6. Place the braid stripes in the oven: Now place the braid shaped flour stripes in the oven at 400 Fahrenheit for more than half an hour. If the size of loaves is large then increase the time of oven so that these loaves get baked well.
7. Add topping: The last step in making this delicious dough is adding toppings to the loaves. The topping could possibly be a mixture of butter, egg yolk and salt. Savor the moments of having hot challah.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What is challah bread?
The challah is an Eastern European recipe which is served on Shabbat and other traditional holidays of Jews. The challah word took its origin from biblical Hebrew, which means sweet bread that is traditionally served on Jewish holidays. There is no biblical guideline for this recipe but the amount of tithe is mentioned there.
Quick Tips:
- To make it tastier, you can add raisins to the dough.
- If you cannot mix the dough with hands, you can take the help of electric mixer to mix the dough well.
Things To Watch Out For:
Keep the knives out of reach from the children. Switch off the gas stove properly so that children donât turn on the switch or operate the gas stove.
