Egg-less Challah

This week I've invited over a friend who has a son with a bunch of allergies.  As allergies are nothing new in my household (shout-out to my sister-in-law and oldest nephew) I knew that I wanted to make a meal that everyone could enjoy.

Her son has an allergy to dairy and egg, and she has an allergy to wheat.  Well, I did try to look up a celiac's recipe for challah, but didn't find anything that looked good.  I was given some new flour thats supposed to be not only delicous buy is certified Kosher and wheat-free, so I'm looking forward to using that sometime soon.

But I did find a great egg-less challah recipe that I'm excited to take a gander at.  It's from this blog called the Challah Blog, which isn't really still up, but it's got a great archive of recipes and braiding techniques for those who are into it. 

Recipe:
3 C flour
1/4 cup plus 1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 C natural oil (vegetable or canola)
1 1/4 C Water
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) to 1 Tbsp dry yeast
Optional: Maple Syrup for an egg-free shine

As usual, proof your yeast in warm water with a bit of sugar.  Add oil, then water, salt and sugar.  Mix it all up.  If it's too wet add flour, too sticky add water or oil.

Let it rise at least an hour.

Punch down and braid.  Let rise again for an hour

Bake for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees.

It didn't really turn out that delicious, but in a pinch it would totally do for an egg-less friend.

Challah Challenge: Babkhallah

When I was visiting my sister in San Jose she had her latest issue of Bon Apetit on display on her coffee table.  I couldn't help but pick it up, and I'm certainly glad I did, because it brought me... Babkhallah

Now, I made this recipe twice.  Or I should say I attempted to make this recipe twice.  And both times the dough would not rise.  It says to leave it to rise for 1.5-2.5 hours, but it never got much bigger than the ball I started with.

I thought it was my yeast, I thought it was the heat, hence trying it twice.

In the end, still delicious, but I'd do a few things differently.

Dough

• ½ cup whole milk
• 1 ¼-oz. envelope active dry yeast
• 5 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled, plus more
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more

Filling and Assembly

• 6 ounces bittersweet Semi-Sweet (at least!) chocolate, finely chopped
• ⅓ cup (packed) light brown sugar
• 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• All-purpose flour (for surface)
• ¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk
• Granulated sugar (for sprinkling)

Make the dough like you would a normal Challah dough.  Proof the yeast with the milk, add the eggs and the butter together with the vanilla, then mix all wet ingredients.

Then mix the salt and the flour together with the sugar.  Mix Dry into wet, and form into a dough ball.  Knead for 5-10 minutes.  Here it says 'knead until not shiny' but I couldn't get that to work.

Here's the mess I was left with after putting together the dough...

And my eager helper, making it all possible :-)

Then you take the chocolate and chop it up really fine. Add it to the sugar, and cinnamon.  When the dough rises (remember, I couldn't get mine to rise at all!) then you roll it out into three long sections.  Spread on some butter, pour on the chocolate/cinnamon and press it down into the dough.  Roll the dough up, pressing the seams together.

Then braid the challah the way you normally would.  I had to stretch out the three sections a lot to get them to braid.  And the ends didn't really come together the way I would have liked.  Spread with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake in the oven at 350 for 35-40 minutes.

It's supposed to be done with it's golden on top, and sounds hollow. I'm not sure about when it was supposed to be done, but I think it turned out gorgeous.

In the end it turned out a bit bitter in the chocolate for me.  It also fell apart into three different pieces, not really staying together when you slice it.

Would you try Babkhalla?

I will try it again, maybe with better chocolate.  Any other thoughts?

Trying to get to normal...

So this week we made some Challah, just like I said I would with the Challah Challenge.  It was nice to do something regular- something with a definitive result.

 

This was the recipe I used this week, again, something I had in the house.  This book was a gift from my sister a few years back.  I love how versatile it is, and how it has crafts and things for the kiddos.  It's a great book to have around, although if I'm honest, this Challah isn't my winner.

Jewish Holiday Treats

'Round-and-round challah'

2 pks yeast

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups warm milk

1 Tb salt

5 large eggs beaten

1/2 cup oil

7 cups flour

1 egg, for egg wash

Dissolve yeast in warm milk with 1 tbl sugar.  Stir in remaining sugar, salt, eggs, and oil.  Stirl in flour 1 cup at a time until smooth, not sticky.  Turn out and knead.  Put in oil coated bowl to rise until double (30-60 minutes)

Turn out and divide in half.  Roll out three ropes, and braid.  Cover with towel and let rise 30 minutes (this recipe is for Rosh Hashana, so it goes into instructions on making it round, so I'm skipping that part).

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

When I made our Challah this week, I had a few helpers.  EG and her friend came by the house.  The girls loved to dump in the flour- I used a half cup measuring cup so it would last even longer.  Then stirring was a big exciting event too!

I hope that EG has these memories.  My mom never did much baking, while she had a definite knack for cooking.  Cooking with my mom was one of my greatest memories.  She would always make sure we knew her techniques, and when I was home in high school alone when my sister went to college it was lots of fun in the kitchen, since I could always make whatever I wanted to.

I remember once she had someone over the house when I got home from school.  I went straight to the kitchen and checked on the onions she had on the stove.  She told me later that the friend she was with was so impressed that I would just jump in like that, and how wonderful it was that we were competent in the kitchen.

I can definitely say we are.  My sister even tackled Thanksgiving for the first time a few years ago, and I can't wait to go up north for her repeat performance!

 

It's interesting how difficult it's been.  Some days are just 'fine' and others are really terrible.  But no matter what the day, Challah always helps....

Challah Challenge: Month 1

I decided to start out a bit easy with my Challah challenge- using a recipe I already have at home, as well as one that's incredibly simple.

Except when I actually started working on it this morning, turns out it's a little more complicated than I thought:

Jewish Recipe Book (Greatest-Ever)

This is the book I used to get the recipe. It's a great book, was a Chanukah gift a few years ago.  I don't use it very often, as it's really a book full of Jewish ethnic recipes, less so Jewish holiday recipes, but it's a great book to have in the kitchen.

The usual Challah ingredients. A few eggs, sugar, yeast, oil, and flour.  This one also called for salt (not pictured) and some water (not pictured).

The first step in almost every challah recipe, proofing the dough.  Making sure it bubbles up and shows that the yeast is alive.  This is a step I never really understood when I was younger.  Why is it called proofing?  How is yeast 'alive?' but it's an important step never the less.

Here is my ball of dough, ready to rise.  And here's where I ran into problems.

The recipe, which I'll transcribe below, asks you to put the dough in the fridge overnight to let it rise.  Guess I should have made the dough on Thursday.  But I didn't.  Today is Shabbat, and if we want to have this challah, I'll have to forgo the overnight rising, and just bake it after it rises a bit.  So, below you'll find the original recipe, with my adaptations noted in italics.  I'll report back on Sunday to tell you how they are.


Challah 
Adapted from the Greatest Ever Jewish Recipe Book
Marlena Spieler

Makes 2 Loaves:

1 tbsp dried yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup lukewarm water
4.5 cups flour
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 egg for glazing
pinch of sugar
salt

1. Mix together yeast, sugar, and 1/2 cup lukewarm water.  Sprinkle with flour, cover and let proof for 10-12 minutes

2. Beat in 1tsp salt, oil, and eggs into mixture.  Add in additional 1/2 cup water.  Add flour slowly at first, then more quickly.  Knead for 5-10minutes until mixture forms a dough that leaves the side of the bowl.  If it's sticky, add more flour.  Place in an oiled bowl and let rise for 1.5-2 hours

3. Turn dough onto floured surface.  Divide the dough into two equal pieces.  Knead then roll out into braids.  Form 3 long pieces, then braid together to form Challah.

4.  Cover and leave to rise 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

5. Pre-heat oven to 375degree.  Combine remaining egg, pinch of sugar, pinch of salt and brush over the loaves.  Sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds if desired.  Bake for 40 minutes, or until well browned.  Cool on wire rack.



In hindsight, I think that it's best to use the same method to compare all the recipes.  I like to make my challah on Fridays, so I think I'm going to do this as my traditional method- 2 hours regular rising, then 1 hour rising formed as a challah.  That way all the yeast has the same amount of time to make good dough.

What do you think?  I'll report back on how it tasted/turned out on Sunday.  Also, I'm going to try to find an answer for why we braid challah.  Any thoughts on that?