Let's Holla for Challah Bread!

Alright, this all started several weeks ago around Thanksgiving time.  The Food Network aired an episode of Unwrapped and featured Challah Bread.  (See Video)  Challah bread is a Jewish bread, a special bread made for celebrations and holidays.  (Wikipedia)  It just looked SO YUMMY that I wanted to bake it.  Why bake when you can buy?  Well, my home town is very much an Italian and Porteguese fishing port, our bakeries are pretty much going to carry Italian style loaves only.  And I didn't want to have to go "out of my way" to get it.  So.. why not bake it?  I've baked.....um... well.... I've used my bread machine for raisin bread!  Hrm... that never comes out right though... but I've used my bread machine for pizza dough, does that count!?  Hardly.  So why experiment with baking bread now?  Well why not!?  And besides, I'm a converted Catholic, raised Lutheran, trying to make Jewish bread, what could POSSIBLY go wrong??

Bread is actually quite easy to make, is just time consuming.  And now that (just about) everyone has a Kitchen Aid mixer with a dough hook.. kneeding by hand is a thing of the past!  So, I started my search for the great recipe.  Gotta find a Jew.  But alas, those of the Jewish faith I know... turns out... they all BUY their Challah bread from local bakeries, or.... BJ's/Costco!  No one had a tried and true recipe for me.  I got all sorts of tales about blessings, including one from a co-worker.... it involves flinging a live chicken around your head in the kitchen, over the unbaked bread.  This is to ward off bad spirits and evil mojo or something.  Sounded more like Voodoo than a Jewish blessing/prayer to me, but I found it comical.  And not to worry, I worked it into my recipe.  Anyhow, when recipe by association failed, I headed to the internet.

Searching for a recipe took about a week.  I knew what the bread was supposed to look like, and according to the Food Network, it was supposed to be yellow and eggy and sweet, but cake like.  Right.  So, I knew the recipe needed lots of eggs, had to include sugar, and needed to be from a valuable resource.  Just as I was about to give up, I fell upon Chabad.org and what looked like a good recipe.  It also had several replies and comments of success.  Bingo.  Here we go.

Got home, cleaned up the kitchen, occupied the kids, time to bake, recipe -> Print.  Ok... 5lbs of flour.  POUNDS!?  Wait a second... just how much bread is this going to make????  2oz of fresh yeast.  FRESH YEAST?  Where in the world does one get that?  Can I substitute, all I got is Active Dry and Rapid Rise... oh jeeeze and how does one measure one half of 1/3 cup?  So, last minute scramble with yet another internet search on how to convert this to that and that to this.  And oh yea, Rob I'm getting flour on your mail scale.

Phew.  Ok.  Recipe found, math done, kids still occupied, Karsyn's getting fussy, must act fast, here we go, let's play.  (The original recipe can be found here.)

This current recipe will make a giant loaf of Challah.  If it rises correctly, you will get loaf that should just about fill your cookie sheet it's being baked on.  Double the recipe by making it twice, and you'll get two loafs that size.  Or, you can cut this ball into even smaller  pieces and get 2 small loafs out of it.

Ingredients
     I cut everything from the original recipe in half in order to get it into my Kitchen Aid mixer, and below are those conversions.
 
2.5lbs sifted all-purpose flour
1oz fresh yeast (or .4oz Active Dry yeast) - get a scale, I didn't convert to tsp or T
1T course salt, I didn't have course salt, so I used 1.5T of table salt
2 1/4 cups warm water
1/4+1/8 cup of vegetable oil
1/2+half of 1/3 cups sugar (yea, estimate that half of 1/3)
2.5 egg yolks (this was just about 1/4 cup of yolk)
(keep those egg whites aside for later)

1. No need to dissolve the yeast, we have Active Dry, which means it's going to activate once the water hits it while its rising in your bowl.  Or something like that, I'm no chemist, but I know this works.  It's how the bread machines do it!
2. In the mixer, add in this order:  salt, 2/3 of all the flour, oil, sugar, yolks, water, yeast.
3. Put your mixer on 2 or 3 and let it go for 12 minutes while everything is combined.  You may need to scrape the side at least once.
4. Add the rest of the flour while the mixer is on speed 1, let it incorporate and up speed back to 2 or 3 let the dough come into a ball.  Don't over mix.  Just as it looks like a tangible ball, stop the mixer.
5. Prepare a well greased bowl that is twice the size of your current ball of dough and transfer the dough into that bowl.
6. Cover with saran wrap and let it sit on the counter for 2 to 3 hours so it can rise.  It will double in size.
7. Repeat steps 2-6 if you want to make more dough.

Let it rise.............. 3 hours, what to do with all that time?  Well, you can make dinner, watch the Survivor finale a day late, and put you little one to bed while the dough rises.

Ok, it's risen!

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Spill the dough onto a VERY lightly dusted flour surface.  
3. Separate into 6 pieces and roll into your traditional play-dough snakes.  
4. Line them all up next to one another and start braiding.  Now, I did a weave because that made sense to me.  The website I got the original recipe from tells you how to do the 6 strand braid, but it was all Latin to me so I just guessed.  
5. Braid it all up nice and tight, tuck the ends under, and place it on a greased cookie sheet. 

• Let it sit, 20 minutes.  What to do.... how about all the dishes?  Yep, that worked.  Set the timer, get going.
• Ok, now what?  Oh right, co-worker mentioned his grandmother would fling the chicken around the kitchen over her head.
• No chicken... not happening... now what?

•  Chickens...check.

1. Remember those egg whites? Yeah, give them a good whisk.  Break out that basting brush you never use and slather those egg whites on the dough generously.  Now, the recipe calls for more egg yolks, but really, must we waste more egg whites?  Let's just use them.  Should be the same result.
2. Put the bread on the middle rack of your oven at the pre-heated 400 degrees and set timer for 10 minutes.
3. 10 minutes done, set the oven down to 340 degrees and set timer for 30 minutes.

and wait.....

Ding!!!!  Oven says the bread should be done.  But how do you know it's really done?  Well, another Google search... take it's temp.  Apparently 190 degrees internal temp for bread is the correct doneness.  So, find that meat thermometer you just had to have but never use, and take the temperature of the bread.  190?  good, take it out and let it cool!

 Now, I'm told that there are two GREAT ways to eat Challah.  The first, is you just pull the braided chunks and dive right in, eating in plain.  One variation of this is to serve with a little whipped cream cheese and smoke salmon.  I will be apparently trying both methods tomorrow with my co-workers providing said means of consumption.  The other great way I'm told to eat this... and if this is the case, I just might have to make this again after the holidays when I have another 4 hours of time on my hands... is to make FRENCH TOAST.  Now, if you could smell my kitchen right about now, you'd realize just how AWESOME this idea of french toast out of Challah bread really and truly sounds.

Now... I have yet to take a bite of this bread, so while I'm writing this, I can't tell you how successfull this recipe really is.  So, an update tomorrow I'm sure.  For now, they are cooling and making my kitchen smell divine.

Happy Hanukkah everyone as my timing for baking is just right.

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OK, totally couldn't wait, I just had to pull a chunk from the side as I was wrapping one up....
OH
MY
GOODNESS
I'm never eating real bread again,
ever.