Twenty-three years ago when my youngest son was a toddler, I starting baking Challah on Fridays for our home Shabbat (Sabbath) service and meal. Even though at that time I had not yet officially converted to Judaism, I possessed what my Rabbi called: “A Jewish Soul”.

Learning to create consistently fine loaves of bread took finding and experimenting with recipes, and lots of practice kneading the dough into the just-right consistency.  Baking yeast breads can be tricky, particularly if you’re not careful about the water temperature when dissolving the yeast.  Also, if you over-knead the dough, adding too much flour, your bread will not have that cake-like texture that a perfect loaf of Challah should have.  By the way, it’s the egg in each loaf that gives the bread is softness.

Ball of dough for two loaves after twenty minutes kneading

Here is a series of photos I took on Friday, July 27th, 2012 which show how to proceed in forming your loaves of Challah after it’s risen and doubled in bulk.  The recipe below should be doubled if you want two loaves; just be careful not to add too much flour!  The amount of flour in each loaf can vary between 4 to 5 cups and the trick is to leave the dough a slight-bit tacky to your touch at completion of kneading….I learned this hard way until a friend of mine who was an experienced bread baker told me the secret.

Smooth and not over-kneaded

RECIPE FOR ONE LOAF

(double for Sephardi traditional two-loaf requirement)

4 -5 cups- Organic, unbleached flour

1.25 cups- Spring water, (90° to 115°F, should feel warm and comfortable).

.25 cup- Olive oil or melted, organic butter

.25 cup- Organic sugar, molasses or raw honey

1 teaspoon- Celtic Sea Salt or Himalayan Salt

1 package- Rapid Rise or Regular Yeast

2 eggs- Organic, hormone-free, cage-free eggs (one egg for inside of loaf, one egg yoke to glaze bread with)

1 teaspoon- Sunflower or poppy seeds

CHALLAH MAKING TUTORIAL

1. Pour yeast from packet into a large mixing bowl then add the warm water.  Stir with wooden spoon until dissolved. The mixture will look cloudy.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together egg, oil, salt and sugar. Add to yeasty water and stir.
3. Add the flour one cup at a time, stirring thoroughly after each cup.  The dough will get increasingly sticky at first but keep slowly adding the flour and eventually it will ball-up and pull away from the sides of the bowl.  At that point you want to gather up the mass and plop it onto a well-floured, wooden cutting board.
4. Rub your hands in the flour and slowly sprinkle more and more flour onto the dough ball as you knead it deeply.  At first it should be quite wet and need handfuls of flour until it begins to feel smooth and does not stick to your hands.  But again, you don’t want to add too much flour at this point, so take your time.  The finished dough ball should feel slightly tacky and be shiny and smooth. This step in the Challah making process is laborious and it’s a good work out for the arms and shoulders.  Plus, if you’re like me, you can pray for your family and/or the people you are baking your Challah for, as you work the dough for 10 to 20 minutes. I like to listen to music while making my bread; thinking about God, Family and the New Jerusalem to come.
5. When your dough is finished being kneaded to perfection, set it inside a clean, lightly-oiled bowl; cover with a kitchen towel and set in a warm place for 1-2 hours and until it’s doubled it’s size. Keep checking it, particularly if you use rapid-rise yeast. You don’t want to let the mass over-rise because that will ruin your bread!

Ready to cut into balls, roll into ropes and braid

6. At 10:05am I finished the first kneading and set the dough in a warm closet on a high shelf until it had risen and doubled in bulk.

At 11:42am I finished the quick re-knead of the risen dough, (see image on the left) punching it down and pushing the air bubbles out of it; careful not to add but a slight dusting of flour to the clean bread board.

7. Now the dough is ready to be divided into eight, equal balls, then formed into dough ropes for braiding.

Use a sharp knife to divide the ball in half, and each half in half, etc., until you have four, equally proportioned dough balls per loaf.

8. Now you will patiently roll out each ball into a rope of dough for braiding. My Challah are braided with four strands each.  Be patient with the dough at this point because it will be very elastic, if you’ve made it correctly.  It should spring back into form when you make an impression in it.  Each rope should be rolled-out 12 to 18 inches in length.

9. Begin your braid with the rope on the right, weaving over-under-over and as you braid your loaf, continue to pick up strands on the right, alternating your weave as you go. Over-under-over; Under-over-under…repeat until you reach the end.

10. When you reach the end of each loaf and the ropes are short, this is when you do your best to tightly weave the pointed ends, then pinch the tips together and tuck underneath the loaf; making the look aesthetically appealing. See photo above on far right and photos below.

Finished and Tucked First End

Flip the bread board around and repeat finishing on the final end.

11. Gingerly pick up and set your braided loaves side-by-side onto a lightly-oiled (or buttered) baking sheet. You may also use parchment paper without greasing it. Now it’s time to set the loaves to rise until they are doubled in size.  Like before, when you set the ball of dough to rise, this step will take at least another hour depending upon the yeast and the temperature of your home.

As you can see in this image, the loaf in the rear of the photo looks somewhat FUNKY! That’s because I was clumsy and the baking sheet slid off the counter as I set the loaf on it. Thankfully I caught the pan and dough in mid-fall or I would’ve lost the whole loaf!

12. After your loaves have risen the second time and doubled in size, preheat the oven to 350°F degrees.  While the oven pre-heats it is time to prepare the egg-glaze.  Mix one egg yoke with a teaspoon of cold spring water and lightly brush the mixture over both loaves. Sprinkle seeds on top of loaves, or leave naked if your kids/husband/family/friends/you prefer plain bread.   Personally I love seeds of all sorts and the ones I used on this baking day were organic, raw sunflower seeds.

13. When the oven is fully pre-heated, set the baking sheet on a rack in the center of the oven. Bake times vary depending upon altitude but usually the timing is 30 – 40 minutes. As you experiment with baking your Challah on Friday’s, in preparation for the Shabbat, over time you’ll learn your oven and exactly how long it will take to make the perfect loaves. The bread should have a nice drum-type sound when you pull it from the oven and tap on the side of the loaves. The color should be a deep, golden brown.

The Saved Loaf! May look funny but still tasted good

14. Set hot loaves onto baking racks to cool.  Note that they will continue to cook on the inside for a little while. Cooling time should be at least an hour before blessing and eating.

SHABBAT SHALOM!

We had a single loaf at my friend David’s home in Carlsbad that night. The other loaf I had baked for Robin’s children.

Ha-Motzi Blessing Over Bread

Hebrew Transliteration followed by the English translation:
Barukh atah Adonai, Eloheinu, melekh ha-olam
(Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the Universe)
hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz. (Amein).
(who brings forth bread from the earth. Amen)

To watch a video clip of me blessing the candles, wine and Challah, click –> HERE

And no, I did not drink even a tiny sip of the wine….I simply touched the goblet to my lips.   That day–July 27th, 2012–marked my 15 month anniversary of sobriety. WooHoo!