Tag: challah

Honey Challah with assorted Toppings

Of course I had wanted to get this post up before Rosh Hashanah, but it wasn’t meant to be. Still, most people continue to eat sweet round challah until after Succos, so I’m sure this recipe will prove useful (and there’s always next year!).

My sister-in-law Ruti used to make challah each and every Shabbos. She was always looking for new recipes, so I bought her Tamar Ansh’s challah book. After trying many different recipes, she came up with her own variation and my adapted version has been my go-to recipe ever since! I truly believe that delicious challah is a result of the love you put into it. If you just dump the ingredients into a bowl and mix it, the challa with turn out dense and heavy. For soft and fluffy challa, you need to take the care to sift the flour and knead the dough. I don’t have a bread machine, so I make my challah by hand. For me, it’s a labor of love. I’m happy to share Ruti’s recipe with you, but keep in mind that your altitude, humidity, and other factors all affect the dough.

Personally, when it comes to challah, I want to taste purely the bread. I don’t mind something sprinkled over the top, but I don’t play around with the dough. However, if you’d like to experiment, here are some filling ideas to mix into the dough before braiding:

– craisins and orange zest
– garlic and rosemary or sage
– raw or caramelized onions & poppy seeds
– fresh fruit (apples, blueberries, strawberries)
– dried fruit (apricots, figs)
– raisins and nuts
– chocolate chips
– olives
– oats

Toppings:

– honey (see below)
– maple syrup (see below)
– sprinkles or nonpareils
– brown sugar
– cinnamon-sugar
– sweet crumbs (see recipe below)
– za’atar
– sesame seeds
– poppy seeds
– minced onion flakes
– minced garlic flakes
– “everything” (my favorite!) : sesame seeds, poppy seeds, minced onion, minced garlic, coarse salt

Honey Challah with assorted toppings
adapted from my sister-in-law, Ruti Apfelbaum

Yield: 6 large or 8 medium challahs

4 packets (or 3 tbsp) rapid rise yeast (see note)
2 tbsp sugar
4 cups lukewarm water, divided
1 1/2 cups honey
2 tbsp salt
1 1/4 c + 2 tbsp canola oil
1 egg
5 lbs. high gluten or bread flour, sifted
1 egg + 1 egg yolk, beaten, for eggwash
toppings of choice (see options above and recipes below)

Method:

Add the yeast, sugar and 1 cup lukewarm water to a bowl and rest for a few minutes until the yeast starts to bloom. Add the honey, salt, 1 1/4 c oil and egg and mix to incorporate. Stir in 3 cups of lukewarm water.

Add half of the flour and mix with a spoon until creamy. Add almost all of the rest of the flour (leaving over 1/2 cup or so) and knead with your hands until your dough is smooth and elastic, adding more flour as needed, until the dough is no longer sticky.

When you are done kneading, grease the dough with remaining oil and cover it with a towel. Put it in a warm place (I like to put my oven on 200 degrees and put it on top of the oven). Leave the dough to rise for 1 1/2-2 hours. Pound it down, take challa for hafrashas challah, and braid. When you are done shaping the loaves, leave them to rise for 30 minutes. Brush with egg and topping of your choice. Bake at 350 until golden brown, about 35 minutes. (check the bottoms of the challahs, they should be browned and hollow when you tap on them).

NOTES: the yeast come in envelopes of 3, use 1 3-pack plus a fourth packet from another 3-pack.\
to halve the recipe, simply divide all the ingredients in half besides the egg and use 1 full egg in the recipe.

ALLERGY NOTE: I have prepared this recipe without any eggs, and it works great!

Sweet Crumb Topping:

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 – 1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch sea salt

Mix with a spoon until crumbly and sprinkle over challah.

Honey or Maple Syrup Glaze:

You can mix some honey or syrup in with the egg wash and brush over challah. For more of a sticky glaze, eggwash the challah as usual and bake. As soon as the challah comes out of oven, brush liberally with honey or maple syrup (you can warm it on the stovetop or microwave it to make it easier to spread). You’ll have a sweet and sticky glaze.

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10 Things to do with Leftover Challa!


So many of us are stuck with leftover challa each week, wondering what to do with it.

You can:

1. Guiltily throw it away (and think about how they would give anything for a morsel of bread during the holocaust!)
2. Feed it to the birds (whenever I do this with my kids, they start feeding themselves the challa, instead of the birds!)
3. Make French Toast on Sunday morning.
4. Use it for Sunday lunch sandwiches.
5. Save it for bread pudding/challa kugel for later in the week.
6. Make stuffing for your leftover Shabbos chicken (I love to repurpose leftovers!)
7. Make garlic bread.
8. Make home-made croutons.
9. Make home-made bread crumbs.
10. Stuff it in your freezer, only to pull it out Erev Pesach and burn it with the chometz.

This week, I really wanted to make bread crumbs with my leftover Ezekiel English Muffin. Going into summer with lots of pregnancy weight left to lose, I’m trying to watch my carbs. I absolutely love Ezekiel bread because it is low in carbs (only 35 on the GI index), it’s completely flourless and made of 100% organic sprouted whole grain making it a complete protein. You can read more about it here. I especially love the muffins because I can use them as burger buns, challa rolls, and in place of bagels. I usually take two rolls out of the freezer before shabbos, one for the Friday night meal, and one for Shabbos day. This week, I took out an extra one, and decided to use it to make healthy bread crumbs to use in meatballs and other recipes.

Making breadcrumbs is fairly easy. You’ll need day-old bread (I prefer not to use stale bread, because you’ll be left with stale bread crumbs), which has been left out to dry, or toasted at 300 degrees for 10-15 minutes (turning over in the middle). Once the bread has been dried and cooled, simply tear it into pieces and blend in the food processor until crumbly (but not too fine). If you wish, you may add oregano, basil, garlic powder and salt for seasoned bread crumbs.

Cool bread crumbs completely and store in an airtight container or freezer bag, date, and freeze. Lasts approximately 3 months.

You can find Ezekiel bread in the freezer section of many supermarkets and most health food stores.

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Perfect Pareve French Toast

If you oftentimes have leftover challah, as I do, I’m sure you couldn’t think of a better way to use it then for delicious french toast smothered in maple syrup (ok, maybe for some bread pudding with some raisins and rum!). Now since I’ve got a child who’s severely allergic to dairy, I have to come up with ways to substitute for the real thing. In this recipe, almond milk does a great job. It’s rich, sweet, and flavorful. And between the eggs and the almonds, it helps add some protein to what feels like a loaded carbohydrate meal (talk about deguiltifying comfort food!). So go ahead, whip up a batch for breakfast, brunch, or even dinner (as I did!)

Of course, if you’re able, go all out and use the real thing with whole milk and fry in good old butter!

Perfect Pareve French Toast

4 eggs
1 cup vanilla almond milk (or 1 cup almond milk + 1/4 tsp vanilla)
1 tsp sugar
pinch of salt
1 egg challa
canola oil, for frying
maple syrup or sugar, for serving
assorted berries, for serving

Method:

Slice your challah into 1/2 – 1 inch pieces (depending on how you like it). Whisk together eggs, milk, sugar and salt. Dip challah into egg mixture on both sides, making sure to fully saturate the challah (you can soak it in the mixture for a minute or so). Cook the challah in an oiled skillet on medium heat until golden on both sides (about 2 minutes per side). Serve with syrup or sugar and berries or fruit of your choice.

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