My recent story on Instagram of my challah bread got quite the reaction. The normal Hebrew word for bread is "lechem" but the type of bread which is baked for Shabbat is called "challah." And let me tell you, challah is delicious!
I've only baked it twice in my life, this Yom Teruah (blog on this coming later this week) I'll attempt to do it for the third time - if loadshedding allows. If you have been following me a for a while, you'd know that I always have an external party who writes the recipes for Fit Best - because let's just say I'm not too skilled in the kitchen. Thus, if I can succeed in making challah, so can you!
Usually at a Shabbat table, there are two loaves of challah - prophetically representing the double portion which we receive when we live according to Abba's instructions.
When the Israelites travelled through the desert, Abba provided them with manna in the desert. On the 6th day of the week, there was enough manna for them to pick up a double portion. As the 7th day was the Shabbat.
This recipe is enough for two loaves and could easily serve 8-12 people as a side dish.
Ingredients:
10g Instant Yeast
1tbsp Sugar
Water to solve above
800g Cake Wheat Flour
80g Sugar
1tsp Salt
1 egg
60g Oil
300g Milk
Instructions:
Part 1:
Mix the yeast and sugar (1 tbsp) together and add a little bit of water, just enough to solve the yeast. Allow it to stand whilst you mix the other ingredients.
In a seperate big bowl: Mix the flour, sugar (80g), salt and egg together.
Add the oil and milk to the yeast mixture.
Mix it all together and knead the dough.
Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with a linen cloth for approximatley 2 hours at approximately 22 degrees. The warmer the room temperature, the quicker it will raise.
**You can also mix your dough the day before and keep it in the fridge, the colder temperatures will delay the raising period.
I prefer to mix it the night before, place it in the fridge and just take it out approximately 2 hours before we want to eat it (gives me 30min to fold and braid, 60 min to rest again and 30 min to bake - all explained in part 2 & 3).
Doing it all in one day is totally possible, it just takes a little more planning and time all concentrated on one day - which for a mamma like me is not always possible!
Part 2:
Fold down the dough and weigh it.
Split the dough in two equal parts (if you want to make 2 loaves, otherwise just skip to step 3).
Split the dough in 1/3 and 2/3 parts. Roll them into strands. The 1/3 part should be just more than half the length of the other strip.
Braid the dough.
Allow braided loaves to rest on baking tray under linen cloth for another hour.
Part 3:
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius.
Coat the bread with egg white and honey. You can also sprinkle sesame seeds, etc on top if you'd like.
Bake for 30 minutes or until baked thouroughly / golden brown, turning halfway through.
Serving suggestion:
Serve it to your loved ones as a starter or side dish with some hummus.
It's delicious hot or cold!
You can keep the left overs in an air tight container for a few days.
I'd love to see your challah creations!
Please tag us or share your photos with us when you recreate our recipes!