Heavenly Challah Recipes

THE CHALLAH LADY'S HEAVENLY CHALLAH

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast, water, and 1 tablespoon of sugar in a bowl until nice and bubbly.
• Add rest of sugar and oil.
• Add eggs and mix well.
• Pour mixture into extra-large bowl. Add sifted flour.
• Add salt.
• I do not use bread machine so these are my direction for doing it by hand:.
• Combine flour with rest of the ingredients with your extra flour close at hand as you will need it. Combine and combine by squeezing, turning the dough over and punching the dough down again and again. Add flour as needed until it feels smooth and not sticky at all. The dough should bounce back very quickly when you punch it down.( You will be kneading the dough for about 10-15 minutes). If the dough feels too dry because you added too much flour then tablespoon by tablespoon add a little oil and alternately with water if needed.
• Oil your large bowl, place your dough inside and then oil the top of the dough as well (can use an oil spray) and place your dough in a warm spot in your kitchen. Cover the dough with a wet towel (not dripping wet) and wait until it has doubled in size.
• Braid or shape into loaves.
• Let rise until the loaves double in size.
• Paint loaves with an egg-white and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds.
• Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes until the challah are golden brown and the bottoms make a hollow noise when you give a little patting to them.

HEAVENLY CHALLAH

Steps:

• Place all ingredients except the salt into a large bowl. Begin kneading. When a ball of dough is formed, add the salt. Knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes, until the douh is smooth and soft, but not sticky.
• Brush the dough and bowl with a bit of oil, cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel, and let the dough rise in a warm place for approximately 1 hout, until the dough doubles in volume.
• After the dough has risen, knead it for a few minutes. Roll pieces of dough into strands to be braided.
• To make more airy challahs, roll out each strand into strips, ca. 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) thick. Roll each strip jellyroll fashion to from a tube and use these to braid the challahs.
• Place the challahs on a baking sheet to rise. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds. COver and let rise again in a warm place for ca. 40 minutes. In the meantime, preheat oven to 350 F (180 C).
• Bake for approximately 30 minutes, until the challahs turn golden brown. Remove the challahs from the oven and from the pan and cool on a wire rack.