Challah
חַלָּה
Water challah, pareve, enough for two loaves and the bracha.
Serves 12Hands-on 30 minTotal 4 hrPareve
Ingredients
- 1 kg Bakers' flour
- 550 ml Warm water
- 100 g Caster sugar
- 90 ml Neutral oil
- 14 g Dried yeast
- 18 g Salt
- 1 Egg, for glazing
- Seed blend for the topOtherwise: sesame and poppy seeds
Method
- 01Whisk the yeast and a spoonful of the sugar into the warm water. Leave ten minutes until it foams — if it doesn't, the yeast is dead and nothing later will fix it.
- 02Mix the flour, remaining sugar and salt. Add the yeast mixture and the oil, and bring together into a shaggy dough.
- 03Knead ten minutes by hand or six in a mixer, until it pulls away from the bowl and springs back when pressed.
- 04Cover and prove ninety minutes, until roughly doubled.
- 05Take challah with a bracha if you have the shiur — a kilo of flour is over the amount for a bracha in most opinions, but check yours.
- 06Knock back, divide, and plait. Six strands if you can; three is not a failure.
- 07Second prove, forty-five minutes, until puffy and slow to spring back.
- 08Glaze with beaten egg, scatter the seeds, and bake at 180°C for 28–32 minutes until deep brown and hollow underneath.
The bit that matters
The second prove is where most challah goes wrong. Under-proved gives you a dense loaf with a seam that splits in the oven; the dough should be visibly slack and hold a dent for a second or two.