challah

It is a new year.  To welcome in the year, I thought I'd share a recipe for challah.   I am thinking, perhaps of sharing recipes and food pictures here throughout the year. I would like to write on my blog more often, but it takes nearly a week to complete each soft sculpture and the in-between stuff is really not so exciting.  I have been thinking, though, about other areas of my creative life I could discuss here.  Cooking is a huge part of my everyday.  I make a complete dinner every evening, from scratch, and Charlie and I look forward to sitting down to eat together at the end of our busy days.  And I often  bake bread and cakes and cookies.  Now that I have a nice new camera I think I will try to photograph parts of some of these meals and special dishes, discuss them here, and share the recipes, too.  Maybe you will like making them as much as I do.  Of course my blog will primarily remain what it has been four nearly four (!) years – a journal of my soft sculpture making, with a bit about my life as as mom. But now it will include food making, too, and I hope you will enjoy it.

So, challah.  Challah is a Jewish ritual bread that is eaten traditionally every Shabbat and also on special holidays like Rosh Hashanah.  My grandfather, Sidney Mensh (for whom Stella is named), was a cook in the Navy during WWII and he came away from that experience with a love for baking bread.  He made a giant amazing challah for my Bat Mitzvah that I will never forget. 

Several years ago I went to a talk with Joan Nathan, the famous Jewish cookbook author.  She strongly encouraged all of the audience members to consider baking their own challah at home, every Friday, with their children.  I have not yet been able to bake challah weekly, but I do make it occasionally and I'm always glad I did.  Challah is sweet and eggy and is delicious eaten plain, with butter or jam, or the next morning as French Toast. 

I tried a new recipe today.

It makes a very nice loaf.  The house smelled delicious as it baked this afternoon. We will have a yummy breakfast tomorrow morning.

Challah adapted from the King Arthur's Flour Baker's Companion

Sponge
1 c all-purpose flour
1 c water
2 tsp instant yeast

Dough
3 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp salt
1/3 c sugar
1/4 c vegetable oil
2 large eggs plus 1 yold (save the white for the wash)

Wash
1 egg white
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbl. water

Make the sponge:  Mix flour, water, and yeast together in a large bowl and let sit for 45 min.

Make the dough:  Add the dough ingredients to the starter and mix and knead together for about 10 min. until the dough is satiny smooth.  Place the dough in an oiled bowl, turn to coat, cover with plastic wrap and then a dish towel and let rise for 1 1/2 hours until doubled.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Divide into three pieces and roll each piece into a log.  Braid.   Lift challah onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Make wash:  In a small bowl mix wash ingredients and brush onto loaf.  

Let rise again for 45 min.

Preheat oven to 375.  Brush loaf again.  Bake 35-40 min. Remove from oven and cool completely.  Slice and enjoy.