Garlic Rosemary Challah Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is my challah so hard? ›

If your dough is STILL too hard: This can happen if you used too much flour by accident or if you are using whole wheat flour that has a higher bran content.

Amount of flour: The key to a soft loaf that isn't dense is to use as little flour as possible.

The process involves two long room temperature rises: the first, 8-10 hours and the second, 4-5 hours. I suggest kneading the dough Thursday evening, letting it rise overnight, then forming the loaves Friday morning. With this timing, you are ready to break the challah around 12/1PM on Friday.

Challah is soft and full of flavour. It's a bit like brioche, but made with oil, not butter, so is basically your dream white bread, especially if you don't do dairy. It makes the most incredible french toast.

Usually if it overrose just a bit, say, for an hour extra in a cold kitchen, it doesnt really matter. You simply punch it back down and go on to the shaping. However, if the dough is left out for a long time, unrefrigerated, it can spoil, especially in the summertime.

If using a stand mixer, knead the dough until all of the ingredients are combined and the dough is no longer sticking to the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes. If making this by hand, knead the dough for 7 to 10 minutes until smooth and elastic, adding a sprinkling more flour if needed.

Potato Flakes or Potato Water

Starch helps the dough by trapping the gas from the yeast in the dough and makes the bubbles stronger. This helps the bread to rise and be lighter and fluffier. If you are boiling potatoes, you can use the unsalted water in place of the water in your bread recipe to help out the yeast.

I always use bread flour (at least 13% protein) to bake Challah. Because it's an enriched dough, it needs the added gluten to create a strong structure.

If baking immediately, preheat oven to 375 degrees and brush loaves again. If freezing, remove from freezer 5 hours before baking. Then dip your index finger in the egg wash, then into poppy or sesame seeds and then onto a mound of bread. Continue until bread is decorated with seeds.

Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-24 hours. When you are ready to bake, remove the loaves from the refrigerator and let them begin to come to room temperature while heating the oven to 365F.

How many cups of flour do you need to take challah? ›

If the dough contains at least 1.666 kilo (a little more than 7 cups) of flour, one should take challah with a blessing. If the amount of flour in the dough is more than 1.2 kilo but less than 1.666 (5-7 cups), challah should be taken without a blessing.

Place the loaf in the oven and bake. After 35 minutes of baking, check the internal temperature of the loaf with your Thermapen ONE. If the lowest temp you see is 195–200°F (91–93°C), the bread is done. Let the bread cool before slicing, then serve and enjoy!

Jewish bakeries use oil so the challah can be eaten with a dairy or meat meal, but we use butter because it tastes so much better. To make a traditional loaf, you can substitute a neutral vegetable oil like canola, corn or sunflower oil.

On the eve of Shabbat, two loaves are placed on the table to reference the Jewish teaching that a double portion of manna fell from heaven on Friday to last through the Saturday Shabbat.

In halachic terms, challah is a mitzvah in the Torah to separate a portion of dough from the baker's batch. Any dough meeting the requirements for hafrashat challah , taking challah, must have this portion removed, or the bread baked from this dough is not considered kosher.

Too much flour, or not the right kind, could be to blame. Dough made only from flour with a high or even average amount of protein (like bread flour or all-purpose flour) can become tough from overmixing. Protein gives bread structure in the form of gluten—the more you mix and move the dough, the more gluten you get.

If your dough is slightly hard and not dry, you can try to soften it by kneading the dough between your fingers or rolling it between your hands (clean of course, to avoid mixing dust or dirt with the dough).

But over time, the starches undergo what is called retrogradation, meaning the starch granules give back some of their water, as it works its way to the surface of the loaf and evaporates. As this happens, the starches partially revert to their crystalline structure, which causes the bread to become hard and brittle.

If this is what's happening, it could be that your challahs have simply not been inside the oven long enough. If so, increase your baking time by another 5 minutes for your challahs. Don't worry if the tops get browner, that's fine. 3.