Challah With Pastry Flour

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The Greenstein's bakery standard recipe for Challah is:

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups bread flour

3 cups AP flour

1 teaspoon yeast

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup oil

2 cups water

3 eggs

This week I decided to experiment and exchange the AP flour for pastry flour.

The texture was much more crumbly but the taste was nice. I still think I prefer the AP flour.

The reason I attempted this was because I read in Gisslen's Professional Baking that bake shops don't stock AP flour but use cake, pastry and bread flours more precisely. I am now temped to think that is a bunch of hooey and AP flour is just fine.

Fresh Yeast Challah

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Marcy Goldman was right! Fresh yeast really does make challah more pillowy. I have discovered that the secret to a creamy crumb (in between bready and doughy) challah is using a good portion of all purpose flour.

"Shlisel" - "Key" Challah

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The first Challah after Passover is traditionally baked with a key inside, or in the shape of a key, and is a "Segulah" "propitious act" that helps bring livelihood. I wrapped the key in tinfoil.

Challah with Spelt and Amaranth

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This time I was awake enough to actually mix the dough after the autolyse. Autolyse 2 1/2 hours. The spelt  gave a nice sweet nutty flavor. Be sure to knead much less than you usually would though!

 The amaranth, on the other hand, had a more gritty texture than the millet. There are black and white amaranth seeds and the black seeds did not soften even after the day of soaking. The white seeds did. However, after baking, overnight they seemed to soften a good deal and the challah was much more edible. I liked it even with the funny texture! :)

The recipe I used:

3 cups AP flour

2 cups whole spelt flour

1/2 cup whole amaranth, soaked for a day in 3/4 cup water

1 1/2 cups Water

1/3 cup sugar 

2 eggs

Challah with millet

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I am going to have to get rid of all my different flours before Passover. Some of the millet spilled and I figured I would throw it into the weekly challah. I usually would let the millet soak for a whole day before using but it was thursday night already and the hour was getting late... I had to just give it a short soak.

I have been experimenting with autolyse. Lately I have been giving my challah at least an hour autolyse before retarding the dough in the fridge overnight. I use a rather wet challah dough, even though it is not the usual thing to do with challah (since you want a nice tight crumb.) This time I was so tired I could not even bring myself to knead the dough and just stuck it in the fridge in it's unmixed state. The next morning, before going to work I kneaded it and stuck it back in the fridge until I came home (3pm.)

With a combination of half soaked millet and un-mixed retardation I was truly prepared for a crunchy, tasteless challah.

What a surprise when I bit into it and it was nutty and sweet and not really crunchy, just a nice texture. A real treat. I wonder if it was the abnormal autolyse. This thursday maybe amaranth! :)

The Challah recipe I used:
5 cups flour
2 cups of more of water
1/2 cup millet
2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
tsp salt
tsp yeast

Last weeks Challah

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5 cups bread flour
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp inst. yeast
2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups water

It turned out a little dry. I am not sure why. When I realized I tried to add more water but it just made the dough soggy and I had to add more flour. I tried to add more water to no avail several times. It still had a very good taste tough.

Sourdough Challah

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 I did this by feel mostly. Here are the proportions I used:

1 1/2 cup sourdough starter
4 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tblsp walnut oil
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup Warm water


You can see the starter on top.

I left it out to rise overnight.

Shaped challas and bilkeluch then gave it a good 3 1/2 hour rise.

לכבוד שׁבת קודש!

Spelt Challah, attempt 2

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This time with egg and sugar.

Sephardic Style Challah with toasted Caraway and Anise

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Thank you BreadBasketCase for posting your version of this and inspiring me to bake this. For this bread I used sugar and eggs (it is a challah after all...) and the Anise definitely added authentic flavor.

Yum!

The real Sephardic "Challah" that was used in the middle-east is simply pita bread. As far as I know my grandfather never saw Challah until he came over from Syria to the States. However, this recipe incorporates some of the indigenous flavors and mixes them with the beautiful Ashkenazi tradition of braided Challah for the Holy Shabbat day.

Saffron Challah

ב’’ה

Based on Mark Bittman's Saffron infused Challah Recipe.

I do not think the saffron flavor really came through. There most be some way to bring it out more, maybe by sauteing the saffron or something.

I found these instructions on the web somewhere. Maybe I will try it next time...

"To bring out the flavor (safranal) in the saffron, pull, tear, crumble or cut as best you can and toast it carefully in a heated dry iron pan set over a medium heat; be careful not to burn it. It will darken, become fragrant and brittle. Now is the time to grind it in a small mortar and pestle.

Before using this ground saffron, at the end of cooking the object dish, let it soak in a Tblsp of an appropriate cool to room temperature liquid for 45-60 minutes. In truth, it would be optimal to prepare the saffron a day ahead, and let the ground saffron to soak in an appropriate liquid in the refrigerator, or at room temperature, as might be appropriate, overnight."

Spelt Challah

Spelt Challah, my new Etrog and my favorite Pinot Noir for the Holiday

Portuguese Sweet bread

BBA  (Hawaiian bread) Challah

Yedida Wolfe's cinnamon sugar Challah Recipe

Challah from Bread Baker's Apprentice