Helen's Family Challah (parve)

Our family started making this challah recipe when my older daughter complained about the cardboard taste of the challah that we were purchasing every week for our Friday night Shabbat (Sabbath) dinners. Our whole family participated in making this delicious Challah nearly every week. I would make the dough. My husband would punch it down after the 1st rising, cover the bowl with saran wrap and put it in the refrigerator to rise overnight. The next day, my daughers would get home from school and take the dough out of the refrigerator to warm up and then would shape it into the braids and put it out to rise again. Then I would get home from work and help the girls "paint" the challah with egg wash and put it in the oven so that we would have warm, delicious challah for our dinner.
This recipe makes 2 loaves of Challah.

Preparation
I have a small kitchen so I try to not purchase fancy equipment. For this recipe I use the following equipment:

• a very large, light-weight metal bowl
• one large (plastic) sturdy, cooking spoon (not the kind that you throw away)
• a pyrex (glass) liquid measuring cup that holds 2 cups
• measuring cups and spoons
• one large baking sheet
• one pastry brush (you can use a spoon if you don't have a pastry brush)

Here are the ingredients you will need to make this recipe which makes 2 large or 3 small challot:

½ cup warm water (warmer than bath water but not hot)
Dry yeast (1 packet or 3 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon table sugar

then
another ½+ cup warm water (I use a little more than ½ cup here)
1/3 cup table sugar
¼ cup canola oil
¼ to 1/3 cup wheat germ
2 large eggs
2 level teaspoons table salt
2 dollops of honey (2 squeezes of the bottle or about 4 tablespoons)
1 cup whole wheat flour
approx. 3 cups white flour
(parve) vegetable trans-fat free Crisco or PAM canola spray or canola oil

right before baking you will need
1 egg yolk + 1 tsp water
toasted sesame seeds (optional)

So first you need to know that I do almost everything right in the bowl. That reduces the cleanup effort. I even knead the dough in the bowl. So make sure that you have a very large bowl. Mine is metal which means that it gets warm quickly when I put the dough to rise. But in the winter I will often rinse it in hot water before I start to make sure that it isn't too cold for the yeast to rise.

Next you need to not worry too much about too precise measurements -- if you are a little off with any of the ingredients it probably won't matter too much. If you make this recipe often, you can experiment with different types of flour, different amounts of oil and sugar and water to find what you like. Some people add gluten (which you can buy at some stores) to make a lighter bread. This recipe makes a bit of a denser bread - almost like a cake.

Read the whole recipe below through before starting and make sure that you have at least 3 - 4 hours available if you want to bake the bread on the same day or at least 1.5 hours available if you can wait and bake the bread the next day (it will take about 1.5 hours on the 2nd day).

Step 1
To start. Wash your hands, make sure you have the ingredients readily to hand along with the equipment. Take off your rings, watch, roll up your sleeves and make sure you are wearing an apron or old clothes (working with flour can get messy).

Then:
Put the teaspoon of sugar in the bowl. Add the warm water - the sugar should dissolve. Then sprinkle the yeast on top. Set the timer for 10 minutes and go read the newspaper.

After 10 minutes, the yeast should look foamy. If it doesn't, you may have bad yeast, or (more likely) had the water too hot or too cold. This rarely happens now-a-days but I did have a bad batch of yeast one time. If it happens to you, throw it out and start again.

Step 2
(The order that you add the following doesn't really seem to matter). Add the following to the bowl with the yeast mixture:
Add another ½ cup of warm water. I use a little bit more than ½ cup.
Add the sugar (1/3 cup)
Add the honey (2 squirts or approx 3-4 tablespoons).
Add the oil (1/4 cup )
Add the wheat germ (1/4 cup - 1/3 cup)
For each of the 2 eggs, break the egg in the glass measuring cup. If the egg has any blood in it, throw it out as it is not kosher. If the egg is blood-free, add it to the mixture.
Add the 2 teaspoons of salt (don't forget this as it stops the yeast from going out of control)
Mix the above with the spoon. The liquid mixture should be a golden brown color.

Step 3
This next part takes no more than 10 - 15 minutes (and often much less)...
Next, add the wheat flour (1 cup). Mix well with the spoon until the mixture is smooth and not too lumpy.

Add 1 cup of the white flour. Mix this well with the spoon.

Add the 2nd cup of white flour - ½ cup at a time, mixing it in after adding. Mix well. It may begin to get difficult to use the spoon - but use it as long as you can to avoid having to handle sticky dough with your hands!

Next you will add flour in small amounts (start with ½ cup, and then reduce to ¼ cup - for a couple of times - and then just sprinkle a little) , stirring the flour into the dough after each addition. At some point as you are doing this, you will no longer be able to use the spoon as the dough will be too thick. Remove the spoon and use 1 hand (you will need the other hand to add more flour) and begin to knead the dough. (fold it over and press down with the heel of your hand and repeat over and over and over again). You can knead the dough right in the bowl. Do Not Add too much flour! You will know when your dough is kneaded enough and has enough flour when it is smooth and elastic but still soft feeling. If you poke your finger into the dough about 1-2 inches and remove your finger, the hole fills in.
Getting the consistency of the dough correct is probably the most important part of the process. It should not be sticky (needs more flour) or too tough feeling (hard to manipulate).

Step 4
Next, remove the dough from the bowl and put it on a paper towel. Wash the bowl and dry it. Coat the inside of the bowl with a light layer of Crisco (using a paper towel) or spray it with PAM.

Put the dough back in the bowl and cover the bowl with a towel. Place the bowl containing the dough in a warm place to rise. (in winter I put it on top of our hot-water radiators which is perfect). Don't put it where it is too hot as it will kill the yeast. Let it rise for about 1 hour or 1.5 hours max. Set an Alarm or Timer!! If you forget about the dough, it will ferment and smell like bad wine and taste like bad wine.

After it has risen, punch it down and knead it for a minute.

Step 5
At this point you have several choices. What you affect by your decision will be the texture of the bread. The additional rising will improve the bread's texture.
1. You can let it rise again for another 30 - 60 minutes, shape it into challah braids, let it rise again for 20-30 minutes more, and then bake it.
2. You can cover the bowl with saran wrap and put it in the refrigerator to rise overnight (warning - you will need to let the dough warm up for awhile before you can work with it the next day and it will be harder to work with).
3. If you are in a hurry, you can just continue to the next step. I often do this and don't hear too many complaints about the bread.

Step 6
So after letting it rise (or not).
Lightly grease the baking sheet (use Crisco or PAM spray).

Punch it down and knead if for no more than 1 minute. Then split the dough into 2 roughly equal pieces (for 2 challahs). Then take each of those pieces and split them into 3 roughly equal pieces of dough. At the end, you will have 6 small balls of dough.

Take each ball of dough and roll it between your hands (or on a floured table) into a rope shape. Each of the 6 ropes will be approx 12-16 inches long and approx1 inch diameter. Each of the ropes should be fairly close in size and length.
Take 3 ropes and pinch them together at one end and braid them together and then pinch them together at the other end. I tuck the pinched parts under so they don't show. I usually braid the challah right on the baking sheet (so I don't have to flour and clean up my counter).

If you don't know how to braid, Below is a video from youtube that shows you how to do a simple 3-braid challah. There are also 4, 5, and 6 braid challahs. My daughters sometimes like to try these different braids but I just do the 3-braid.

After you braid the challah, place them on the baking sheet, cover with a light weight towel and put them in a warm place for 30-40 minutes. Set the alarm or timer so you don't forget about them!

Step 7
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Then, mix the egg yolk with 1 tsp of water. Using the pastry brush, "paint" the challah with the egg-wash. You can then sprinkle on some toasted sesame seeds if you like.

Place the pan in the oven for 25-35 minutes. You know when the challah is done when you lift it off the pan, tap it lightly on the bottom with your finger and it should sound a little hollow. The bottom should be golden brown (not too dark).

Enjoy!

Note: You can freeze the challah for later use (or if you have one left over). Wrap well in a plastic bag and put in the freezer. Take it out the morning you plan to use it, then before serving it, wrap it in aluminum foil and place in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes and it will taste like it was just made.