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Advise a nervous but excited Challah newbie?



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rachelbg




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Apr 19 2015, 10:13 pm
I've thought about it for years, but I'm finally ready to take the plunge and start baking challah.

I can actually braid challah really well, and am very knowledgeable about the significance of the mitzvah, but am very intimidated by the actual dough-making. I'm also kind of scared of yeast. The time (and mess) commitment makes me a little nervous, so I'm hoping for some emotional, and technical support here. I've never made challah dough by myself before, and I don't have a bread machine (and won't be buying one in the near future, I don't think.) I also don't want any children helping me with this process right now.

I'd like a recipe for a whole wheat, somewhat sweet, moist challah.

Can I make the dough in the morning and then finish the braiding/baking at night?
Can I make the dough in the morning and then do the braiding/baking a few days later?
If I want to make enough for the bracha, can I freeze the dough for other weeks, or do I bake them all at once and just freeze the ready-made loaves?

Can any of you expert Challah Ladies please help me? Any/all chizuk is helpful Smile Thank you so much in advance!
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Machel




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Apr 19 2015, 10:52 pm
Good luck! I make challah every week that I cook for shabbos and I love it. There is nothing like fresh challah. I use a mix master and I find that it doesn't make much of a mess, a couple of measuring cups and the mixer.

As you practice you will get more comfortable with the those experience. I found a recipe that I love and now I hardly need to measure anything I know what it is supposed to look like. It takes time to find your perfect recipe but once you do you will forget you were ever nervous about trying.

I have had better experiences freezing baked challahs rather than the dough, but I know lots of ppl who freeze raw challah so it can be done.

This is the recipe I use. It's not whole wheat but it is a little sweet.

http://www.food.com/recipe/fam.....90765

Good luck and have fun Smile
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zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 20 2015, 12:06 am
The first thing you should know is that you can kill the yeast by using water that's too hot. When in doubt, use cooler water. The only thing this will do is slow the yeast down a bit. The challah will still rise, but more slowly. use water that's too hot, you kill the yeast and that's the end. Even then all is not lost--you can usually rescue the dough by dissolving some more yeast in water and working it into the dough, but that can get messy, wastes time, and will require the addition of more flour to compensate for the extra water.

Next: no matter what the recipe says, ALWAYS PROOF THE YEAST. Proofing means dissolving it in a small part of the warm water, maybe a half cup to a cup, along with a teaspoon of sugar to get the yeast going. Wait 5 minutes. If there is visible foam on the surface, the yeast is alive and doing its thing. No foam, either the water is too cold (unlikely unless you used water from the fridge) or the yeast is too weak. (or you used hot water and killed the poor critters.) Wait another 5 minutes, esp. if your kitchen is cold. If still no foam, your yeast is deceased. Baruch dayan emes. Buy new before proceeding.

If you have a heavy-duty mixer, it's easy to overknead. Kneading by hand it's almost impossible to overknead but easy to underknead. If you tire, there's nothing wrong with letting the dough, and your hands, rest a few minutes before continuing.

If you cannot do the whole business at one shot, you can mix and knead, then let the dough rise in the fridge overnight or all day. You just have to have enough space in there! Cold slows the critters down but doesn't kill them--in fact, I buy yeast in bulk and store in the freezer, where it has lasted up to several years. If you refrigerate the dough, you may have to bring it back to room temp to rise till doubled in bulk--or it may have doubled in the fridge. In any event, check on it now and then lest your dough spill over the sides of the bowl and make a mess of your fridge. It takes time for the cold to penetrate to the center of the dough ball, which is rising in the meantime, and if you leave it overnight you could have a big surprise in the morning! It's fine to punch it down a bit just before going to bed or leaving the house to ensure that it doesn't grow into The Blob That Ate Detroit.

If you plan to bake days later, you must freeze the dough. If you braid before freezing you save some time because you can bake as soon as it thaws and rises again, and don't have to first thaw, then braid. OTOH freezing braided loaves takes up more space. OTOH freezing baked loaves takes up even more space.

It is generally not recommended to save up small portions of dough from which challah has not been taken just to accumulate enough to make a bracha. It's much too easy to get confused and forget to take challah at all, or to make a bracha levatalah if you did take challah before.

If you make more than you need for one week, you can freeze either the dough or the shaped loaves or the baked challot, whichever works best for you.

Below is a great recipe. "Activating" yeast is the same as "proofing"

WHOLE-WHEAT CHALLAH from http://www.aish.com/sh/r/Challah.html
* 2 oz. (60 gm.) yeast
* 1/3 cup honey
* 3 cups warm water
* 2 eggs
* 1 tsp. sugar
* 1 Tbsp. salt
* 10 cups whole-wheat flour
* poppy, caraway, or sesame seeds
* 1/3 cup oil
* 1 egg yolk

The following "sponge method" gives whole-wheat challah a lighter texture. Activate yeast in 1/2 cup water with sugar. Beat in remaining 2 1/2 cups of water, 5 cups flour, oil, honey, 2 eggs, and salt. Dough should now resemble a cake batter. Let rise 30-60 minutes. Punch down. Add the rest of the flour slowly, while kneading, until dough no longer sticks to fingers. Separate challah, if necessary. Cover with damp towel. Allow to rise again until double in size. Punch down. Shape into loaves and braid. Place in well-greased loaf pans. Beat egg yolk and brush over loaves. Pat on poppy, caraway, or sesame seeds. Let rise for 30 minutes. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees F. (175 degrees C.) for 30 minutes. Makes 4 medium challahs.

Variation: Substitute 1 cup wheat germ for 1 cup flour, and/or 1 cup soy flour for 1 cup flour.


FTR you may not need all the flour. For the lightest loaves, try to add the least quantity of flour you can get away with rather than try to force in the most flour the dough will accept. Depending on factors such as the humidity of your kitchen, the size eggs you use and the moisture content of the flour, you might get away with as little as 8 cups flour. Or not.

start out making only half the recipe. That way if the challah is inedible, you have wasted only half the ingredients; if it is a success, you are ahead of the game.
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imasinger




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 20 2015, 6:45 am
Great tips here.

I have found that if I freeze fresh baked loaves, they keep really well, and it's easier and less worry than freezing dough and having to worry about temperature and rise.

If you want whole wheat but aren't used to working with it, you may want to start with a white whole wheat flour. My standard recipe is for 1/3 white whole wheat, and 2/3 white flour. It's light enough to please all, I don't patchke with gluten, and it's got more texture than plain white flour.
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rachelbg




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 20 2015, 11:04 pm
Thanks so much Machel, Zaq, and Imasinger. I'm really clueless, and every bit helps. I don't bake at all, so I probably can't distinguish between baking with white or whole wheat; we just only eat whole wheat in our house for health reasons, but I still like a light, soft taste rather than coarse and crumbly. Should I still make a mix of the flours?

The recipe that you gave me, Zaq, sounds good, but I'm a little unsure about having an hour to spare between the adding of the flours. The time commitment is one of those things that intimidate me. Does this mean that women spend about 2 hours making challah dough (if they do it by hand?)

So it I make a big dough before I leave for work in the morning, then return to it at night after things are settled down here, I'd have a threat of overflowing?
And if I want to just save it and bake it a few days later I should for sure freeze the dough.

How do I know how much to freeze in each bag if I want to freeze them in smaller increments that I can take out and bake as big challos week by week?
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Dolly Welsh




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 20 2015, 11:09 pm
This is Reyna Simnegar making challah:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXy5ioGALOg

If you get a candy or food thermometer,it's handy, because you will know when the water is 110 degrees F which it us supposed to be. In time you will know how that should feel. You will also get the hang of microwaving water in a glass measuring cup. You will figure out how many minutes or seconds gets you the right temperature. Bothering to figure this out and make notes saves time later, when you have it all down to a science. So put in the time at the beginning.

Rayna just uses the whole five pound bag. She rises it in a clean plastic bag. This is a large stainless steel bowl:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ.....psc=1

I like a kitchen shears to cut off pieces; some people tear. Whatever.

Don't be scared of yeast. I like this stuff; I got the canister too and the spoon, and I keep it out of daylight but not in the fridge. Seems to do fine. After a year you just chuck what's left and get new. No problem.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com.....t-set

This yeast has a hechsher.

They say to use good quality water.

On a humid day you might use a tiny bit more flour.

Cleaning up, I use coarse plastic mesh from the liquor store. It is green. They give it to you to keep the bottles from rattling. Nothing else works as well; it has big holes and rinses well.

I use bread flour not whole wheat.

Some people might brush it with dilute molasses for color; I don't know.

I like parchment paper, but it should stick not up or ruffle up. It chars if it sticks up. Just a little bit of paper on the pan only. Very non-stick.

A thermometer stuck into a loaf will give you an idea of the interior temperature. It takes a little experience to get that right; your oven has hot and cold spots. Stick it in an inconspicuous spot so people don't see the hole. This one beeps:

http://eforcity.shop.rakuten.c......html

You must cool any bread, challah too, on a rack. The air must pass underneath or it will get soggy underneath. Here is one. They are common:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com.....-of-2

It takes a few passes but you will get the hang of it. Be patient and keep at it.

There are millions of wonderful bread videos and challah videos on You Tube, and maybe E How.

Somehow it's like handwriting: you figure out your own personal way.


Last edited by Dolly Welsh on Tue, Apr 21 2015, 1:31 am; edited 5 times in total
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mha3484




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 20 2015, 11:13 pm
I make this: http://www.food.com/recipe/eas.....39038

It's the easiest challah ever and it can sit in the fridge for up to 5 days. I spent years making such yucky challah until I discovered this recipe.
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oliveoil




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 20 2015, 11:29 pm
rachelbg wrote:


So it I make a big dough before I leave for work in the morning, then return to it at night after things are settled down here, I'd have a threat of overflowing?


If you want to leave the dough for that long, refrigerate it so it does a slow rise.

If it's out of the fridge, it will be over-risen and get a sour taste.

Making challah does take time, but most of it is inactive time.
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zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 21 2015, 5:10 pm
Watching dough rise is the equivalent of watching paint dry: during the rise, you are doing other things. You might even leave the house to go to the grocery store or something. I do it all by hand, am a slow worker, and it takes about 4 hours door to door, not counting letting the loaves cool and double-wrapping them to put in the freezer. True, I can't get started an hour before leaving for a trip out of town, but if I am home I set my timer and go off to do whatever I have to do in the meantime. (Well, no, in truth I usually go off to log on to imamother.)

I can save a little time off the big time block by premeasuring the yeast and sugar earlier in the week and putting in a small lidded glass jar, ditto the oil, egg and honey in a separate jar that I keep in the fridge until needed. Then all I need to do is add warm water to the yeast to proof, then dump in the wet ingredients, mix, add some flour, then salt, and let this "sponge" set for a while.

BTW never let the concentrated salt touch the yeast because that, too, will kill the critters. Many recipes call for adding the salt to the yeast together with the wet ingredients. I always add it after I have added quite a bit of the flour, and even then I sprinkle the salt on top of the flour rather than add it in a single blob. It takes an extra millisecond and adds a margin of safety. The first challah I ever made could have served double duty as ballast for a cargo ship, so I am a bit paranoid about nurturing those critters and shielding them from harm.
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Dolly Welsh




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 21 2015, 5:13 pm
Modern yeast is very reliable. Nothing to be scared of. It WORKS. If it doesn't, it's old. You just get more. It can be bought in bulk which is much cheaper. It doesn't need special storage, just to be kept quite dry. Use dry spoon. Keep from direct sunlight (what's that?).
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rosehill




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 21 2015, 5:24 pm
When I make whole wheat challah, I add wheat gluten. I don't remember why, I just know it's better with than without embarrassed

I like to freeze the dough. When I need it, I take it out of the freezer Thursday night, it rises overnight, I punch it down and shape it Friday morning, and it's ready to be baked about lunch time. It's only good in the freezer about 3 weeks. Any longer than that, and it doesn't rise well.

Alternatively, if I make the dough Thursday evening, I leave it in the fridge overnight, then do the same procedures Friday morning.

Be warned. Once your family becomes accustomed to home made challah, there's no going back Wink
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zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 21 2015, 6:09 pm
There is really nothing to be nervous about. What is the worst that can happen? It flops and you waste a few dollars' worth of ingredients. It's no different from the money you wasted on materials for the first skirt you ever made, the one that was unwearable and even Goodwill wouldn't take, or any other project you try for the first time. It's called "rebbe gelt". The best that can happen is it does not flop and you have acquired a new skill.
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