Time- sensitive: Forgot to add sugar to challa dough

momandteacher

Thu, Nov 04 2021, 6:15 pm

I added half cup sugar to the yeast, but I forgot to add the cup of sugar that I put in later. The challos are braided, but still raw. Anything I can do now to save them before I put into oven?

Simple1

Thu, Nov 04 2021, 6:18 pm

I think they will be edible, maybe even good. It won't be sweet challah, but more like water challah. Italian bread for example isn't sweet

Thu, Nov 04 2021, 6:19 pm

why do you need to 'save' them? it will just be less sweet than usual. you can make challa with no sugar too. I'm sure they will be delicious.

challahchallah

Thu, Nov 04 2021, 6:22 pm

They will be delicious, less sweet, and likely fluffier and lighter. Enjoy the change of pace for the week. Less sweet challah is excellent served with olive oil and vinegar if you don’t normally do that as well.

momandteacher

Thu, Nov 04 2021, 6:23 pm

Hm. Thanks a lot for replying and for your input.
I guess we'll be trying something different this week. I really like my challa very sweet, though. Do you think adding extra sugar to the egg wash (which I didn't do yet) will help at all?

challahchallah

Thu, Nov 04 2021, 6:26 pm

momandteacher wrote:

It will taste like not very sweet challah with a sweet topping, which could be good but isn’t the same as having sugar mixed in. What about serving it with honey?

SuperWify

Thu, Nov 04 2021, 6:32 pm

momandteacher wrote:

Yes definitely. It will make a nice “glaze”.

The main thing is that you added sugar to the yeast and therefore it did rise properly.

momandteacher

Thu, Nov 04 2021, 6:34 pm

SuperWify wrote:

The main thing is that you added sugar to the yeast and therefore it did rise properly.

True. They look beautiful, at least! Smile

alef12

Thu, Nov 04 2021, 7:09 pm

SuperWify wrote:

Yes definitely. It will make a nice “glaze”.

The main thing is that you added sugar to the yeast and therefore it did rise properly.

That's a misconception, yeast definitely does not need sugar to rise. Too much sugar can actually inhibit the rising unless you use a special osmotolerant yeast.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae (bread yeast) likes to eat grain. So the flour is plenty food to make it happy and bubbly and rise. If you're proofing your yeast a teaspoon or two of sugar is fine if you want to use that, though if you're making a sugar free bread some of the flour added to the water/yeast would work for that too.

Your challah will be more than fine. It won't be super sweet and cake like but will be delicious with the 1/2 cup sugar.

momandteacher

Thu, Nov 04 2021, 7:16 pm

alef12 wrote:

Thanks for info! I really appreciate all the advice!

challahchallah

Thu, Nov 04 2021, 7:27 pm

alef12 wrote:

Yes, exactly. And if you do want to use a lot of sugar in your bread, you should be using a yeast that is specially designed for high sugar content.

mamallama

Thu, Nov 04 2021, 8:17 pm

I did this once, except I didn't realize my mistake until Friday night when I took my first bite of challah. I like my challah sweet so I drizzled it with honey - delicious!