How To Make the Perfect Challah (Parve)

FIRST THE SPIRITUAL SYMBOLS OF CHALLAH, THEN THE BAKING!

Challah represents the idea of taking something physical and elevating it to the spiritual. Not only are we providing physical nourishment to those who eat our challah, but they are also being nourished spiritually with the thoughts and blessings that we conjure up while we are making our challah.

Here are the process and emotional support to help you make your own perfect challah, with lots of photos (and encouragement)...

Before you start: always pre-measured ingredients. When you have all the ingredients set out before you, observe them and realize that your goal is to elevate both your body (guf) and neshama (soul) and those of your family and friends who will be partaking of your Challah!

There are 8 ingredients in challah, each with its own spiritual meaning. Flour, water, yeast, oil, eggs, salt, sugar, and your particular soul. (Link here to the post on spiritual concepts in Challah) for instructions to help you connect to your creator, yourself, your tribe, and your world.

Take a deep breath and focus your mind and heart towards what you want to pray for: what changes you want to make in yourself, in the Jewish nation, and the world, and what elements and qualities will be required to institute these changes.

(Adapted from Rebbetzin Dena Rivkah Hundert’s Challah recipe through Rachel Aviner, also contributions by Yiskah Fantl and edited with additions by Rabanit K. Sarah Cohen).

In this article we will talk about:

An overview of the Challah prep and baking process
Mixing the Challah dough
A note on separating Challah and the blessing
Dough rising and shaping
Proofing and baking

An Overview on the Challah Baking Process

Some of the joys and comforts of bread baking are the tactile pleasures, of the touch of the smooth dough, the fragrance of the yeast and the bread baking, the sound of the crackly crust, and of course the taste! But ever miraculous, the way bread unfolds in time. Here's a walk-through of the prep and baking process:

Mixing challah dough - This is when you pull out all your ingredients, wake up the yeast in some warm, sugary water, mix everything together, and knead it into a smooth, supple dough, by machine or by hand.
Taking Challah - This is when you'll do the mitzvah of “taking challah” or hafrashat (separating) challah. if you are making a large enough quantity of dough to qualify (more on that below).
Rising the dough - Leave your finished dough to rise in volume, about 2 hours.
Shaping the dough - This is the fun part when you get to divide up your risen dough, roll snakes, and braid (plait) them into the characteristic braid that says, "challah!"
Proofing and baking - While you heat up the oven, you leave the shaped loaves to rise just a little longer, about half an hour, before brushing with egg wash and baking for about 35 minutes.

MIXING CHALLAH DOUGH

Mixing the dough takes about ten minutes using a stand mixer. Thursday afternoon or late Friday morning work well for my schedule. Depending on how much flour you use and the weather, your rise time should be between 2 and 5 hours.

A kitchen scale is a great tool for baking in general. Use one for challah baking so you don't have to measure out cups of flour, baking is always more accurate by weight.

Give the dough a glance every few minutes as you're mixing it. You want to see it begin to pull away from the sides of the bowl and form a lump around the dough hook. If it's still sitting in a puddle near the bottom of the mixing bowl, add a bit more flour, ¼ cup at a time. If the dough hasn't come together, add water, one tablespoon at a time. How much water or flour it'll need will vary from day to day and depends on things like the humidity in your kitchen and the ambient temperature. Just keep poking at it to check when it becomes soft but not tacky.

What if you don’t have a stand mixer or bread maker? Making challah without machinery is absolutely doable. Just mix the dough with a wooden spoon or spatula until it begins to hold together. Then, in a large bowl or a floured work surface, turn and knead the dough by hand until it is supple and smooth. It takes about 7 to 10 minutes and it won't be as smooth as machine-kneaded dough, but it will be fabulously delicious.

Once the dough is more smooth than craggy, balled up and climbing your dough hook, doesn't stick to your finger when you poke it, and holds an indentation, you're ready to remove a piece for the blessing the size of a golf ball 1.33 fl. oz. (40 ml) then let the remainder rise.

A NOTE ON TAKING CHALLAH

Many challah recipes don't use enough flour for the mitzvah of hafrashat challah (about 2.6 lbs). That is, separating a small amount of the dough and burning it, in deference to the korban (offering) once brought to the Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple Jerusalem).

See the below explanation as there are various opinions on how much flour you need in your recipe in order to take challah with a bracha (saying the blessing--for sure with just under 5 lbs) or not, so consult your family Rabbi if needed.

Summary:

Remove and wrap in foil a golf ball-sized amount of dough if you used at least 8 ⅔ cups of flour or 2.6 lbs. For this amount of flour, which is way under the 3.76 minimum or 5lbs that everyone agrees upon that requires a blessing...you remove, wrap in foil, then burn the dough in a separate oven.
Remove and wrap in foil a golf ball-sized amount of dough and say the blessing for sure for a 5 lb. bag of flour minus 1C (4.95 lbs).

*For a further explanation of the origins of hafrashat challah click here

LET THE CHALLAH DOUGH RISE

Make sure to cover your dough tightly when you let it rise, using either plastic wrap, beeswax wrap, or a silicone lid if you've got one. This prevents dry skin from forming on the rising dough.

In my experience, a kitchen towel doesn't do the trick. I recommend leaving the dough to rise inside your (turned-off) oven. Take it from my experience: even a very low oven heat will “bake” the rising dough prematurely. On really cold days, turn the oven to 200F (100C) to preheat.

Then turn it off and open the oven. Wait until you can touch the rack then place the dough into the warm oven to rise. Just don't forget to take out the rising bowl before preheating the oven again!

Because it's an enriched dough with added eggs, oil, and sugar, your challah dough isn't going to rise as fast and tall as a plain, unenriched loaf. You want it to look noticeably expanded and puffed up, but don't take the doubling thing too literally. If you've let it do its thing for a few hours, you're probably good and ready to shape.

BASIC SHAPING: THE THREE-STRAND BRAID CHALLAH

My favorite braid to make is a 4-strand, which is super simple when you pull each rope out into a different direction. I also still enjoy making an easy 3-strand challah. I first divide my big lump of dough in half using a bench scraper—or any sharp knife will do.

Then, I cut each half into three or 4 roughly equal parts. You can, instead, divide the dough into quarters and then further subdivide each of those into thirds, to make smaller mini-loaves which are great gifts as well ( and if you want to have two whole loaves for each meal).

Some people like to start the braid in the middle for more uniformity. I start by rolling the ends of the challah ropes narrower than the middle to give my finished loaves a dome shape.

Then I pinch the three or 4 strands at the top and braid down from there. You'll bring the strand on the right over the center strand, then the strand on the leftover the central strand, then repeat. Finally, tuck the ends under the loaf when you transfer them to the baking sheet.

PROOFING AND BAKING THE BRAIDED LOAVES

After braiding the loaves, let them rise under a clean kitchen towel for another 20-30 minutes while you preheat the oven. Before putting the challahs in the oven, use a pastry brush to lightly brush some beaten egg over the braided loaves for that mahogany shiny finish. You can also sprinkle them with sesame or poppy seeds at this point if you like.

At 350°F / 180°C, my challahs take about 35 minutes to bake. Experience will teach you if they need a few more minutes or less, but generally, you want the egg wash to be golden and for the loaves to feel solid. If you insert an instant-read thermometer into the thickest part of your challah: you're looking for a temperature of around 200°F / 90°C.

The Perfect Challah (Parve)

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes Resting time 2 hours

Total Time 3 hours 5 minutes

Servings 2 large challahs or 4 "mini-sized" loaves

Equipment Stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment (see notes at the very bottom for hand kneading)

Ingredients

5 cups all-purpose flour - 800g - plus more as needed
1 ¼ cup warm water - 300ml - plus more as needed
¼ cup granulated sugar or honey - 50g sugar / 60ml honey
2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast* - 70g (1 packet)
3 eggs
⅓ cup neutral-flavored oil - 80ml
1 ½ Tbsp kosher salt - 25g

Instructions

Activate the yeast:

To the bowl of your stand mixer (or a large mixing bowl), add the sugar or honey. Add 1¼ cup warm water to the measuring cup - warm, meaning it's comfortable to touch with your finger. (You can use either hot tap water, or mix ½ cup boiled water with ¾ cup cold tap water.)
Stir to combine the sugar and water (the sugar won't dissolve entirely). Add the yeast to the bowl and stir again.
Set aside for 5 minutes to allow the yeast to get foamy.

Mix the dough:

Directly on top of the foamy yeast, add the 5 cups of flour. Fit the bowl onto the stand mixer with the dough hook and set it on "stir" (the lowest setting).
With the mixer running on low, tip in the eggs, oil, and salt. Continue mixing until the ingredients are well combined.
Once the dough has started coming together, turn up the speed to 2 and let the machine knead the dough for 10 minutes. Check every few minutes to see if the dough is too wet (like a cake batter) or too dry (crumbly or thumping loudly around the bowl). The consistency of the dough will change significantly as the machine kneads it.
If the dough is too wet, add more flour to the mixer bowl, ¼ cup at a time. If the dough is too dry, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time (it doesn't need to be warm).

Leave the dough to rise:

When the dough is supple but not sticky and holds the indentation of your finger when you poke it, it is ready to proof (rise). Cover tightly with cling/beeswax wrap or a bowl lid and leave in a warm part of your kitchen, such as the inside of your (turned-off) oven.
The dough will rise slowly but should be puffed and noticeably bigger after about 2 hours rise time, up to about 5 hours.

Shape and proof:

Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C. Line one light-colored baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat.
Turn out the proofed dough onto a lightly floured surface. Using a bench scraper or a sharp knife, divide the dough in half (for two loaves; for kiddush-sized, see note below).
Set aside the half you're not working on, then further subdivide the portion in front of you. For a three-strand loaf, cut it into three roughly equal pieces using the bench scraper or knife.
Roll each of the three lumps of dough into a rope about 1" / 2.5cm thick and 12" / 30cm long, thicker in the middle, and tapered at the ends.
Lay the three ropes side by side, then bring the tapered ends together and press firmly to join.
Braid (plait) the rope by bringing the right-hand strand over the middle - the rightmost strand has now become the new middle strand. Next, bring the left-hand strand over this new middle strand. Repeat until you get to the end of the braid.
Join the ends of the strands together at the bottom and tuck firmly under. Transfer loaves onto the prepared baking sheet, cover with a clean kitchen towel and leave to proof (rise into its final shape) for half an hour or so.

Bake the challahs:

In a small bowl, lightly beat an egg with a teaspoon of water with a fork. Carefully brush the egg wash all over the challah. Sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds, if desired.
Bake the challah for about 35 minutes, until deep golden and well risen.

Notes * You can also use instant yeast in this recipe (but not rapid rise or fast-acting).

Taking challah: This recipe does not make enough dough to do hafrashat challah (the mitzvah of separating a piece of dough and burning it). Opinions vary about the required amount, so consult your local authority; if you double the recipe, you will have used enough flour to take challah but may or may not have used enough to require a bracha.

To make mini loaves: Divide the risen dough into four parts rather than two, then further subdivide each portion into three. Braid and bake for 25 minutes or so, until golden and puffed. This will make four small challahs: two whole ones for Shabbat dinner and two for Shabbat lunch. If you want two for each meal (six total), you'll need to double the recipe.

Making challah without a stand mixer: It's absolutely doable to knead challah dough without a stand mixer (I did for the first few years!). Mix the dough with a wooden spoon or spatula until it begins to hold together. Then, in a large bowl or a floured work surface, turn and knead the dough by hand until it is supple and smooth. It takes about 7 to 10 minutes and it won't be as smooth as machine-kneaded dough, but it will be plenty festive and delicious. (adapted from www.24six.net)