May 9, 2013
While many people call summer “bathing suit season,” here at Challah for Hunger, we like to think of it as “bread season.” After all, when you don’t “knead” to do homework, why not “loaf” around in the kitchen? Just follow this recipe step by step and we (can almost) guarentee your buns will be as cute as ours! Here is the base recipe, from which we create all our original flavors each week. Sorry to say we’re still keeping the variation details secret, because, let’s be real, we have to keep some tricks up our oven mitts. Happy baking, till we meet again!
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, who adapted from Joan Nathan
Yield: 12 small loaves
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon + 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup olive or vegetable oil, plus more for greasing the bowl
5 large eggs
1 tablespoon salt
7 to 8 cups all-purpose flour
In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in 1 3/4 cups lukewarm water.
Whisk oil into yeast, then beat in 4 eggs, one at a time, with remaining sugar and salt. Gradually add flour. When dough holds together—generally after the fourth cup of flour—it is ready for kneading.
Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. (We knead in the bowl, but do what works for you.) Clean out bowl and grease it with oil, then return dough to bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, until almost doubled in size.
Punch down the dough and refrigerate for at least two and up to 24 hours.
Divide the dough into 12 equally sized blobs. Take one blob, divide in half, and roll/pinch each half until it is a strand six or so inches long. (If you want to fill your challah with add-ins like chocolate chips or nuts, create a divot down the center of the strand, press in your add-ins, and then pinch the strands closed.) Criss-cross the two strands so they’re twisted up like a cheese straw, then coil this “braid” into a circle like a shell, tucking the end underneath. Repeat with remaining blobs.
Beat remaining egg and brush it on loaves.
If baking immediately, preheat oven to 375 degrees and brush loaves again.
Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet, in middle of oven, for about 25 minutes, or until golden.
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