Water Challah From New Jersey’s Great Big Challah Bake
Image by Courtesy of WIZO New Jersey
A couple of the 1,400 finished products at New Jersey’s Great Big Challah Bake.
Related
Makes 2 loaves
Yeast mixture
1 and 2/3 cup warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon dry yeast
Dough
4½ cups high-gluten flour
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
2 teaspoon salt
1 egg and 1 tablespoon sugar for egg wash
1) Place yeast in a medium sized bowl with warm water and 1 tablespoon sugar. Let the yeast dissolve/bubble up for approximately 10 minutes.
2) Sift the flour directly into a large bowl (optional if flour is pre-sifted).
3) Add sugar and salt and mix.
4) Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and add the oil and proofed yeast. Knead the dough for about ten minutes until it feels smooth.
5) Pour 2 tablespoon of oil on the dough and cover with saran wrap and or damp dish towel. Allow dough to rise for 1½ to two hours in a warm place if possible or until it doubles in size.
6) Gently punch down the dough.
If you have used at least 5 pounds of flour then at this point you have an opportunity to do hafrashat challah — the ritual separation of the dough into two separate parts.
7) Knead the dough again and put on a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into even sections. Braid the dough and place on a pan or baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The loaves will rise and expand while baking so leave sufficient space between them.
8) Beat egg and 1 tsp sugar and brush over top of challahs. Add toppings (sesame seeds, poppy seeds etc.) and let challah rise again for up to an hour.
9) Preheat over to 350 degrees F and bake for around 30 minutes on center rack until the challah turns golden brown and feels hollow on the bottom remove from pan and let cool on a wire rack.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
