Heavenly Challah Recipes

Steps:

• In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in 1 cup warm water. Separate two eggs; refrigerate two egg whites. Place remaining egg yolks and eggs in a large bowl. Add 2/3 cup honey, oil, salt, yeast mixture, 3 cups flour and remaining warm water; beat on medium speed 3 minutes. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (dough will be sticky)., Pour boiling water over raisins in a small bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Drain and pat dry. Turn dough onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes. Knead in raisins. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled, about 1-1/2 hours., Punch down dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Divide one portion into six pieces. Roll each into a 16-in. rope. Place ropes parallel on a greased baking sheet; pinch ropes together at the top. , To braid, take the rope on the right and carry it over the two ropes beside it, then slip it under the middle rope and carry it over the last two ropes. Lay the rope down parallel to the other ropes; it is now on the far left side. Repeat these steps until you reach the end. As the braid moves to the left, you can pick up the loaf and re-center it on your work surface as needed. Pinch ends to seal and tuck under. For a fuller loaf, using your hands, push the ends of the loaf closer together. Repeat process with remaining dough. Cover with kitchen towels; let rise in a warm place until almost doubled, about 30 minutes., Preheat oven to 350°. In a small bowl, whisk remaining egg whites and honey with water; brush over loaves. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and bread sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from pans to a wire rack to cool.

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast, water, and 1 tablespoon of sugar in a bowl until nice and bubbly.
• Add rest of sugar and oil.
• Add eggs and mix well.
• Pour mixture into extra-large bowl. Add sifted flour.
• Add salt.
• I do not use bread machine so these are my direction for doing it by hand:.
• Combine flour with rest of the ingredients with your extra flour close at hand as you will need it. Combine and combine by squeezing, turning the dough over and punching the dough down again and again. Add flour as needed until it feels smooth and not sticky at all. The dough should bounce back very quickly when you punch it down.( You will be kneading the dough for about 10-15 minutes). If the dough feels too dry because you added too much flour then tablespoon by tablespoon add a little oil and alternately with water if needed.
• Oil your large bowl, place your dough inside and then oil the top of the dough as well (can use an oil spray) and place your dough in a warm spot in your kitchen. Cover the dough with a wet towel (not dripping wet) and wait until it has doubled in size.
• Braid or shape into loaves.
• Let rise until the loaves double in size.
• Paint loaves with an egg-white and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds.
• Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes until the challah are golden brown and the bottoms make a hollow noise when you give a little patting to them.

Steps:

• 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, it is ready for kneading. (You can also use a mixer with a dough hook for both mixing and kneading.)
• Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Clean out bowl and grease it, then return dough to bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, until almost doubled in size. Dough may also rise in an oven that has been warmed to 150 degrees then turned off. Punch down dough, cover and let rise again in a warm place for another half-hour.
• To make a 6-braid challah, either straight or circular, take half the dough and form it into 6 balls. With your hands, roll each ball into a strand about 12 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. Place the 6 in a row, parallel to one another. Pinch the tops of the strands together. Move the outside right strand over 2 strands. Then take the second strand from the left and move it to the far right. Take the outside left strand and move it over 2. Move second strand from the right over to the far left. Start over with the outside right strand. Continue this until all strands are braided. For a straight loaf, tuck ends underneath. For a circular loaf, twist into a circle, pinching ends together. Make a second loaf the same way. Place braided loaves on a greased cookie sheet with at least 2 inches in between.
• Beat remaining egg and brush it on loaves. Either freeze breads or let rise another hour.
• If baking immediately, preheat oven to 375 degrees and brush loaves again. If freezing, remove from freezer 5 hours before baking. Then dip your index finger in the egg wash, then into poppy or sesame seeds and then onto a mound of bread. Continue until bread is decorated with seeds.
• Bake in middle of oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden. Cool loaves on a rack.

Steps:

• Place all ingredients except the salt into a large bowl. Begin kneading. When a ball of dough is formed, add the salt. Knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes, until the douh is smooth and soft, but not sticky.
• Brush the dough and bowl with a bit of oil, cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel, and let the dough rise in a warm place for approximately 1 hout, until the dough doubles in volume.
• After the dough has risen, knead it for a few minutes. Roll pieces of dough into strands to be braided.
• To make more airy challahs, roll out each strand into strips, ca. 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) thick. Roll each strip jellyroll fashion to from a tube and use these to braid the challahs.
• Place the challahs on a baking sheet to rise. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds. COver and let rise again in a warm place for ca. 40 minutes. In the meantime, preheat oven to 350 F (180 C).
• Bake for approximately 30 minutes, until the challahs turn golden brown. Remove the challahs from the oven and from the pan and cool on a wire rack.