Originally a blog dedicated to regaling my travels during my year in Israel, I have decided to revamp this blog and use it to share some of my challah recipes. I originally started baking challah last year and over the course of the past few months I have been experimenting with various ingredients in an effort to make some interesting challot.
While I tried many basic challah recipes, the one that I found that I liked the best, and that was the most easy to adapt was from Amanda at TheChallahBlog. Her basic challah recipe is the one that I use for most of the bases of my challot. The small batch basic challah that Amanda gives on her website usually makes one larger challah or two smaller challot.
A few weeks ago, I decided to adventure into the world of using fresh fruit in my challah. I had leftover bananas in my freezer so I decided to make a Banana Nut Challah. While I was skeptical about it at first, I was REALLY happy with the final product!
3/4 c. warm water
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1/3 c. brown sugar
2 eggs (plus 1 more for washing)
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 c. banana
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 c. flour (I usually use bread flour but you can also use a combination of bread and regular flour)
1/2 c. walnuts (optional)
Place the warm water (I usually let my faucet run on the hottest setting for a few seconds before taking the water), brown sugar and yeast in a bowl. Mix with a whisk or spoon until all of the yeast is dissolved. Let this mixture rise for approximately 10 minutes, or until you see little eruptions. Add in eggs and vegetable and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Then add in the banana (I mashed mine before I added it but you can also mash it after you add it to the mixture), vanilla and cinnamon and mix thoroughly. While you are doing this warm your oven (I usually turn my to about 300F). Once the oven has reached this temperature, turn it off but leave the oven door closed so that most of the heat is retained. Slowly add in the flour and walnuts. Depending on the size of the bananas that are used, the amount of flour might need to be increased or decreased. Mix in thoroughly until the dough is no longer sticking to your hands (or the mixer). Once you have mixed everything together make the dough into a ball and place into an oven safe bowl. Place your bowl, covered with a dry towel, into a warmed oven for about an hour and a half, or until you see that it has risen significantly.
Take the dough out of the oven and punch it down a few times. You may find that during this process you need to add in a little bit of extra flour. Decide how you would like to braid your challah (I usually do either 3 or 4 strands, but are countless ways to braid challot) and divide the dough accordingly. Once you have braided your challah, place it onto a greased baking pan and allow to rise again for about 30 min. I usually do this in a pre-warmed oven, but this can also be done at room temperature. After the challah has risen, use one beaten egg to coat the challah with an egg wash. After this is done sprinkle some brown sugar, and any walnuts that you may have left over on top. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes. If it looks like the top of your challah is darkening too quickly, place some foil over it and continue to bake. Remove from oven and let cool before serving!
