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Whole Grain Challah
Challah is a popular Jewish bread typically enjoyed on the Sabbath and other ceremonial occasions. It’s an enriched bread that is also rich in tradition and symbolism. Check out this Wikipedia page for a crash course on Challah.
My latest bread obsession involves trying to convert normally all white flour recipes to healthy and tasty whole grain versions while maintaining the light and soft texture typical of the originals. In other words, I want my cake and to feel good too. This recipe does the trick for me. Give it a try, but don’t worry if you fall off the whole wheat wagon. In the “Notes” section of the recipe below, you’ll find the easy conversion back to conventional challah.
Splitting. Likely the result of under proofing and/or braiding too tightly.
Making good challah bread is pretty easy. Even goof ups are usually more of the cosmetic than substantive variety. I’ve made all the most common goofs. Let’s get right to those “don’ts”.
Regarding the proofing time – getting it right consistently comes with practice. Nothing like repetition to get good at something.
In the video, I mentioned a YouTube braiding video I liked in particular. It seems to have disappeared. But there are scads of braiding videos on YouTube with all kinds of fun braiding styles that you can try.
Enjoy, have fun, and be easy on yourself. Our forum is here for you to ask for help, look for answers and post your comments.
Whole Grain Challah
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
To make the more common white flour version of this recipe, use high protein bread flour (same 250g) in place of the whole grain but use 80g of water instead of 108g.
In addition to the effects of room temperature, the type of yeast you use will also impact the rising times. I used Bioreal Organic Yeast in this video which acts more slowly than, say, SAF Instant Yeast or most store bought brands.
Regarding the egg wash: thepioneerwoman.com says: "An egg wash is egg (white, whole, or yolk) beaten with water, milk or cream. You can use an egg wash to seal edges together, add shine, or enhance the golden color of baked goods." It's my understanding that the higher the concentration of yolk, the darker will be the crust color. For the video, I simple beat a whole egg with a tsp or so of water. Almost anything will work. Experiment to your hearts content.
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Whole Grain Challah