Thank you to Emory’s Challah for Hunger organization for introducing me to this amazing bread!
The recipe that I used is adapted from Tasty
Ingredients:
Per 2 medium challahs:
- 3/4 cup warm water (I microwaved it for 30 seconds)
- 1 (2.25 teaspoon) package active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs (1 for the bread, 1 for the egg wash)
- 2.5 tablespoons olive oil
- pinch of salt
- 3.75 cups all-purpose flour
- Handful of semi sweet chocolate chips (about 1/4 cup)
Instructions:
- Yeast activation! In a medium sized mixing bowl, mix the warm water, the packet of yeast, and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Cover with a cloth and let the yeast activate for about 10 minutes. If the mixture isn’t foamy at this point, your yeast may be dead and I would suggest replacing it and re-doing this step.
- In another medium sized bowl, add 1 egg, the rest of the sugar, oil, and salt. Once mixed and fully incorporated, gradually add 2 cups of flour, mixing continuously.
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Add the activated yeast mixture to the flour mixture and combine. Add the remaining 1.75 cups of flour and knead in the bowl.
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Lightly flour a clean surface, move the dough over, and continue kneading for ~5 minutes. The dough should not be very sticky, and if it is, add some more flour and knead again.
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Lightly grease a medium bowl and flip the dough once to make sure that the oil covers the whole dough. Cover the mixing bowl with a cloth and let it rise in a warm area for 1.5-2 hours. For the warm area, you can put it by a window if it’s sunny out. Alternatively, you can preheat the oven to 200 degrees, turn it off once it preheats, put the mixing bowl with the dough in there, and leave the oven door slightly open.
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After the dough has risen, deflate it bring it to a lightly floured surface. Knead again for ~5 minutes and reshape into a ball.
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
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Divide the dough into two equal parts, and shape each of them into a ball.
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Divide each of the two balls into 3 equal pieces and roll each piece out into a strand of equal length using your hands.
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Pinch and shape the tops of 3 strands together and braid them. Repeat for the remaining 3 strands from the second dough ball.
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Lightly grease a baking sheet and move challah over there.
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Apply the egg wash - in a small bowl, beat one egg and use a pastry brush to apply it to the top of each challah bread. You will have a lot of egg wash remaining - I made a quick omelet it to prevent waste.
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Add some chocolate chips to each of the two challah braids.
- Bake for ~25 minutes until golden brown on the outside and cooked on the inside.
- After the challah has baked, let it rest and serve.