Challahs

So how did I get into baking Challah? In a word, COVID. Lockdown & being classified as vulnerable meant no trips to the Deli for Challah. So, bake it or do without.

In my mind, I thought “how hard can this be”? After all I make cinnamon buns and they are a yeast dough, easy peasy. How wrong I was! I scoured the internet for recipes, so many to choose from, all promising perfect results. I never found it quite that easy, my first attempt tasted alright but was as flat as a pancake. Never one to give up easily, I kept trying, I adjusted recipes, watched tutorials & joined a Facebook group “Challah baking for Dummies”. Sadly, the flat challah’s continued.

Then a cheating breakthrough, or so I thought. On eBay I came across a silicone challah mould. Perfect, I bought it, used it once and hated it. It didn’t really look much like challah and was tiny. Then hubby found what looked like a much better challah mould. This one came from the USA and took a month to arrive. I kept baking & gradually improving my challah, by the time the ridiculously expensive mould arrived, I had a break though, not perfect but at least not flat challah. The mould has been languishing unused in a cupboard since it arrived.

By the time we were having physical services, my challah had improved considerably, I never went back to buying challah again. Now my challah baking is a regular pastime. I came across something called the Tangzhong method of challah baking, I was worried to try changing what was working and popular with the community. Eventually, I decided to give it a try. Tangzhongmakes the dough harder to work with but, in my opinion gives a much nicer texture. Now I use Tanzhong all the time.

Constantly making challah dough is tough on a domestic stand mixer & it killed my trusty Kenwood. Enter a semi-professional Ankarsrum stand mixer. Now I can make larger batches of challah which freeze beautifully. The only down side, it is so heavy it has to stay on the worktop, no way could we lift that weight into a cupboard, even if we had one big enough.

One day I decided to try a themed Challah for a festival, I think a Chanukkiah was my first attempt. It was barely recognisable. As time passed Louis kept coming up with suggestions & they began improving.

I still have a long way to go, but the idea is that this page will take you on my journey with me. Unfortunately, I didn’t bother with most of the very early photos. Now I wish I had taken photos,hind sight is great. Hopefully, you will notice improvements each year with whatever the theme is.

If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to email any ideas to me at tikvahchadasha@gmail.com