Daring Baker Challenge | Challah Y'all!

In a "celebration" of past Daring Baker and Daring Cook challenges, Lisa challenged all of us to search through the Daring Kitchen archives and pick any one we'd like! The REAL challenge was picking which delicious recipe(s) to try!

And guess what  I tried making...

This beauty called Challah!

Challah is a bread of celebration in Jewish tradition. At a time when white flour was considered a luxury, its use was reserved for either the wealthy or for festive events. In Judaism, the Sabbath is a weekly holiday and therefore is a festive occasion. It was around the 15th century when Jews in parts of Austria and Germany adopted an oval braided loaf from their neighbors to make the Sabbath special. These fancy shaped loaves made with white flour were seen as a fitting way to honor the Shabbat (Sabbath), symbolized in Jewish culture as a queen, therefore deserving of the finest one can achieve. In honoring the Sabbath as a day of rest, two loaves are traditionally put on the table. This is generally seen as a representation of the double portion of manna provided to the Children of Israel on Fridays during their wandering in the desert after fleeing from Egypt. This double portion allowed them to maintain the commandment to not do “work” on the Sabbath.

Ok, enough history and general knowledge. When the daring baker challenge was revealed I was so excited with the choice available for this month. I then quickly picked this bread challenge because I was planning to bake bread for a long time and somehow wasn't finding time to do that. I decided to take half the measurements in the recipe given. Didn't want to churn out huge loaves of Challah that no one wanted to eat you know! So decided to play safe and started the process just to find out that the yeast had expired. After 3 iterations, I just chucked it (almost half kg :-( ) and bought new yeast from the nearest supermarket and got cracking.

Before Proofing

After Proofing

Yummy crusty Challah

Easy Challah Recipe

(from templedavid.org)

Ingredients

4 cups (360 gm) all-purpose (plain) flour

1 cup (240 ml) warm water

1 package (2¼ teaspoons) package rapid rise yeast

½ (115 gm) cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. (6 gm) salt

1 egg beaten with 1 tsp. water

Directions:

1. Measure flour, sugar, and salt into a large mixing bowl.

2. In a separate bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer) combine water and yeast, allow to sit 5 minutes until foamy.

3. Add 1 ½ cups of the flour mixture to the water and yeast mixture, beat until well combined. Cover with a dishtowel, let stand 30 min.

4. Add two eggs to the dough, beat again.

5. By hand or with your dough hook knead in the remaining flour mixture. Knead approximately 10 minutes.

6. Transfer to an oiled bowl, cover, let rise one hour.

7. Punch down dough, knead approximately 3 minutes.

8. Divide dough in two. Shape each half as desired (3, 4, or 6 strand braid).

9. Place loaves on parchment covered or greased cookie sheets, cover with a towel, allow to rise one hour.

10. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

11. Brush loaves with egg wash.

12. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees, bake until golden crust forms (about 25-30 minutes).

13. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

Garlic Pull Apart Rolls

Garlic pull apart rolls have become a staple at my house. When I first started making them, it would start out as an occasion. I would keep aside an entire evening so that I could prepare the dough, wait until it rose and then bake it until the heavenly smells of home made garlic rolls would waft through the house and make all of us REALLY hungry! Now that I have made them countless times, I know the consistency and I have made several variations too which have come out with flying colours, the whole process has become a breeze...

The most exciting thing about this recipe is that you can make the most mouth watering, delicious smelling, savoury rolls or if the mood suits you, you can use sweet fillings to make it sweet rolls and make say, cinnamon rolls. For example, you can use the same recipe to make Nutella rolls by switching garlic filling with nutella filling. Tadaaaa, how easy is that? For the savoury fillings, you can use cheese and mint, paneer and mint, butter and pizza seasoning, basil and cheese fillings.... Oh, the list is endless. Every time, like clock work, the rolls come out amazing and taste out of this world! Another variation can be found in Monika's blog. 

The only change I would do is to double the salt in the dough, since  I find that it could do with some more salt. Rest, I wouldn't change a thing!

Garlic Pull-Apart Rolls Recipe

Ingredients: 

Plain Flour - 3 cups

Warm Water - 1 Cup

Dry active yeast - 1tbsp

Salt - 1tsp (I recommend making this 2tsp)

Sugar - 2tbsp

Olive Oil - 2-3 tbsp

1 egg+1tsp milk - For basting before baking

For the filling:

Salted butter - 50 gms (1/3 cup approx)

Garlic - 6-7 finely chopped

Coriander leaves - 3tbsp chopped

1/2 tsp Chilli flakes

1/2tsp white/black pepper

Method:

1) Mix warm water, sugar and yeast together and leave aside for 10 minutes till it looks frothy. That's when the yeast has been activated. Note: If the water is too hot, you will kill the yeast, if too cold, it won't activate.

2) Mix the above starter with flour and salt mixture and knead lightly till everything comes together as dough. No need to over knead it.

3) Add oil to it and knead for 20-30 min until the dough starts springing back. (You can add neutral vegetable oil as well. olive oil is not a must. Hand kneading takes 30-35 min based on the pressure you apply. With dough hook, I kneaded for 20min and finished with 2-3 minutes of hand kneading). Use the window pane test here or here to see if the dough is ready.

4) Keep the dough for resting covered by cling film for about 30-45 minutes till it doubles. Depends on the weather, you may have to wait for an hour.

5) While the dough is proofing, u can make the garlic spread ready by mixing all the ingredients together at room temperature.

6) After it has doubled in size, knock down to remove the air and roll in to a half an inch thickness sheet. Use dry flour to prevent sticking.

7) Apply the garlic filling. Spread evenly and roll the dough from one end to another.

8) Use a knife or a thread to cut it into 8-10 rolls of equal size.

9) Line them in a loaf pan, spread the left over garlic spread on top and sprinkle sesame seeds on top. 

10) Leave it for proofing for around 30min - 1hr. (you know its done when you poke it and it doesn't bounce back).

11) Apply egg wash and bake it at 180C for 20-25min.

12) Pull them apart. Pop in your mouth fresh and warm.

Daring Baker Challenge | Crisp Crackers

As part of daring bakers challenge, I made healthy whole-wheat crackers. Turned out very good. It was the first time I had attempted crisp crackers. Now, instead of buying multigrain crackers, I can make them right at home.

The original recipe mentions 280 gms of plain all purpose flour. I used whole wheat flour (atta) and all purpose flour in equal measure to make it healthy. You can use rye (raagi) as well instead of whole wheat flour.

These crisp crackers are perfect snacks with your evening tea. The mild aroma of pureed onion lends a subtle hint of the onions in taste and a great smell too. The original recipe uses 2tbsp of poppy seeds (gasagase, khous khous) as well. I didn't have any at home, so just left it out. 

Healthy whole wheat and Onion Crackers

Minimally adapted from “Menus from an Orchard Table” by Heidi Noble featured
on Sarah’s blog.

Ingredients:

1 medium onion

1 large egg

1/3 cup (80 ml) vegetable oil

2 teaspoons (12 gm) salt

2 cups (280 gm) all-purpose (plain) flour (I used 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup all purpose flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment, puree the onion. One medium onion will yield approximately 1 cup puree. Measure 1 cup puree and liquid from the onion and return to the food processor. Add the egg, oil and salt and blend until well incorporated.

In another bowl, measure the dry ingredients. Mix lightly to combine. Make a well in the center and add the liquids in this well. Mix in one direction until the dough is fully combined. Lightly knead the dough, flouring as needed, for 2 minutes. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C.

This is a very soft dough and you may find it best to roll it between two sheets of parchment paper.

Roll as thinly as possible. In fact, it is best if rolled as thinly as a strudel dough. But don't worry if you can't get it that thin. The crackers will still be fine. Cut into desired shapes.

Bake until evenly golden. The time required will depend upon thickness but anywhere from 5 - 15 minutes. If they are thicker, the crackers will puff up like little pitas. Cool thoroughly before storing in air tight container.

Sarah from All Our Fingers in the Pie was our February 2013 Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges

us to use our creativity in making our own Crisp Flatbreads and Crackers!