| 1 | : continued from part 1 notes: * challah (pronounced "hallah") is a type of braided egg bread traditionally eaten on the jewish sabbath. |
| 2 | It is eaten by tearing off hunks rather than by cutting with a knife. |
| 3 | I got this recipe from a housemate a couple of years ago; i don"t know its origins before that, but it has become one of my favorite recipes, and one with which i have experimented a good deal. |
| 4 | I"ve tried several other challah recipes, but find i like this one the best. |
| 5 | Yield: 2 large loaves. |
| 6 | * the variation in oil makes quite a difference in the moisture of the bread: if you use the larger quantity, the bread comes out very nice and moist, but when it cools it becomes somewhat oily. |
| 7 | The amounts of sugar and oil may sound high, but try it this way once before cutting back. |
| 8 | I have tried other recipes that use less, and they don"t taste nearly as good. |
| 9 | * here"s the fun part -->variations. |
| 10 | Because this dough is so workable, you can form it many different ways, limited only by your imagination; i once made a whole collection of different shapes and sizes, for a festive dinner party. |
| 11 | Some of the variations i have tried include: : o adding extra ingredients, such as raisins and/or nuts : o forming the braided loaf into a wreath-like loop (joining the ends) : o braiding 5 ways instead of 3 : o baking a small loaf on top of a larger loaf (traditional) : o braiding 3 braided loaves into a recursive loaf (didn"t turn out well; it ended up looking knotty, rather than intricate, and being somewhat tough) : o varying the loaf sizes. |
| 12 | One time i made individual-sized loaves, so that everyone could have their own loaf at dinner. |
| 13 | Another time, i divided the dough into 2 halves, set one aside, and made a loaf out of the other half. |
| 14 | Then, i divided the remaining piece into 2 halves, and continued the process until i had an array of loaves, each half the size of the previous. |
| 15 | I managed to get 9 loaves by doing this, the smallest of which was about ?inch by about 2 inches. |
| 16 | : o varying the length-to-width proportions; traditionally, challah loaves are quite wide relative to their length. |
| 17 | I find that shorter, wider loaves are doughier (and thus tastier), but longer loaves look more elegant. |
| 18 | : difficulty: moderate. |
| 19 | : time: 30 minutes dough preparation, 1 ?hours first rising, 1 hour loaf forming, 1 hour second rising, 30 minutes baking. |
| 20 | Total: 4 ?hours. |
| 21 | : precision: approximate measurement ok. |
