“It’s a lot like making a friendship bracelet, except you get to eat it!” -Caroline Mellow

 

Step One: Gather Ingredients and Make Dough!

Gather Ingredients

  • 1 pack instant yeast
  • 4 – 4 ½ cups of flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 ¼ cup warm water
  • 1/3 cup of oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/3 cup of honey
  • ½ tbsp vanilla
  • Cinnamon to taste

Make Dough

  1. Mix dry ingredients (only 1 ½ cups of flour).
  2. Add warm water and whisk until smooth.
  3. Add oil and eggs and whisk until smooth.
  4. Add honey and whisk until smooth.
  5. Place on mixer (or knead), and add vanilla and cinnamon. Continue to add flour until dough consistency.
  6. Continue to knead for 10 minutes.
  7. Place in a greased bowl for one hour for dough to rise.

Step Two: Add a twist!

Gabe’s recommendation: Cinnamon Roll Challah

Add cinnamon and powdered sugar

Morgan’s recommendation: Cannoli Challah  

Ingredients

  • 2 cups ricotta cheese
  • ¾ cups chocolate chips
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp almond extract

Recipe

  1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
  2. Add mixture to a gallon bag and cut the corner to create a piping bag.
  3. When making the strands of dough for braids, fill strands with filling.
    1. Flatten out strand into a flat rectangle.
    2. Add filling to middle of rectangle.
    3. Fold over rectangle to surround the filling without any wholes.

Noble’s recommendation: Nutella & Peanut Butter

Add Nutella and peanut butter

 Step Three: Braid Challah and Prepare for Oven

  1. Lightly flour counter space.
  2. Divide dough into four even sections.
  3. Roll out pieces of dough into strands.
  4. Prepare strands for braiding by placing them parallel to each other! Make sure that shorter strands are in the middle. Pinch the strands together at the top.
  5. Divide the strands with a space in the middle, so there are two strands, a large space, and two strands.
  6. Take an outside strand, pull it inside, next to the inner strand on the other side.
  7. Take the outermost strand on the other side (that now has three strands) and pull it to be on the inside, next to the strand that only has one the other side.
  8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 until the entire challah is braided. Make sure to pull the strands tight each time.
  9. When you get to the end of the challah, pinch the end pieces and tuck them under.
  10. Let challah rise for about 30 minutes (or until 1/3 bigger).
  11. Coat the top of the challah with an egg wash for a beautiful shine! Add any toppings that need to stick, such as sprinkles, sesame seeds, or anything else!
  12. Place Challah in oven for 30-35 minutes (depends on your challah recipe).

Step Four: B’tei-avon!

Take your challah out of the oven, snap a picture for @URJGFC, and save your challah for Shabbat