Rosemary Olive Oil Challah

Thanks to everyone who sent messages and comments about last week.  While I cannot say things are great, they are better.  It was important for me to be away from home and from fancy challah baking.  That said, we made basic challah, and it was delicious and loved by all.  It was exactly the Shabbat we needed.  I promise, I'm working on getting a Rye Challah recipe for you.  So, stay tuned.

This week, since I couldn't find any rye flour at my local grocery store, I decided to go with the garden again.  We have two beautiful rosemary bushes in our garden--one regular and one creeping.

I've used rosemary in challah before, but for this challah, I wanted to experiment with a pretty high content of olive oil.  We use Trader Joe's extra virgin, and we're very happy with the flavor and the price!

I was inspired by A Hint of Honey's Rosemary Olive Oil Bread, which uses a mixture of white whole wheat and bread flour.

1/2 c plus 2 tbsp water
1/4 tsp raw sugar (white sugar is fine if that's what you have)
1 1/2 tsp active dry or instant yeast
1 egg plus 1 more for egg wash (you can also reserve a little of the 1 egg in the dough)
1/4 c olive oil
2 1/4 - 2 1/2 c flour (I used about 3/4 c white whole wheat and the rest bread flour)
3/4 tsp salt
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

This recipe is on the small side, and will yield one medium-sized loaf or two quite small loaves. Perfect for dinner for two!

Mix very warm but not hot water together with the yeast and sugar.  Let rest for about 10 minutes.  During this time, you can go out to your garden and harvest some fresh rosemary!  I chose to use the creeping rosemary for this recipe, because the leaves (are they leaves?) are smaller and I think the flavor is a bit more delicate.

Add egg and olive oil and mix with a wooden spoon.  Add the flour (use any combination of whole wheat, bread flour, or unbleached all-purpose), salt, and 1 to 1 1/2 sprigs of rosemary, chopped.  Knead by hand or on a stand mixer until a ball forms.  Turn the ball out onto a floured work surface and punch a few times until very smooth.  Place in oiled bowl and cover in plastic wrap or a towel.

Allow to rise at least one hour, preferably more (usually about an hour and a half), until dough has doubled in size.  Punch down the ball in the bowl and remove. Punch out all air bubbles.  Braid in your preferred method. Allow to rise 20-30 minutes. Top with an egg wash (I use the yolk and white) and the remaining rosemary.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 180 degrees.

Can I just say how much I love garden-season Shabbatot?  Oh, I've already said that?  Well, I'm  saying it again.  This Shabbat, it's zucchini and patty pan squash soup, beef and tofu with garden oregano, rosemary olive oil challah, stuffed garden tomatoes, and kale salad with garden cucumbers.  We made extra, so come on over!


Shabbat Shalom from our bayit to yours!!!