Mounds Bar Challah | Chocolate + Coconut

Ever since skeptically trying out Piña Colada Challah, I've had a lot of fun experimenting with coconut flavors in my challot. It's funny... maybe it's a grown up thing, but as an adult I'm way more excited about coconut than as a kid. (Don't get me wrong; I'm hard-core against those AWFUL little canned Kosher-for-Passover macaroons. YUCK!) I don't cringe in anguish if I get the coconut creme in a box of chocolates. I love cooking with coconut milk in savory dishes. So, we figured... why not coconut in a sweet challah with chocolate.... which turned into a Mounds Bar Challah.

So what do you think... should we try Almond Joy next? Perhaps with a bit of almond flour in the mix?

This is a great challah to try, because you can use your own challah recipe or try out something new as far as the dough goes. Here's what you'll need...

A challah recipe of your choice -- for these proportions, I used one half of our half batch recipe... about 1 1/2 cups of flour. You'll want to adjust proportions accordingly.

For the 1 1/2 c flour dough, you'll need...
1/4 c plus about 2 Tbs sweetened flaked coconut (from the baking aisle)
1/4 to 1/2 c chocolate chips... I used the LAST of my Parve Trader Joe's chocolate chips, so sad they're OU-D now.

After your dough is risen and ready to be braided, plop the chocolate chips and 1/4 c coconut on your dough and knead by hand. Have extra flour on hand in case its sticky (it will be).

Using a sharp knife, divide your dough into the number of strands you'd like to use. Braid as normal.

After the egg wash, top your challah with shredded coconut. When baking, you'll probably want to foil the top of the loaf near the end (last five minutes) to prevent over-browning.

We're calling this challah a sweet success!

Shabbat Shalom from our bayit to yours!

Happy Purim from The Challah Blog!

On the Shabbat before Purim, we always get into the spirit a little early and make fun challot.  Here are some of our ideas from past years.

Hamantaschen Challot are an easy and fun way to surprise your guests. Baked upside down, they look like slightly triangular-shaped rolls. But flipped over -- a great surprise!

Okay, so we sometimes make Sprinkle Challah even when it's not Purim, because it's a lot of fun, and kids love it.

By now, you've probably realized how much I love mix-in challot. M&M Challah is just fun, colorful, and easy!

Shabbat Shalom and Purim Same'ah from our bayit to yours!  What's YOUR Purim costume this year?  We're having a Star Wars theme at our synagogue.

Caramel Chocolate Challah

My dear readers and bakers, I owe you like 18 posts. Can I just say how I'm slightly relieved that these two-day-yom-tovim-followed-by-Shabbat are over. No holidays until Thanksgiving (I'm not sure I even know how to prepare a meal where I can turn my oven on and off during the entire meal). I'm not sure what the fall is going to bring, but I'm excited for more savory baking, experimenting with more interesting flours, and finding new challah challenges.

This past Shabbat, which followed Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, was a quiet one for The Hazz and The Mrs. We had invitations and shul dinners during the yom tovim, so I planned us a Shabbat at home with baked mac n'cheese with broccoli, vegetable soup, and sweet, sweet, sweet challah (don't you just love the occasional dairy Shabbat?). Our challah was inspired by Milky Ways, but I'm afraid the copyright police are going to jump on me if I actually call it that, so I'll call it Caramel Chocolate Challah.

Sweet Dough: Back in September, I made a big order from King Arthur Flour that included a Buttery Sweet Dough Enhancer, about which KAF says:

There's a particular flavor to the Danish, sweet rolls and coffeecakes you get at the store. Is it a hint of vanilla, or butter, or...? Add a few drops of this flavoring to your favorite sweet bread recipe, and your family and friends will be clamoring for the name of the bakery you visited.

I added just a teaspoon to my Small Batch. The result was really mild, but an ever so slightly sweeter dough that I think many sweet challah lovers would really like. A community Rabbi just asked me how we could make the basic dough a bit sweeter and I don't have a real answer yet. Adding honey messes with the chemical proportions and changes the texture. Adding this dough enhancer didn't change the challah texture at all, which I liked. Plus it's pareve!  I might try adding more next time.

The Mix-Ins: Again, KAF came to my rescue with Caramel Bits, so pretty amazing chunks of deliciousness.  Save yourself the heartache and don't look at the ingredient list if your like The Hazz and I and are trying to rid your lives of corn syrup.  But, they're still worth it.  And by worth it, I mean AMAZING.  I mixed together the caramel bits (just a little handful) with Trader Joe's chocolate chips which are so far superior to any other chocolate chip on the market.  They're AWESOME (and they're also pareve... although the caramel isn't).

The result, gooey, glistening, challah goodness.  Sweetness of a new year?  Check.  Sweetness of Torah?  Check.

Here's to a 5772 full of more sweetness :)

Please Note: I was not paid anything and did not receive anything for writing this post. KAF doesn't even know I'm writing it.

Experiment - M&M Challah

That's right... your eyes don't deceive you.  We've ventured into candy challah.  A friend of ours has been encouraging (requesting/demanding) us to make a Reese's Peanut Butter Challah.  Yes, I think we'll try it at some point.  But this past Friday, we had some M&Ms in the house.

Method
Basically the same as chocolate chips.  Knead 'em in right before braiding.  Remember back in March when I tried to make Tie Dye Challah for Purim?  And how I failed immediately with a pink loaf of bread?  Ridiculous.

Well, I think M&Ms might be the answer.  They do bleed a bit.  But not as much as the sprinkles.  And seriously... the sweetness, the fact that it's CANDY CHALLAH.  Wow.

I experimented with a teeny-tiny loaf and a few fun size bags of M&Ms.  (As I do with oatmeal cookies, I pulled out the brown M&Ms... unlike Matthew McConaughey in The Wedding Planner, who ONLY eats the brown ones, I feel that why would I bother putting pretty colors in if a percentage of them are just brown).

I want to do a full size.

This might be the craziest challah I've ever done.  Have YOU ever tried a ridiculous, candy, filled challah?