Pesto Challah

I love garden season!  Our basil has been going a bit crazy lately, so the thing to do is... of course... make homemade pesto.  And when one has fresh pesto, the thing to do is... of course... make pesto challah!

For this challah, you can use your own fresh pesto or store-purchased pesto.  When I make pesto at home, I leave out the cheese to make it parve and then freeze it.  Then I add parmesan later.  It's really up to you, but keep this in mind in case you want to serve your pesto challah with a meat meal.

 

3/4 c water 2 1/4 tsp active dry or instant yeast (1 packet)
1/4 tsp sugar
1 egg plus 1 more for egg wash
3 tbsp olive oil
3 c flour (for this recipe, I used 1/4 c white whole wheat and the rest a mixture of bread flour and unbleached all-purpose flour because that's what I had... you can use any proportion to your taste)
1 tsp salt (you may want to omit this depending on the salt quantity in your pesto, especially if it is store-purchased)
2 tbsp prepared pesto

For the homemade pesto, you'll need...

2 BIG handfuls of fresh basil
Pine nuts (about 2 tbsp)
2-5 cloves of garlic (we like it garlicky)
olive oil
pinch of salt
parmesan cheese (if desired)

To prepare the pesto, wash the basil and place in food processor. Peel and roughly slice the garlic and add with the pine nuts. Add a pinch of salt and pulse until finely chopped. You may need to wipe down the sides of the food processor with a spatula. Through the feeder tube, add the olive oil slowly to your desired consistency.

I'm always blow away that two huge handfuls of basil produce such a small amount of pesto. My yield was this little teeny tupperware full... which I divided into a mere 6 ice cubes (freezing is a great way to get just the right amount. You can freeze in ice cube trays and then pop out and put into a plastic bag).

For the challah, add the yeast and sugar to warm (but not hot) water in mixing bowl. Allow yeast to proof about 10 minutes. In the meantime, you can retrieve your pesto from the freezer and thaw it in the microwave if need-be. I used two ice cubes which was equivalent to about 2 tablespoons of pesto.

Mix the pesto into the proofed yeast. Add the egg. Since the pesto already has olive oil, I went easy on the amount of oil in this challah, adding just 3 tablespoons.

Add the flour and salt (if using). At this point, you can also add parmesan cheese if you want to make your challah for a dairy meal. Mix by hand or on a stand mixer until a ball forms. This dough is a bit more relaxed than most of my other doughs.

Place in oiled bowl and cover in plastic wrap or a towel. Allow to rise at about an hour and a half, until dough has doubled in size. Braid as normal.

Allow to rise an additional 20-30 minutes. Top with an egg wash and parmesan cheese if you like. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Surprisingly, the flavor of pesto challah is milder than the taste. You do get your garlicky goodness (which we luuuuurve!), but you can add more or less pesto to your own taste. The result is really fun and the color of the pesto plus the additional olive oil, gives the bread a lovely shade.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE garden season?

Shabbat Shalom from our bayit to yours!

Stuffed Pizza Challah

While we were making our Savory Braided Challah for Shavuot, I left some dough aside because we can't make Pizza Challah without enjoying a real treat... Stuffed Pizza Challah.

Roll out your dough from Pizza Challah into a long, thin rectangle.

Place fresh mozzarella slices on the strands. You can also use shredded, but we enjoy sliced for pizzas at home, so that's usually what's in the house.

Roll the dough, keeping out air bubbles.

I even added a bit of cornmeal to the bottom of the baking pan.

Make sure to tuck in the ends and try to make sure you really seal the roll, otherwise you'll end up with this... {which is necessarily a bad thing, actually}

Don't forget to egg wash and sprinkle with garlic powder and parmesan! Bake as normal. You may need to foil this bad boy as the inside can be a bit doughy while the outside gets a bit dark.

We're looking forward to diving into this challah during Yom Tov with a lasagna dinner.

Hag Shavuot Same'ah from our bayit to yours!

Savory Braided Challah for Shavuot

I'm on a kick, haverim.  I'm loving this dairy-filled, cheesy, oozing challah adventure of pre-Shavuot cooking. And, yes, that sentence was ridiculous.  But so is this challah.

Basically,  took two of our favorite challot and braided them... together.  Parmesan Roasted Garlic Challah + Pizza Challah = Major Shavuot Love. So, I set to work.

For the Parmesan Roasted Garlic Challah, I needed some roasted garlic. To roast the garlic, I put an entire bulb into my teeny-tiny LeCreuset, spritzed with a little olive oil spray, and baked at 425 for about 50 minutes (until I could pierce it with a sharp knife).

In the meantime, I headed out to my garden for a bit of fresh basil for Pizza Challah. Can I just say... I'm over the MOON that it's gardening season.

For the loaves, I chose even-numbered braids {You can find my challah braiding methods here}.

The braids ultimately looked much more impressive when they were pre-bake than after the bake. The pre-bake really shows the orange color of Pizza Challah.

You could still see the color change on the ends of each challah.

And definitely inside!

I'm really happy with these challot. They're a marriage of two really delicious challah recipes. And, they're a bit ridiculous, which reminds me a lot of another marriage that is coming up on almost two years.

Hag Shavuot Same'ah from our bayit to yours!

Review: Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Challah

Friends, Pinterest is a dangerous, dangerous thing. I can spend hours just looking at delicious, darling, hipster, beautiful, amazing recipes, fashion, and home ideas. But I looooove Pinterest.


I pinned this recipe quite some time ago and have been anxious to try it. It's a Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Challah from the LA Times. However, since I was trying it, and I didn't have a ton of ricotta, I halved the recipe. Then, well into the process, I realized I didn't have any basil. Enter improvisation.

Here are my modifications on the original. While this recipe gives a challah dough recipe, I really think that you can use whatever you want. I just used my own recipe (with fresh yeast because I love it so much).

about 3 large handfuls of fresh spinach {the original recipe uses frozen which is easier, but I have a hard time finding it kosher}
1 tbsp fresh chopped oregano
1 tbsp fresh chopped thyme {I still have these herbs from my garden}
2 garlic cloves, pressed
2 heaping tbsp cup pine nuts, toasted in a dry frying pan
1 cups ricotta cheese
2 heaping tbsp cornmeal or flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

So, here's the deal. There should also be about 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped to truly be the original recipe's ricotta/pesto blend. I sprinkled a little dried basil but a REALLY little bit and that flavor didn't come through.

For the spinach, I just put all the leaves in a microwave safe bowl with a bit of water and let them go on high for about 1 minute, checking periodically after 45 seconds. After they were cool enough to handle, I squeeze the water out and chopped.

The linked recipe doesn't show you how to do the filled braid, but I've seen tutorials elsewhere. Here's how I did it. Make sure to tuck in those ends!






You could also do a filled challah, which is one of our favorite methods.


The Verdict: It's okay. I made this is as a Tuesday experiment, and we decided that on Thursday it tasted it's best. The flavors had kind of mellowed out. But, really, it's just okay. The ricotta is salty so the whole thing is a bit aggressive. I think I prefer mozzarella or parmesan in my challah if I'm doing a savory, cheese-y loaf.

That said, it was a fun experiment, and I do like the "braiding" technique.

The Return of Pizza Challah

Back in January when The Hazz and I visited his family in Rhode Island, we modified our Parmesan Roasted Garlic Challah into Pizza Challah. The Hazz is the primary creator of Pizza Challah, and it is AMAZING.

Today is a swelteringly hot summer day here in the Midwest, so I modified Pizza Challah just a bit for humidity. Here's a modification. Modifications in amount or ingredient are indicated with a star*.


3/4 c water
2* tsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp honey
1 egg + 1 egg for wash
1/4 c OLIVE OIL*
3 1/2* c flour (I use 1/3 bread flour)
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp plus 1 tbsp* parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp garlic powder plus 1/4* tsp garlic powder
generous sprinkle of oregano
2 1/2* tbsp tomato paste
1 "handful" shredded mozarella cheese
heaping* 1/4 c chopped fresh basil (I can't wait to try this with basil from our own garden which you can read about on my personal blog)

Follow the method on the original Pizza Challah. Sprinkle the whole shebang with 1 tbsp parmesan and 1/4 tsp garlic powder (mixed). Bake at 350 for 30 minutes turning halfway through.

Now, here's a new, AMAZING idea. Introduce what you know works for at home pizza to this challah... THE PIZZA STONE. I read a few ideas to prevent cracking and breaking of breads using stones or pre-heated cookie sheets underneath your baking sheet. What I find is that my challot often get too crusty but don't bake through. The pizza stone is an attempt to stop this. Without it, the bread goes in the oven, crusts over, expands, and cracks. With the stone, the heat contact on the bottom is instant and conducted up through the bread. The result, the bread goes in the oven, expands, crusts over. AMAZING! I think I'm in love. (Of note, I used--and always use--an insulated cookie sheet for my challot. Love it.)

Shabbat Shalom from The Hazz and The Mrs. to you!!!

Shout-Out: Jalapeno Jallah

When The Jazz and I were in Costa Rica for our luna de miel, we hung out with some of the Jewish community. It was a lovely experience. One of the things we really enjoyed was the transliteration of the gutteral Hebrew sound as "j." This creates many transliterations like "shajarit," "minja," and "jazzan." So I present to you, Jalapeno Jallah.

I take NO credit what-so-ever for this recipe. I stole it from Leigh Ann, the Frugal Ima, A Frugal Ima Super-Frugal Recipe: Jalapeno Bread. Since we're having dairy Shabbat, I used shredded cheddar. I added a few TBSP of oil because I couldn't get it to stick together.  This week's braid is a four-strander that I found on youtube because I couldn't remember how I normally do this.  (This happens to me almost every week.  I like five-braids and six-braids.  But when I want to do a four-braid, I can never remember how to do it.)  I actually forgot to egg-wash it. But I don't think it needs it. It's quite lovely.

Other things on the menu include mango, blueberry, peach salad, mexican vegetarian lasagna (my own mixture of things), guacamole, and strawberry ice cream. The Jazz will also sample this week's major win, Banana Chocolate Chip Jallah. Not the healthiest Shabbat ever, but you only live once, right?

Pizza Challah

Please enjoy Pizza Challah!


INGREDIENTS

3/4 c water
1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp honey
1 egg + 1 egg for wash
1/4 c vegetable oil
3 c flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp plus 2 tsp parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp garlic powder
generous sprinkle of oregano
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 "handful" shredded mozarella cheese
scant 1/4 c chopped fresh basil


METHOD

Place very warm water in mixing bowl. Add yeast and honey, mixing with wooden spoon. Allow to rest for 10 minutes or so.

Blend together the flour, salt, 1 1/2 tbsp of the parmesan cheese, mozarella, oregano, and garlic powder in large bowl and set aside. Add egg, tomato paste, and vegetable oil, mixing wooden spoon. Add the flour/cheese mixture in two parts, adding extra water if dough is sticky. Knead manually or with a stand mixer until ball forms.

Allow to rise several hours, until dough has doubled in size. Punch down and remove all air bubbles. Braid in your preferred method. Allow to rise an additional 45-60 minutes. Top with an egg wash and sprinkle with 2 tsp parmesan cheese.

Round fresh mozzarella version: Add thin slices of fresh mozarella and coil together. Best served hot!

Bake at 350 for around 35 minutes.