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!

Smores Challah

I've talked before about how much The Hazz and I hate corn syrup and artificial dyes.  However, I also recently ate my words with the recent blue-dyed Parting of the Sea Challah. So we figured it wouldn't hurt us that much if we had a little marshmallow fluff in our lives.

That's right, marshmallow fluff. After we made this challah, I told my friends about how we had made it. That launched into fond childhood memories of fluffernutters, marshmallow fluff on graham crackers, cookies... and spoons.

Okay, I seriously just stopped writing this post to have a spoonful. It's that good.

Alright, back to the post. First, we divided our dough into three. We used a method modified from our Nutella Challah. I first created short logs and then rolled them out flat with a rolling pin.

Then, we took our marshmallow fluff, and our chocolate chips, and our graham crackers. We crumbled up the grahams and mixed them together with the chocolate chips. Then It's important to do this step before you do the fluff because the fluff sort of relaxes once it's out of the jar and becomes slightly liquify.

Next spread the marshmallow fluff liberally on the dough with the back of the spoon or a knife. The picture below shows a little bit of graham and chocolate. Seriously not enough. We put like three times that amount on.

Once you've topped all of your strands, bring them together like a canoli.

Pinch the strands. Try to do this with clean hands. It helps to have a partner who hasn't covered their hands in delicious marshmallow fluff. :)

Braid carefully. We only did like three or four overs. When you're braiding, try to fold the seams down so their inside the loaf. Let rest for about 20 minutes. Egg wash and sprinkle with finely crumbled graham crackers.

I highly recommend baking this challah on parchment paper. We were lucky and had very little breaking open of the seams, but it will help with clean up.  Bake at 350 for about a half hour.  Press the seams to make sure they seem baked through.


The result.  WOW!  I tried it when it was warmish, and it was pretty much like a campfire.  The Hazz even commented it smelled like s'mores while the challah was baking.

It's a little bit silly.  I mean, could we really serve this at a Shabbat dinner?  Probably not.  But, man oh man was it a great breakfast on Shabbat morning.


What about you?  Have you made any ridiculous challot that turned about AMAZING?  This one is definitely it.

Black Forest Challah with chocolate and cherries

I'm really excited about this challah. We dreamt it up when naming flavors from our favorite frozen custard place, Kopps. (On a complete side note, if you've never had frozen custard, oh me oh my, so wonderful!) Anyway, The Hazz and I named off several great flavors that would make stellar challot. They're all in the plans. Here's the first installment...

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte. Black Forest Cake. Or should I say, Schwarzwälder Kirschbrot (that's German 101 for you)!  Here's the Wiki definition of Black Forest Cake. Typically, Black Forest cake consists of several layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and cherries between each layer. Then the cake is decorated with additional whipped cream, maraschino cherries, and chocolate shavings. {Source}

Wiki goes on to talk about booze in the cake. Kirschwasser, rum, etc. I think booze has a place in challah. I just haven't figure it all out yet. Perhaps another day! Also, we haven't quite figured out how to whip-cream-ize our challah.  So... for this challah, I stuck with just chocolate and cherries.

The first challenge in this baby... CHERRIES!  I am morally opposed grossed out terrified against things like high fructose corn syrup and Red Dye #40.  Apparently high fructose corn syrup and Red Dye #40 are well, the thing that make Maraschino cherries, well Maraschino cherries. Since we've been on a real kick to get rid of all that kind of stuff in our lives, I went on search for dye-free, corn syrup free cherries. Apparently, they're very hard to find! Finally, SUCCESS!

And, while they're not quite as RED as dyed cherries, they're red enough.  Note, however, that these babies are SOUR. I taste them. They WERE sour. Here's where a little improvisation came in. First, I removed the cherries from their water. I saved the water, but ended up not using it. Next, I place about 1/2 the cherries on a paper towel-covered cutting board. Then, I squashed them with a paper towel.

   

Then, I squashed them again. And again. When they seemed pretty dry, I felt ready to proceed. I figured there were two ways we could make this Black Forest Challah. The old Nutella-filled strand stand-by. And, the knead-in method a la Apple Challah.

Filled Strands... to fill the strands, I first chopped up the cherries at least in half.  Then, I added 2 tbsp of white sugar to the 1/2 can of cherries.  I then rolled and stretched three strands.  Using my fingers, I made a little trench in the challah and added chocolate chips and cherries, pinching them together with my fingers.  Here's the 1-2-3...

Fully-Integrated Cherries and Chocolate...  I learned my lesson on Rosh Hashanah with apples.  They add A LOT of liquid to the dough.  My dough itself was pretty droopy that day anyway for some reason.  So, to counteract, I started by adding about 2 tbsp flour and 2 tbsp of sugar to the rest of the cherries.  Then, I just mixed it all together and kneaded... adding LOTS of flour as needed.

Bake and egg-wash as normal. I was so happy the result. Sweet, but not too sweet. Tart but not too tart. And the chocolate is heavenly. I was definitely much more happy with the integrated challah. The filled version is great and significantly easier to do, but the integrated version is really spectacular.

Guten Apetit!
What ice cream flavors would YOU like to see in a challah?

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?

Double Chocolate Challah

Double Chocolate Challah.  I doubted myself whether it could actually be done.  I love chocolate.  I adore chocolate.  This is serious business, I told myself, making a chocolate challah.  Could it be done?

Still steaming!  It fogged up the lens!

YES.

3/4 c water
2 tsp active dry yeast
5 tbsp sugar
1 egg plus 1 more for egg wash
1/4 c vegetable oil
3 c flour
4 tbsp dutch cocoa powder
about 1/4 c chocolate chips (I used Whole Foods Vegan chips for a pareve loaf)

Mix water together with yeast and 1 tbsp sugar. Allow to rest for around 10 minutes or until yeast creates little eruptions.  Meanwhile, mix together the rest of the sugar, flour, and cocoa powder in a large bowl.

Add egg and oil to yeast mixture and stir gently. Add flour mixture.  Knead by hand or with a stand mixer.  I ultimately had to add more water to the dough due to the added cocoa powder.  I let my dough rise for about an hour and a half (I was in a hurry) it had nearly doubled in bulk.

Punch down.  Separate into balls for braiding and knead chocolate chips into each strand.  I add the chips here because I'm not crazy about chocolate chips on the outside strands, where they tend to break open and sort of burn.  Braid and let rest for additional half hour.  Egg wash.

Bake at 350 for around 30 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 180-200 degrees.

The Hazz and I, along with my mom, tried out the small roll we made as a sample.  The verdict from all is, "Delicious."  A warning, it's a little disorienting eating the challah.  Because of the color and the aroma, you sort of expect chocolate cake.  It's not that sweet.  It's mild, rich, and delicious.

So, chocoholics... have you ever tried chocolate yeast bread?  I'm curious to keep tweeking this baby.