Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Challah

One of the first "fancy" challot that I ever made was a Parmesan Roasted Garlic Challah.  It was really, REALLY garlicky... and delicious.  This challah is a variation off of that very recipe.  I love savory challot, especially when they involve herbs from my garden, like Rosemary Olive Oil Challah, Pesto Challah, and Pizza Challah (the Hazz's favorite).

This challah takes a bit more time because you have to roast the garlic in advance before preparing the dough, but trust me.  It's worth it.

3/4 c water
2 1/4 tsp active dry or instant yeast (1 packet)
2 eggs plus 1 more for egg wash
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil, plus more for roasting
3 to 3 1/2 c bread flour
1/4 tsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 head of garlic
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

First, you'll roast your clove of garlic.  I run the clove under water and pull off any skin with dirt on it.  Then slice off the top of the head, drizzle with a little olive oil, and wrap in foil.  Bake in 425 oven for 20-25 minutes.  When your garlic is roasted and cooled to handle, squeeze out the garlic with a tongs or by hand and mash with a fork.

When your garlic is ready, start with very warm (but not hot) water in mixing bowl. Add yeast and 1/4 tsp sugar, mixing lightly. Allow to sit for 10 minutes or so, until yeast is foamy. Add 2 eggs, 2 tbs olive oil, and garlic in the bowl and mix with wood spoon.

Add flour, salt, and finely chopped rosemary and beat with dough hook on standmixer or by hand. If the dough is not holding together as a ball, add a bit more oil or water. If the dough is very sticky, add more flour. The dough is ready when it sticks together as a ball and is not sticky to the touch when you poke your finger in (5-10 minutes of beating). 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. Braid in your preferred method. Allow to rise 20-30 minutes. Top with an egg wash and a little more olive oil and a few sprigs of rosemary if you like.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, rotating 180 degrees after the first 15 minutes. You can use a bread thermometer (180-200 degrees) or poke at the seams. Foil if browning too quickly on top.

I just love how aromatic and savory this challah is. Yes, I'm usually a sweet challah gal, but I love variety now and again! The olive oil also makes the dough light and fluffy.


Shavua Tov from our bayit to yours!

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!

Vacation Challah: Herbed Challah Revisited

After our adventures in Cinnamon Sugar Challah, we also tried a return to Herbed Challah while we were on vacation. For this challah, I chopped up some fresh sage and rosemary quite finely.

The Hazz then made a mixture of olive oil, garlic powder, and the herbs. Using a pastry brush, he covered a rolled-out piece of dough with the mixture.

The whole process then get, as one would expect, a little oily. After some slip-sliding and quite a bit of additional flour on the strands, a coil we achieved. Of course by then we had over-floured the strands and couldn't get the bottom to stay tucked in.

Regardless, success was achieved!

This challah was delicious and quite surprisingly flaky. I'm so glad we tried making herbed bread again. I think savory challot may be the way to go for us for a while. There are a lot of options to match with a meal.

What recipes are you returning to this week?

Latke Challah

Haverim! I'm sorry I was absent last week and didn't give you a heads up.  I was staffing a middle school age youth group weekend, and, needless to say, had other things on my mind.  The Hazz made his own challah that, among other things, involved proofing yeast in root beer.  But, more on that another time.  I'm trying to get him to write up the guest post :)

I've been thinking about making a latke challah for a while, and wondering how to do it.  I did find one online discussion of it, but the end result was more everything bagel.  Now, I love my latkes BURNT.  Crispy.  And soft in the middle.  How could I attempt this?  Ultimately, I decided on a pre-baked crispy topping plus potatoes inside the loaf.  Here's the result... LATKE CHALLAH!'

3/4 c hot but not boiling water
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp honey
2 eggs plus 1 more for egg wash
scant 1/4 c vegetable oil
3 c flour + about 1 additional cup
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder plus a little more for sprinkling
1 russet potato
1 large shallot or small onion (I used a shallot, because that's what I had)

Proof the yeast in the hot water with the honey. Let rest for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, use a food processor on the shred setting (you could also do this by hand) on the onion and potato. Don't bother peeling the potato; just wash it :)

The next step is REALLY important. As you probably know from making latkes or kugel, you MUST squeeze out as much water from the potatoes as possible. I usually just use paper towel or a clean flour sack cloth (that then goes straight in the wash!). Mix together the eggs with the about three-quarters of the potato/onion mixture with the salt and the garlic powder. Leave the rest of the potato/onion mixture aside for now.

Mix together this mixture with the yeast. Add the oil and the flour. You will most likely need about a cup more of flour just to get the dough manageable. It will still be a bit sticky. I usually use a stand mixer, but you can always does this by hand. Let rest in an oiled bowl for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until about doubled in bulk.

While the dough is rising, make the topping. Preheat the oven to 400. Place the rest of the potatoes and onions on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet. I was feeling lazy and just sprayed the whole shebang with some PAM, but you could also just drizzle with a healthier oil (they ARE latkes though). Sprinkle with garlic powder and bake for 10-15 minutes or until beginning to brown. Let cool.


Turn down the oven to 350. Braid as normal (I suggest a three-stranded braid). Let rest about 20 minutes. Egg wash. Press (quite hardly) the crisped potato topping into the loaves. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes, checking halfway and covering with foil if the potato topping gets too brown.

Now, it's no latke. But it has the flavors of latkes. Which are one of the best things ever.


(An Early) Hag Urim Same'ah to you! May this Hanukkah bring light into your lives!