I know I’ve lost half of you by now, just from
reading the title, but don’t be put off. This is EASY! I promise. I have tired
so many challah recipes and I can’t do it, I just cant. My challah making
attempts have ranged from very disappointing to inedible, and all involved a
monumental effort. SO not worth it. So I gave in, and did what any respectable
Jewish woman would do and I brought my challah. Then, one day, when we were
living in Columbus, Ohio, I realised something. It was actually going to take me
longer to put coats and shoes on both girls, strap them into the car, schlep
them to the kosher bakery, and then return home again, then to just roll up my sleeves and make my own bread, even taking into account that I would have to stop every 5 minutes or
so to change a nappy(diaper), kiss a boo boo, put a princess dress on one of my
princesses, answer the phone, have a glass of wine (come on as if...), etc. etc.
So, I gave it one last shot. THANK GD because this is what I came up with and
it’s truly amazing. Wow, it’s so so good, and so easy!
I’m so happy to be able to give out the recipe
at long last. I couldn’t while we were in Ohio because I sold loaves and loaves
of this. It went against every fiber of my being to say no when someone asked
for a recipe, so here we go – enjoy Ohion’s. Flour, water, yeast and salt,
that’s it. Traditional challah is made with oil, sugar and egg. It’s delicious,
but like everything, the sweetness has become so mainstream that it’s not even
special any more. It used to be that sugar was reserved for desserts, or special
significant meals on Rosh Hashanah, and Thanksgiving when the sweetness was
significant. Now however, it’s the norm for everything, and every meal to be so
sweet. Taking a step back, and going back to savory, truly savory food is what’s
special now.
This recipe has saved me a lot of time too.
We’ve done away with providing an appetizer when we have guests because the
bread is so good with the hummus, there is no need. For our Friday night dinners
this is served with the hummus, zehug, a very spicy middle eastern chili spread
that we buy, edemmame, (thawed and served with a sesame soy dressing – recipe to
come), some olives and pickles if you fancy, prewashed salad leaves out of a
bag, and of course wine. My husband has taken to roasting some beetroot (beets), then
peeling and slicing it to serve with this. Pretty random I say, but always goes
down very well. I sometimes make a quinoa salad if I have time, but there is no
need at all.
If everything is arranged simply and beautifully, it makes it all
very special. My favorite part of food preparation is the presentation. My good
friend from Columbus, feels that 90% of the enjoyment of a meal is the
presentation, not sure I would go that far, but if you preserve most of your
energy for the presentation side of things, rather than staying up all night, rolling your rice in vine leaves, you’ll be much happier with the results.
Artisan Bread
Buy the very best bread flour that you can
find. In Canada, I’ve only found one brand, but I really like it. I buy Robin Hood multi-grain bread flour – excellent. In the States I would only use king
Arthur bread flour, you can even buy it in Walmart. Don’t waste your time
trying to make it with all purpose flour. I triple the below recipe and freeze
most of it in loaves in freezer bags. then thaw as needed. So this really does
save you time, and a lot of money, and of course it’s so much healthier than the
traditional oil and sugar laden challah that we’re all used to.
5 3/4 Cups bread flour
2 cups any combination of ground flax, whole
wheat, rye, oat, or make this 100% white, in which case, use 7 3/4 cups of white
flour.
5tsp Salt
4tsp Quick rise yeast
1tbs Sugar – you absolutely need this to
activate the yeast.
2.5 Cups warm water
In a large bowl or jug place your yeast and
sugar. Add the warm water which should be blood temperature, makes sense right? Whisk
with a fork and leave for about 10-15 minutes until frothy on the top. If it’s
not frothy start over. Either your yeast is dead, or the water was to hot or
cold.
In the meantime, while your waiting for your
yeast to frothefy, measure out your flour and salt in a big bowl and give it a
little whisk with a fork. I use a cleaned out plastic toy bin, I don’t have a
big enough bowl when I triple the recipe.
When your yeast is ready, pour the water into
the flour, stir with your fork until almost incorporated, then pour out onto
your clean, floured surface and kneed for about ten minutes until springy. It’s
hard to explain the feeling, but you’ll know when it’s ready, it will feel alive
and springy, just springy - you’ll see. You’ll probably need to add some more
flour as you go.
Clean out your bowl, or stolen toy bin, pour a
little oil in it, then place your dough in and roll around in the oil until covered. Cover with a
towel or cling film. If you’re making this for the next day, well done on being
so very organized, give yourself a pat on the back, and place in the fridge. Take
out the next morning and allow it to come to room temperature. If your making
this for immediate consumption, leave in a warm place for an hour or two, until
doubled in size.
Once doubled in size, punch down, knead for a
minute or so then form into any shape you desire. Score three lines with a
serrated knife – just for the effect, then dust with a nice amount of flour.
Allow to sit for half an hour, and then bake in a preheated 430° Fahrenheit for
thirty five minutes until cooked through. Now the cookbooks always say knock on
the underside of the bread until it sounds hollow. Maybe I don’t know what
knocking on something hollow sounds like, but this has NEVER worked for me. I
carefully insert my knife on the underside of one of the loaves to see if it’s
cooked. If still doughy, bake for a little longer. If the hollow trick works for
you, by all means.
Try to make this as close to serving as you
can. It’s good the next day, but not even close to how amazing it is that first
night. One of the reasons this bread is so good is because it contains
absolutely no preservatives, but that also means you can’t plan on having it sit
around all week for you to use for sandwiches. Don’t worry though, you won’t
have any leftovers from this.
Hummus
I got my very first food processor a few
months ago – Really enjoying it. I brought the biggest one that I could find,
which is a big time saver. About two weeks back my mum asked me what I was
making for Friday night dinner, “well, to start, home made bread, and home made
hummus...”, and then my mum cut me off, not to say, ‘oh darling how wonderful,
I’m so proud, can I have that recipe”, nope, nothing like that, rather, “Oh
darling, I think it’s probably time you went back to work”. Ha! Well, I know it
sound like a silly thing to make, after all, the hummus that is sold in almost
every supermarket is delicious, but this is REALLY good. Plus, it save so much
money. I buy a big bag of dried chickpeas. Once a month I soak as many as I can
in my biggest pot overnight, drain, rinse, then boil the heck out of them the
next day, or to put it more politely, boil them for around two hours. Then I
freeze in portions, ready to be plucked from my freezer when I want to make the
hummus. If your eyes are glazing over, fine, whatever, buy yourself some cans of
chickpeas, see if I care ;). Every recipe that I see is very heavy on the Tahina. I use very little – personal
preference. In fact, if you want to make this without any Tahina at all it would
still be pretty amazing.
2-3 cloves garlic (or to taste)
A pinch – I mean it, a pinch of cumin (don’t
worry if you don’t have)
1 tsp. tahina
2 cups chick peas
1/4 cup vegetable or olive oil
2 tsp. lemon juice
Salt
Place your garlic in the food processor and
blitz. Add cumin, tahina, and blitz again. Add chickpeas, oil and lemon juice,
some salt and process until wonderfully smooth. Check seasoning, its always easier
to add salt at the end.
I like to smear this on a plate, or place in a nice bowl, drizzling
with some olive oil, and sprinkling zatar a middle eastern spice mixture on
top, or paprika, or chickpeas, or pine nuts...
Serves 8.
Enjoy!