No, I don't mean making Challah in your slow cooker. I mean a recipe that makes it possible for even "slow cookers" to manage to make delicious home made Challah. For years I had a love/hate relationship with baking Challah. Sometimes it would be fine, sometimes hard as rock and once I had accidently tripled the amount of honey and created what my girls called "candy challah" and they begged me for years to purposely made this mistake again.
I had pretty much given up the venture when a few years ago some of the ladies in my community started baking Challah in honor of a friend of Tali's who was very sick and I felt that it was time for me to face this Challah-phobia and in honor of Zachary Shporer z"l, I tried again. My friend Janice gave me Mrs. Shemtov's (Mariashi's mother's) recipe and promised that "no one can mess this one up". I thought she was underestimating my ability but I gave it a try. Sure enough, it came out ok. I even felt confident enough after a few tries to substitute a few ingredients like whole wheat flour and honey instead of the sugar. A few months after I joined the league of Jewish Lady Challah bakers we tragically lost Zachary of blessed memory, and I still dedicate each Challah I make to his merit.
I had pretty much given up the venture when a few years ago some of the ladies in my community started baking Challah in honor of a friend of Tali's who was very sick and I felt that it was time for me to face this Challah-phobia and in honor of Zachary Shporer z"l, I tried again. My friend Janice gave me Mrs. Shemtov's (Mariashi's mother's) recipe and promised that "no one can mess this one up". I thought she was underestimating my ability but I gave it a try. Sure enough, it came out ok. I even felt confident enough after a few tries to substitute a few ingredients like whole wheat flour and honey instead of the sugar. A few months after I joined the league of Jewish Lady Challah bakers we tragically lost Zachary of blessed memory, and I still dedicate each Challah I make to his merit.
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So here it is--the Challah recipe for "slow cookers" with some of my own additions.
3 envelopes of yeast
3/4 cup of lukewarm water
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. flour
Mix and let it sit until it begins to bubble. If it doesn't bubble or it rises up and goes flat, throw it out and start over or your will waste a lot of flour on hard challah.
While it is rising take two big bowls and put the flour in one and the liquid ingredients in the other.
11 cups of flour. I use 6 cups of white whole wheat and 5 cups of bread flour.
Liquid ingredients:
2.5 cups of lukewarm water
3 tsp. salt (technically dry but it blends in more uniformly here)
1 cup of honey (if you are lucky maybe you have some honey from Israel especially from the Green family in K'far Achim)
1/3 cup of oil
2 eggs and the white of a third one. Save the yolk for later.
Mix the dry, wet and bubbly bits together until manageable. I have a kitchenaide stand mixer with dough hooks and I find that in small chunks this will knead the dough nicely in just a few minutes. If it is too wet you can add a little more flour here.
Spray some oil on plastic wrap and cover the dough and let it rise for about 45 minutes. I heat my over up to 170 and then turn it off and put the bowl in the oven. This gives the dough a nice warm place to rise.
After 45 minutes, punch it down and shape the Challah. Take a small piece at this point and say the Bracha that ends להפריש חלה Le-hafrish challah. This small part that is separated is burned and not for eating.
Let the Challah rise 30 more minutes then brush it with the egg yolk (I mix it up with a little water and honey) and you can sprinkle it with poppy sesame seeds and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees or till golden brown.
Happy baking slow cookers
Donna
3 envelopes of yeast
3/4 cup of lukewarm water
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. flour
Mix and let it sit until it begins to bubble. If it doesn't bubble or it rises up and goes flat, throw it out and start over or your will waste a lot of flour on hard challah.
While it is rising take two big bowls and put the flour in one and the liquid ingredients in the other.
11 cups of flour. I use 6 cups of white whole wheat and 5 cups of bread flour.
Liquid ingredients:
2.5 cups of lukewarm water
3 tsp. salt (technically dry but it blends in more uniformly here)
1 cup of honey (if you are lucky maybe you have some honey from Israel especially from the Green family in K'far Achim)
1/3 cup of oil
2 eggs and the white of a third one. Save the yolk for later.
Mix the dry, wet and bubbly bits together until manageable. I have a kitchenaide stand mixer with dough hooks and I find that in small chunks this will knead the dough nicely in just a few minutes. If it is too wet you can add a little more flour here.
Spray some oil on plastic wrap and cover the dough and let it rise for about 45 minutes. I heat my over up to 170 and then turn it off and put the bowl in the oven. This gives the dough a nice warm place to rise.
After 45 minutes, punch it down and shape the Challah. Take a small piece at this point and say the Bracha that ends להפריש חלה Le-hafrish challah. This small part that is separated is burned and not for eating.
Let the Challah rise 30 more minutes then brush it with the egg yolk (I mix it up with a little water and honey) and you can sprinkle it with poppy sesame seeds and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees or till golden brown.
Happy baking slow cookers
Donna