Challah Bread

Courtesy of Rabbi Maurice Appelbaum of the Greenpoint Shul

Challah is a special type of braided bread, typically eaten by Jews on the Sabbath and other religious holidays. It is slightly sweet, light, always delicious and, it turns out, easy to make! We asked Maurice Appelbaum, the rabbi-in-residence at Greenpoint’s favorite shul Ahavas Israel, for some challah pointers and he happily obliged. He made sure to thank his friend, Orly Lieberman, who designed the basic recipe.

CHALLAH

Ingredients:

1 cup of water
2 eggs
1/4 cup of oil (canola or olive)
1/2 cup of honey
1 1/2 tsp of salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 2/3 cups regular flour
1/3 cup of vital wheat gluten flour
1 package of yeast (Rabbi Applebaum uses fresh yeast, though packaged yeast is fine too).

Directions:
1. Put ingredients into a bread machine, or hand-knead dough.
2. Without a bread machine, combine flour varieties, yeast and salt in a bowl and mix. Add water and oil, and mix. Beat in each of the eggs, one at a time.
3. When the dough is done, separate the dough in two.
4. Braid the two loaves and place on a greased pan.
5. Leave the loaves to rise in warm damp place for an hour.
6. Smear with egg wash and bake on 350 for 20-30 minutes.

And voila…challah!

Stop by Ahavas Israel on Shabbat (Friday night) to taste Rabbi Appelbaum’s challah.

Ahavas Israel
108 Noble Street

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