During Rosh Hashanah, challah is made sweeter than the rest of the year. As I mentioned in previous posts, the sweetness is to symbolize a good year. Either by sprinkling the tops with cinnamon sugar, using a honey glaze, embedding raisins, or all of the above! Challahs are also made round to symbolize the circle of the life and a new year’s cycle. I’ve seen a number of methods to achieve round challahs. You can simply coil a challah rope up like a turban, others literally weave challahs {I’ll be trying this next year}.
This year, I happened to come across a simple video tutorial on Joy of Kosher that uses a knotted Havdalah candle method. I also experimented with a Havdalah candle braid and wrapped it inside a prepared bundt pan. Both rose in the pans for 30 minutes, brushed with egg wash, and were then baked at 375° for 10 minutes then dropped down to 350° for the remaining 20 minutes. I let them cool for 5 minutes and then popped them out onto wire racks to finish cooling.
For the bundt pan challah, I kneaded in cranberry raisins that are infused with pomegranate juice. YUM. For the knotted challah, I simply used organic raisins. Both are beautiful and have a lovely flavor.
See Round Challah on Key Ingredient.
| Rosh Hashanah: Round Challah |
Recipe type: Bread
Author:
Prep time: 90 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Total time: 2 hours
Rosh Hashanah calls for a sweeter challah. See how I took my tried and true challah recipe and sweetened things up!
Ingredients
- 2 TB yeast
- 1/3 cup warm water for yeast
- Up to 1/2 cup honey
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 TB organic sugar
- 1 TB kosher salt
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 3 jumbo eggs
- 6-7 cups unbleached bread flour
- Good handful of raisins +/or pomegranate juice infused Craisins
Directions
- In your mixer bowl, dissolve yeast with 1/3 cup warm water and honey.
- In a separate bowl, mix oil, salt, sugar, with 1 cup boiling water. Add the 1/2 cup cold water and stir. Beat eggs and reserve 1 TB of the beaten eggs for brushing tops of challah. Add the rest of the eggs and stir. Add to the dissolved yeast and stir. Slowly add 6-7 cups of flour and mix until the dough is ready to be kneaded, about 10 minutes.
- Turn out onto floured surface and knead for 2 minutes adding more flour if necessary, until it it no longer sticking to hands. Divide dough in half and knead raisins into one, Craisins into other. Return to bowls and cover with plastic wrap.
- Preheat oven to warm {about 200 degrees}. Once preheated wait one minute and turn oven off. Let dough rise until doubled in bulk in oven, about an hour.
- After dough has doubled, turn out onto a floured surface and knead again for 1-2 minutes. The dough should be quite elastic and forgiving. Separate into 3 equal parts. Roll each into a very long strand. Braid together: right to center, left to center, repeat. Place in sprayed bundt pan and cover to let rise {about 30 minutes}.
- Do the same with the other half: divide, roll, braid then tie into a knot and tuck the ends under. Place in prepared round baking dish and cover and let rise.
- Brush tops with reserved egg-wash. Optional: glaze with honey or cinnamon sugar.
- Bake at 375 degrees F. for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 20 minutes until golden in color {tap on loaf and you should hear a hollow sound} Remove and cool 5 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling completely.
L’shanah tovah,
About Mrs. Cox
Here you will find experimental recipes, old and new. Buried in the archives you'll find all sorts of recipes! As time went on, there was a shift and many recipes were given a 
