Foodie Fridays – Challah

Happy Friday!

Honestly, ever since Tony Bourdain passed away, I just haven’t felt right doing anything food related. I guess, not posting about food at all, was my way of paying respects to one of my favorite people. I realized, that at some point, I will have to return to these posts and maybe even honor him through a few of them. That gave me the peace and balance I needed to return to something I am so passionate about, food. What better way to kick off my foodie Fridays posts than to talk about my favorite thing to make right now challah.

I am super excited to share all the cool new content with you, and I am even more excited to start featuring new recipes I’ve been trying and new food bloggers that have inspired me recently. Thank you guys for being patient with me throughout this time, and without further ado welcome back to Foodie Fridays!

Over the last few weeks I have been obsessed with Challah and finding that perfect recipe. Let’s be real, everyone has their things that they like about challah. I happen to like my challah pretty doughy and moist, not like brioche, which many prefer. It was a bit difficult to find the recipes that would produce that amazing moist doughy challah, but I think after a few weeks of testing I found the winners.

Challah II is the first recipe I tried from AllRecipes, I liked how easy and straightforward the recipe was. I made one change and that was letting the challah rise for a few hours instead of just one. My other suggestion for this was, if you end up making a few smaller challahs from this recipe, remember to cut down the baking time, otherwise the challahs will be over baked. This recipe was good, and I recommend it if you have never made challah before, but I wanted a sweeter and maybe more chewy and dense challah.

The second recipe I tried was Sweet Challah also from AllRecipes and this one was much closer to what I wanted. The recipe was bit more involved, but still it was easy to follow and substitute things if need be. I used Avocado oil instead of vegetable oil and I used used honey instead of the sugar. I also doubled the recipe which I don’t think I will do again because I didn’t have enough bowls for the dough to rise. Only do this if you have room for that much dough.

Finally the third and final recipe is the one from Jamie Geller’s e-book that you can download on her site. The guide is amazing. It has everything you need to know for making challah and has some great tips tricks. I have now made this recipe twice and I can’t say enough good things about it. The challah comes out moist and is incredibly delicious. I will say that this is the most involved recipe, theres 4 proofs, but let me tell you it is so worth it. She even includes toping and dipping ideas (everything bagel seasoning used on these challah rolls is amazing).

Whats your favorite challah recipe?