Saturday, December 29, 2012

Sufganiyot Challah

The best part about Chanukah, besides presents of course, is the food. Jelly donut challah was the obvious choice, especially since I figured that a latke challah wouldn't taste very good. This year we were "bad Jews." Although I celebrated the first night of Chanukah with both Hillel and Chabad at school, mom and Jenn did absolutely nothing. I didn't even light my own menorah until the 6th night. However, in my defense, I was at school for the first few days of Chanukah and I'm not allowed to light candles my sorority house.

Why is is that we feel guilty for not lighting candles or going to temple?

During my time in Israel we had a few speakers. One of them talked about what it means to be Jewish. His speech had two main points. His first point was that being Jewish is not a religion. His second point was that you cant be kind of Jewish or very Jewish, you are either Jewish or your not. After talking to our group's Israeli soldiers we learned that our soldiers don't go to temple, even for high holidays, and they don't know the prayers. This isn't uncommon in Israel, it is mostly just the orthodox Jews that go to temple. Judaism is just a way of life in Israel, for instance stores close early on Fridays and hotel elevators stop on every floor on Shabbat. Because we live in America and our county does not adopt such practices, we feel like we have to actively celebrate holidays rather than letting them just automatically be part of our lives. So we really weren't being "bad Jews" and my mom and sister weren't being any less Jewish than me.


Recipe: (makes 2 loaves)
3/4 cup water
1 pack of active dry yeast (about 2 tsp)
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp honey
3 extra large eggs: 2 for dough, 1 for baste
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
3-4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
Jelly
White chocolate chips
Granulated sugar

Mix water, yeast, white sugar, and honey in a mixing bowl. Place in a warm place. This could be next to a window that gets sunlight, or I like to place it in the oven at 120 degrees. Let stand for about 10-15 minutes or until the mixture starts to foam.



In a separate bowl mix 2 eggs, brown sugar, 2 tbsp oil, and vanilla. Add to the yeast mixture after it has foamed.

Add 2 cups of flour, followed by the salt, and then the rest of the flour. Make sure you mix the flour as you are adding it. Continue to add flour until the dough is no longer sticking to your hands.

Knead the ingredients and form into a ball. Oil the large bowl and then roll the ball of dough in the oil. Place the ball back in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place it in a warm place. Let the bowl sit for 30-60 minutes, or until he dough has doubled in size.

Remove dough from bowl and knead to get out all the air. Roll out the strands.

Scoop out jelly and smooth it out over the center of the strands. If you want you can add white chocolate chips on top of the jelly. No matter how much jelly you use it is going to leak out. Also jelly is a pain in the butt because it makes it nearly impossible to close the strands because it is wet and sticky.

We ended up taking out some of the jelly and chips because it was too full and the strands wouldn't close.

We made a three strand challah, single challah knots, and one spiral challah, but you can do any shape you like.


We made a three strand challah, single challah knots, and one spiral challah, but you can do any shape you like.

After braiding the challah place on a buttered cookie sheet and allow challah to rise for at least 30 minutes in a warm place. This allows the dough to rise again.


Baste with egg wash (1 egg and 1/2 tbsp water). Sprinkle granulated sugar on top of the baste.

Bake the knots and spiral for about 15-20 minutes, and three strand challah for about 30 minutes at 350 or until the internal temperature is around 170. If the top of the challah is getting too dark or hard then place a piece of foil on top of it.


 As much as I hate baking with jelly, this challah was delicious and perfect for Chanukah!!!

Rugulah Challah

One word: Birthright.
The past 10 days have been some of the best days of my life! Between the camel rides, climbing Masada, having my second Bat-Mitzvah, partying in hotels, being serenaded by an Israeli soldier, and swimming in the dead sea, nothing can possibly compare to this experience. Although this was far from my first trip to Israel, more like my 10th but I have kind of lost count, it was definitely the most memorable.

We started our trip in the north and went to both the Syrian and Lebanon border. While we were at the Syrian border we actually heard and saw gun shots which was kind of scary to think that people were dying as we watched. On the fourth day our group was joined by 6 Israeli soldiers who spent only 5 days with us. It was defiantly the soldiers that brought our group together. The first night they joined us we went to the hot springs, which was awesome, even though we smelled like sulfur for a few days.

We had the best soldiers! OH-IO
One of the most amazing parts of our trip was when we went to the Western Wall. There were tons of Israeli soldiers at the wall who were dancing and singing, and of course being the American that we are, we harassed them for a photo. I have to say that Yad Vashem was defiantly one of the sites that made the most impact. I had been to the holocaust museum in Washington DC, but it does not nearly compare to Yad Vashem. At the end of the museum there is a children's memorial that consists of 3 candles in the center of a dark room and mirrors that surround it. The reflection of the 3 candles makes the image of an infinite number of candles, representing the 1.5 million children that died in the holocaust.


Also while we were in Jerusalem I had my second Bat-Mitzvah. Even though it was just in our hotel, and all I had to do was say the prayer before and after the torah portion, it was just as much a Bat-Mitzvah as the one I prepared nearly a year for. But this time I actually wrote my own speech. The first time my Bat-Mitvah teacher said it was so bad that he rewrote the whole thing. The only thing I'm salty about is that I heard we would be lifted in the chairs after the ceremony and I was disappointed to learn that it was a lie. I mean I could live without the presents, but I at least wanted to be lifted in the chair or play snowball.

Our Camel Herrold
One of the hardest parts about our trip was saying goodbye to our soldiers. We only had a few days with them but we had gotten so close. After Jerusalem, we went south and spent the night in the Bedouin tents. That night we went out in the desert and had some time to reflect by ourselves. For some reason our tour guide decided we should go back to the camp without checking to see if everyone was there, so we ended up leaving 2 people alone in the desert, whoops. We had to wake up early the next morning for our 6:30am camel ride. I would share pictures but I'm not a morning person so I had to delete all the photos of me. The 10 minute climb up Masada wasn't bad, but apparently there is no real significance to it, or at least according to our tour guide it's only an American tourist place. We finished off the day with a swim in the dead sea. And warning, the sand at the dead sea isn't sand, its rocks, and walking barefoot is really really stupid and painful.

 We finished off our trip with an archeological dig and a crawl through the Beit Guvrin Caves, which got real dirty, as you can tell. We also visited the Rabin Center, which was actually kind of boring, and Independence Hall. We also got to do some shopping in Tel Aviv where two of our Israeli soldiers came to visit us one last time.


The reason i decided to make a rugulah challah after my trip was because my friend Michelle and I had gone to numerous bakeries, gelato shops, and crape places. Yumm!


Recipe: (makes 2 loaves)
3/4 cup water
1 pack of active dry yeast (about 2 tsp)
1.5 tbsp white sugar
1.5 tbsp honey
3 extra large eggs: 2 for dough, 1 for baste
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
3-4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
Chocolate chunks/chips

Mix water, yeast, white sugar, and honey in a mixing bowl. Place in a warm place. This could be next to a window that gets sunlight, or I like to place it in the oven at 120 degrees. Let stand for about 10-15 minutes or until the mixture starts to foam.


In a separate bowl mix 2 eggs, brown sugar, 2 tbsp oil, vanilla, and cinnamon. Add to the yeast mixture after it has foamed.

Add 2 cups of flour, followed by the salt, and then the rest of the flour. Make sure you mix the flour as you are adding it. Continue to add flour until the dough is no longer sticking to your hands.

Knead the ingredients and form into a ball. Oil the large bowl and then roll the ball of dough in the oil. Place the ball back in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place it in a warm place. Let the bowl sit for 30-60 minutes, or until he dough has doubled in size.


Remove dough from bowl and knead to get out all the air. Roll out the strands.

Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon on the strands and then place chocolate on top. If using chocolate chunks you may want to cut them up but that isn't necessary. 


We made a three strand challah and challah croissants but you can do any shape you like. We ended up with some extra dough so Jenn made a challah bomb, which kind of looks like an empanada.

After braiding the challah place on a buttered cookie sheet and allow challah to rise for at least 30 minutes in a warm place. This allows the dough to rise again.


Baste with egg wash (1 egg and 1/2 tbsp water). Feel free to sprinkle cinnamon or brown sugar on top of the egg wash. We didn't only because we already cleaned up the kitchen and didn't want to make a mess.

Bake the croissants and empanada for about 15-20 minutes, and three strand challah for about 30 minutes at 350 or until the internal temperature is around 170. If the top of the challah is getting too dark or hard then place a piece of foil on top of it.

Croissant Challah

When we decided to make Rugulah challah we knew that we needed to make some in the rugulah shape, or croissant shape. Like the knots, this shape is easy to make and great for individual portions.

Step 1: Roll out dough into a square or rectangle

Step 2: Slice dough into triangles


Step 3 (optional): Fill croissant


Step 4: Roll up the dough




Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes depending on the size of the crissants, or until the internal temperature is around 170.


Saturday, December 8, 2012

Pumpkin Chip Challah

Wow, what a busy semester! Now that school is coming to an end, and only 1 exam separates me from coming home, I am finally able to blog. Living in a sorority house I haven't been able to make challah because we aren't allowed to use the oven. However, when I went home to Boston for interviews for a summer internship I made tons of challah to bring back for all the girls in my sorority.

The week before I made the challahs my mom and I visited Jenn at Miami for skating parents weekend. We got to see all their programs which was very exciting, especially because only a few weeks later they won 1st place at their first competition of the season, and Jenn's first competition on the Miami University Senior Varsity Synchronized Skating Team.
Jenn Makes The Best Faces!
While I was home I interviewed at PwC and another big 4 accounting firm in Boston. This was my first time going to an office interview but they must have liked me because I will be interning at PwC this summer. I felt like such a big kid, especially because they paid for my flight and hotel room!! Jealous much?
Can you believe i'm going to be working here?!?!
Anyway, I have been dying to make pumpkin challah since the summer but it just was not the right season. This was one of our more difficult challah recipes to create because of the pumpkin puree. I personally think that the challah needed some more pumpkin, but we also did not want it to lose it's bread consistency. I'm gonna have to play around with this one a little more, but over all it was good challah.

Recipe: (makes 2 loaves)
3/4 cup water
1 packet of active dry yeast (about 2 tsp)
1 tbsp white sugar
1 cup pureed pumpkin
3 extra large eggs: 2 for dough, 1 for baste
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 tbsp oil
1/2 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
about 5 cups flour
1 tsp salt
Chocolate chunks
White chocolate chips
Pumpkin seeds

Mix water, yeast and white sugar into a mixing bowl. Place in a warm place. This could be next to a window that gets sunlight or I like to place it in the oven at 120 degrees. Let stand for about 10 minutes or until the mixture starts to foam.

 

In a separate bowl mix pumpkin, 2 eggs, brown sugar, 2 tbsp oil, honey, vanilla, and cinnamon. Add to the yeast mixture after it has foamed.

Add 2 cups of flour, followed by the salt, and then the rest of the flour. Make sure you mix the flour as you are adding it. Continue to add flour until the dough is no longer sticking to you hands.

Knead the ingredients and form into a ball. Oil the large bowl and then roll the ball of dough in the oil. Place the ball back in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place it in a warm place. Let the bowl sit for at least an hour and a half.



Remove from bowl and knead the dough to get out all the air. Roll out the strands. Place what ever type of chocolate you choose inside and pinch each strand closed.


We made four strand challah single challah knots and a round challah.

After braiding the challah place on a buttered cookie sheet and allow challah to rise for at least 30 minutes in a warm place.

If you want to put pumpkin seeds on the challah I would recommend toasting them while the dough rises.

Baste with egg wash (1 egg and 1/2 tbsp water) and then sprinkle the pumpkin seeds on the baste. 



Bake the knots for about 20 minutes, and round and four strand challah for about 30 minutes at 350 or until internal temperature is around 170.





And of course, to no surprise, the chocolate that oozed out was the best part, YUMM!!!

Monday, August 13, 2012

Hamsa Challah

Jenn's favorite part of the challah process is braiding the challah so we like to try out new shapes to keep her engaged.

Step 1: Roll out three strands. Jenn didn't really get what I was explain to her so one of the strands is way too long. Two of them should be about the same length and one should be a little more than half that size.

Step 2: Make hamsa shape, turning outside layer out.

Step 3: If necessary, adjust length of strands by cutting them with a knife.

Cook for about 25 minutes at 350 or until internal temperature is about 170.