Sunday, July 22, 2012

White Chocolate Blueberry Cream Cheese Challah

Jenn and I had to work on Friday and didn't have time to make a challah,  so we decided to make Saturday Challahday. There is a cute blueberry farm a few minutes from our house where we have gone blueberry picking the past three Saturdays. Usually we make a blueberry pie, however we thought that this week we would make a blueberry challah. Jenn isn't crazy about baked blueberries so we knew that it couldn't just be blueberry challah. I started searching online for ideas and came across a recipe for blueberry cheesecake challah. We used that as our inspiration for the week and put our "challah sisters" flair into it.


Before we could make our challah we had to stop at Shaw's to get some ingredients. Shaw's is currently having a summer giveaway where you collect game tickets by buying select bonus items and if you get the right pieces you can win prizes like 1 million dollars!!! Well Saturday was triple ticket day so Jenn was all over it. She went down every aisle to find bonus ticket items. Lets just say I have not seen our shopping cart this full in a long time and we ended up buying a lot of stuff we probably didn't need. After ringing up our items in two separate orders, to get more tickets duh, we left with 54 tickets, all of which we already had.

Recipe: (makes 1 big loaf)
1/2 cup of water
1/2 tsp granulated (white) sugar
1 packet of active dry yeast (about 2 tsp)
3 extra large eggs: 2 for dough and 1 for baste
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp oil
2 oz cream cheese
1/2 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
Blueberries (room temperature)
White Chocolate chips

Pour the water into a large mixing bowl. Mix in yeast and granulated sugar. Let stand for about 10 minutes or until the mixture starts to foam. Combine eggs, brown sugar, oil, cream cheese, honey and vanilla in a separate bowl. Add to the yeast mixture only after it has foamed and mix with a wooden spoon. It is okay for there to be chunks of cream cheese. This will go away when you knead the dough.


Add a 1/2 cup of flour at a time and mix the ingredients as you continue to add flour. After 1 cup of flour, add the salt, followed by the rest of the flour. Continue to add flour until the dough is no longer sticking to you hands.

Knead the ingredients until smooth and elastic and then form into a ball. Place the ball back in the bowl and then cover with plastic wrap for about an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size. Make sure the bowl is placed in a warm area.

Once the dough has doubled, knead it again to get the air out of it. Then put it back in the bowl and again cover with plastic wrap. This time it only needs to sit for about 30-60 minutes.

Remove from bowl and knead the dough again. We decided to make a round challah but feel free to do what every challah you want. Roll out your strands and add the blueberries and white chocolate. Jenn isn't a big fan of baked blueberries so we did not want to add too many, but this ended up being the right amount of blueberries. However, we definitely should have added more white chocolate.


Instead of folding up the strands and pinching them at the top, we rolled the strands and then pinched them closed.

After braiding our challah, we placed it back in our bowl (because it was round) and covered it with a damp towel. Allow the challah to rise for about 30 minutes then move to buttered cooking sheet and brush the challah with egg wash. This week our egg wash consisted of 1 egg, 1/2 tbsp water, and some brown sugar. We also sprinkled some brown sugar on top of the baste.

Cook for 40-60 minutes at 350. Usually our challahs only cook for 30 minutes but because it was round it cooked for longer. The challah is done cooking when the internal temperature is around 170 degrees or when the inside is no longer doughy. If the top of your challah reaches your desired color but the inside is not cooked enough yet, place foil over the challah in the oven.

By the time we were done eating most of the challah, we were too full to even have dinner. Although I say every week that this is our best challah, well this week really was our best challah!


Round Challah

Round challahs are perfect for Rosh Hashanah, but they can really be made whenever.

Step 1: Divide the dough into four equal balls.


Step 2: Roll out the balls into strands. The longer the strands the more braiding you will have to do.


Step 3: Arrange the strands like the photo below, using an over under pattern.


Step 4: Moving counterclockwise, cross 2 over 1, 8 over 7, 6 over 5, and 4 over 3.


Step 5: Reverse and go clockwise, bringing 1 over 4, 3 over 6, 5 over 8, and 7 over 2.


Step 6: Working counterclockwise again, bring 4 over 7, 2 over 5, 8 over 3, and 6 over 1.


Step 7: Back to clockwise, bring 7 over 6, 1 over 8, 3 over 2, and 5 over 4.


As you can probably tell, every step you do follows the under over pattern. If a strand went over one step it will have to go under the next step.

Because of the length of my strands I had to use 4 steps to braid my challah (steps 4-7). If your strands are very long you may need to use more than 4 steps to braid the challah. In this case just continue the pattern until there is not enough length in the strands to continue braiding. If your strands are small you may not need to use all four of the steps above, steps 4-7, but rather only steps 4-6 and skip step 7.

Step 8: Pinch the end of the strands together to create loops.


Step 9: Flip the challah over and pinch all the strands together underneath.


Step 10: Flip the challah back over and you are done!


Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. It may take longer depending on how big the challah is after braiding it. You want the internal temperature to be about 170 degrees, or until the center is no longer doughy. To prevent too much browning on the outside we covered the challah with foil in the oven.


Sunday, July 15, 2012

Funfetti Challah

We had quite a week! Our family friends Ariel and Caryl came to visit us and we spent the day on Newbury street. We went into every cupcake shop and were very disappointed with the tiny size of the cupcakes. Oh and fyi Johnny Cupcakes does not sell cupcakes, they do however sell shirts in cake displays. We ended up going to Georgetown Cupcakes, the same people who have the tv show DC Cupcakes on TLC. Let me start off by saying that I HATE that show. The owners are whiny and annoying. However, their Marble Brownie Fudge cupcake was very good. Despite the poor layout of the store, and their refusal to give you cupcakes on display (making us wait 15 minutes), you can watch them make the cupcakes in the shop which was pretty cool.

Anyway, my 20th birthday was on Friday so obviously it was time to make a birthday challah. And nothing screams birthday quite like funfetti.

Recipe: (makes 2 loaves)
3/4 cup of water
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/4 tbsp honey
3 jumbo eggs: 2 for dough and 1 for egg baste
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
Sprinkles

Start off by pouring warm water into a large bowl. Add the sugar, yeast, and honey to the water. Lightly mix all the ingredients with a wooden spoon. Let the ingredients sit for a little over 10 minutes, you will start to see some bubbles.

Mix the eggs, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract together in a separate bowl and then add to the large bowl.

Start off by adding 2 cups of flour. Be sure to mix the ingredients as you add the flour. Add the salt after the first 2 cups of flour, followed by the rest of the flour.

The recipe calls for 4 cups of flour but we used about a little more, I think this is because of the added vanilla extract. Add the flour until the dough is no longer sticking to your hands, but make sure that you don't add too much flour and the dough becomes stuffy.

Knead the ingredients with your hands and then form into a ball. Place the ball back into the large bowl and cover with saran wrap. Let the dough rise for at least an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.

                                          Before                                                         After

Once the dough has doubled, knead it again so that all the air bubbles come out. Then add the sprinkles. The more you knead the challah after you add the sprinkles, the more the color from the sprinkles will be seen in the dough.


This week we did a 5 strand challah but feel free to do any braid you want. Then let it sit for about 20 minutes so that the dough can continue to rise. We got impatient and only waited 10 minutes which I think is why the challahs stretched so much in the oven. Butter the cookie sheet while you wait. After placing the challah on the buttered sheet, baste the challah with the remaining egg. The egg should be previously mixed with a fork. We added sprinkles on top of the baste but you don't have to.


Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350.



The vanilla extract was definitely a good idea! I think we might add it more often, depending on the challah.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Challah

We had a pretty crazy week here. I had to wake up early to make the challahs because we went on a boat ride on Friday and the challahs had to be done before we left. Also Jenn's friend Via was coming to visit so we had to make sure that we had good challahs, so the pressure was on.


I couldn't come up with a challah of the week and ended up wandering around my favorite place, Sudbury Farms, for a half hour for some inspiration. A few days earlier I had seen a cinnamon raisin peanut butter from Peanut Butter & Co and decided I would make a cinnamon raisin challah with a peanut butter filling. So after 30 minutes in the super market all I left with was a box of raisins and 5 stolen peanut butter coupons.

Recipe: (makes 2 loaves)
3/4 cup of water
2 tsp active dry yeast
1.5 tbsp honey
3 jumbo eggs: 2 for dough and 1 for egg baste
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1.5 tbsp sugar
3-4 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
Raisins
Cinnamon Raisin Swirl by Peanut Butter & Co

Start off by pouring warm water into a large bowl. Our friend Stacy told us that adding sugar when adding the yeast helps the dough to rise. So add 1 tbsp of sugar, yeast, and honey to the water. Lightly mix all the ingredients with a wooden spoon. Let the ingredients sit for a little over 10 minutes, you will start to see some bubbles.

Mix the eggs and vegetable oil together until the liquid is consistent throughout and then add to the large bowl.

Add the rest of the sugar (2 tbsp) and half of the flour. Then add the salt and cinnamon, followed by the rest of the flour. It is important that the dough is not completely solid when adding the cinnamon, because that makes it hard to evenly spread. Also, salt kills yeast so it's important not to add the salt before adding at least half the flour.

The recipe calls for 4 cups of flour but we used about 3.5 or 3.75 cups this time. You want to add flour until the dough is no longer sticking to your hands. When you knead the dough it should seem airy.

                                          Before                                                         After

Knead the ingredients with your hands and then form into a ball. Place the ball back into the large bowl and cover with saran wrap (plastic wrap). Let the dough rise for at least an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.


Once the dough has doubled, knead it again so that all the air bubbles come out.

We chose to do a 3 strand challah because we wanted to put the peanut butter inside the challah. Usually when we do a filled challah we like to do 3 strands so that it doesn't end up huge. But feel free to do as many strands as you want.

When you have the challah into balls add the raisins. Then roll out the balls into strands and flatten them out.


Add the peanut butter on top of each strand and then close the strand by pinching it. Braid the challah and then let it sit for about 10-20 minutes. Butter the cookie sheet while you wait. After placing the challah on the buttered sheet, baste the challah with the remaining egg. The egg should be previously mixed with a fork.

Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 or until internal temperature is around 170 degrees.




Wow that was some good challah! It definitely needed some more peanut butter so next time we will have to flatten out the strands even more. Also we should have added more raisins. Many times when adding stuff like raisins or chocolate it looks like you have too much, but you have to keep in mind that the dough will expand in the oven so the ratio will be different.

Cinnamon Sugar Challah

This week has been full of fun activities! Our mom has recently become obsessed with Groupon so she keeps finding us stuff to do in the Boston area. Since we only moved up here last summer, we are not very familiar with the area, which allows us to do all the touristy stuff. We started off the week by going on the duck tour (quack quack) and then ended it with a boat ride.

Instead of making one challah on Friday, we decided to make two. Jenn isn't a big fan or raisins so a cinnamon sugar challah was a great alternative. We were able to use the same cinnamon dough. The only differences came after after the dough sat for an hour. Jenn was skating that morning so our mom helped instead.

Like I said in our previous post, we were pressed for time because we were going on a boat ride and had to finish our challahs before we left, but we still found time to take Bailey to the park for a swim.


Recipe: (makes 2 loaves)
3/4 cup of water
2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/4 tbsp honey
3 jumbo eggs: 2 for dough and 1 for egg baste
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 tbsp sugar
4 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
Extra cinnamon, sugar, and butter

Start off by pouring warm water into a large bowl. Our friend Stacy told us that adding sugar when adding the yeast helps the dough to rise. So add 1 tbsp of sugar, yeast, and honey to the water. Lightly mix all the ingredients with a wooden spoon. Let the ingredients sit for a little over 10 minutes, you will start to see some bubbles.

Mix the eggs (whites and yoke) and vegetable oil together and then add to the large bowl.

Add the rest of the sugar (2 tbsp) and half of the flour. Then add the salt and cinnamon, followed by the rest of the flour. It is important that the dough is not completely solid when adding the cinnamon, because that makes it hard to evenly spread. Also, salt kills yeast so it's important not to add the salt before adding at least half the flour.

The recipe calls for 4 cups of flour but we used about 3 1/2 or 3 3/4 cups this time. You want to add flour until the dough is no longer sticking to your hands. The dough should still seem airy when it is done. If you add too much flour the dough will have more resistance.

Knead the ingredients with your hands and then form into a ball. Place the ball back into the large bowl and cover with saran wrap (plastic wrap). Let the dough rise for at least an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Once the dough has doubled, knead it again so that all the air bubbles come out.

We chose to do a 3 strand challah because we wanted to put the cinnamon sugar mixture inside the challah. Usually when we do a filled challah we like to do 3 strands so that it doesn't end up huge. But feel free to do as many strands as you want.

Roll out the strands and flatten them.


To make the cinnamon sugar mixture mix cinnamon and sugar in a cup. We want a 3:1 ratio where there is 3x as much cinnamon as sugar. Then melt the butter in the microwave.


Add a layer of the melted butter and then the cinnamon sugar mixture on top.


Close the strand by pinching it. Braid the challah and then let it sit for about 10-20 minutes. Butter the cookie sheet while you wait. After placing the challah on the buttered sheet, baste the challah with the remaining egg. The egg should be previously mixed with a fork.


Add the cinnamon sugar mixture to the top of the basted challah. My mom added some butter to the top too.


Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 or until internal temperature is around 170 degrees.



I have to say that this is one of our best challahs yet! It definitely needed more of the cinnamon sugar mixture inside. Next time we will have to flatten out the strands more before adding the filling.