Gluten Free Challah

This week I officially became an aunt (to a human)! I've been an aunt to my brother's dog Beau for a few years. My brother and sister-in-law get very upset if you say I wasn't an aunt before. But this week my sister-in-law gave birth to my nephew Dylan Scott Marshall, named after his maternal great-grandmother Dorothy and paternal great-grandfather Sheldon. He's literally the cutest baby, even when he cries. And he has the cutest big cheeks, which def come from me because I'm the only one in the family with big cheeks. Covid complicates things because I can't just go and see him, so for right now I'm settling for lots of pics and facetime. But I cannot wait to spoil that baby! My mom always called my brother "Muff" or Muffin Man, I was princess pie (and she wonders why I'm a JAP) and my sister baby cake. So I think we need to start calling Dylan mini-muffin, or maybe some other baked good. Knowing my brother who has given Beau a million names including Beau-Beau, Beausy, Snoop Dog, Snoop.... and the list goes on.... we will probably never cause Dylan by his actual name.

I've never baked anything gluten free before. But we are having a healthy holiday bake-off at work and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to make a gluten free challah! I probably need to do a little more experimenting with the recipe. But not bad for a first attempt!

Recipe: (makes 1 large challah)

3/4 cup water

2 1/4 tsp yeast
4 tbsp honey

2 tbsp sugar
3 extra large eggs: 2 for dough, 1 for baste

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp xanthan gum
1.75 cups gluten free flour (I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour that contains some xanthan gum)

1.75 cups almond flour

Mix 3/4 cup water, 2 1/4 tsp yeast, 4 tbsp honey and 2 tbsp of sugar 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 a warm oven and then turn off the oven. Let stand for about 10-15 minutes or until the mixture starts to foam.

In a separate bowl mix 2 eggs and 1/4 cup oil. Add to the yeast mixture after it has foamed. Add salt,  xanthan gum, gluten free flour, and almond 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 dough into a ball.

Oil the large bowl and then roll the ball of dough in the oil. This prevents the dough from sticking to the bowl as it rises. Place the ball back in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place it in a warm place. Let the bowl sit for about 1-2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size. The gluten free challah dough won't get as large as usual.

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

Separate the dough and roll out each ball into a strand. I did a six strand challah, but you can do whatever shape you want. Gluten free challah dough is much harder to braid and the strands kept breaking. The dough was almost like clay in that I kept trying to piece it back together or smooth the cracks. 

After braiding the challah, either butter a cookie sheet or use parchment paper and place on a pan and cover with plastic wrap and allow the 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 mixed).

Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 or until 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 while the inside continues to cook.

Not bad for my first time cooking gluten free!

Black & White Challah

I've survived another week of social distancing! My living room is now a home gym / puzzle room / tv room. Luckily for me, my roommate went to her mom's house so I'm able to take over the living room. I've made some progress on my puzzle but it's almost at the point of being more stressful than relaxing and I'm very tempted to throw it in the garbage. My Peloton also came this weekend so I can finally get some cardio in. I almost passed out after my first class. I had to lay on the floor for a while. Which is kind of depressing seeing as I teach fitness classes and used to teach cycle, but I'm going to blame it on the fact that I was too hot. This morning I opened a window and moved a fan in front of the bike, which helped, I only needed to lay on the floor after class for a few minutes. I almost felt sorry for my neighbors that they had to listen to the loud music at 7am but after all the opera I have to listen to from my upstairs neighbor I really don't care what anyone has to say. But I really need to up my game since we are doing a Peloton challenge at work and ~83% of my coworkers are men so I'm at a disadvantage.

I thought I might get lonely being home alone but I'm loving it. We've had so many video meetings at work and last week even had a virtual happy hour that I feel like I'm interacting almost as much as I did when I was in the office. Although virtual happy hours sound great in theory, they aren't so great in practice. I ended up drunk at 5pm on a Thursday with no where to go, and that was only after 2 beers. This week we have a BYOW (bring your own whatever) and I think I might opt for water instead.

This week's challah is SUPER sweet filled with sugar and chocolate chips. Social distancing is dangerous because I can't share the challah and ended up eating most of it myself.

Recipe: (makes 1 large challah)

3/4 cup water

2 tsp yeast
4 tbsp honey
3 tbsp white sugar
3 extra large eggs: 2 for dough, 1 for baste

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp salt
3.5 cups flour
Chocolate Chips
White Chocolate Chips

White dough: Mix 3/8 cup water, 1 tsp yeast, 2 tbsp honey, and 1 tbsp sugar in a mixing bowl.
Chocolate dough: Mix 3/8 cup water, 1 tsp yeast, 2 tbsp honey, and 2 tbsp sugar 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 a warm oven and then turn off the oven. Let stand for about 10-15 minutes or until the mixture starts to foam.

White dough: In a separate bowl mix 1 egg and 1/8 cup oil.
Chocolate dough: In a separate bowl mix 1 egg, 1/8 cup oil, and 2 tbsp cocoa powder.

Separately add to the yeast mixture after it has foamed. Add salt and 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 dough into a ball.

Oil the large bowls and then roll the balls of dough in the oil. This prevents the dough from sticking to the bowl as it rises. Place the ball back in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place it in a warm place. Let the bowl sit for about 1-2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Remove dough from bowls and knead to get out all the air.

Separate the dough and roll out each ball into a strand. Place chocolate chips on chocolate strands and white chocolate chips on white strands and pinch each strand closed. I did a six strand challah, but you can do whatever shape you want.

After braiding the challah, either butter a cookie sheet or use parchment paper and place on a pan and cover with plastic wrap and allow the 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 mixed).

Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 or until 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 while the inside continues to cook.

Makes great challah french toast too! Riley wanted a bite!

Everything but the Bagel Challah

I have officially survived my first week of social distancing! I always thought that working from home would be great, but I'm starting to go stir crazy only living in my 900 sq ft apartment with a roommate and no where to go. Some days I have less than 1,000 steps on my apple watch, which if you know me, it's a really hard thing to accept.

As a result of COVID-19 I'm now working from home for at least a month (although grateful to still have a job), the gyms are closed so I can't teach my fitness classes, and there is no shopping, not even online shopping (probably a blessing since I'm already banned from Nordstrom Rack online, but jokes on them because I just use a different email address for orders). I would complain that I can't go on dates but honestly that's a plus for me. Instead now, aside from work, I spend my days doing puzzles (see picture below of my roommate, you can tell we are serious from the desk lamp), reading, complaining about my neighbors with my roommate (one neighbor sings opera very loudly throughout the day and is singing right now as I blog at 9pm), going for walks outside, doing indoor workouts, and obviously lots of Netflix. Side note - highly recommend Jane the Virgin, of which I've watched 12 episodes in 2 days. My brother thought I would run out of shows if production stops, but I think I'll survive between my mom's Netflix and Showtime, my dad's HBO, and my Amazon Prime and YouTube TV.

I've also tried to maintain my mental health as well as the mental health of my coworkers by hosting video coffee breaks and organizing virtual mid-day meditation sessions. What's so hard about having to be home is you feel like because you can't go out that you should work all day long, but that is the wrong mindset. We need to take care of ourselves mentally and physically. To help with the physical aspect, I decided to invest in a Peloton and I'm praying that it comes before Peloton stops delivering. Hopefully making this challah and actually blogging about it puts me on God's good side, wink wink.

P.S. If anyone else is looking to puzzle, make sure to pick a puzzle with many colors. I very much regret picking sunflowers as the entire puzzle is yellow and green and I've made minimal progress

Recipe: (makes 1 large challah)

3/4 cup water

2 1/4 tsp yeast
4 tbsp honey
3 extra large eggs: 2 for dough, 1 for baste

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/4 tsp salt
3.5 cups flour
Trader Joe's Everything but the Bagel Seasoning

Mix 3/4 cup water, 2 1/4 tsp yeast, and 4 tbsp 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 a warm oven and then turn off the oven. Let stand for about 10-15 minutes or until the mixture starts to foam.

In a separate bowl mix 2 eggs and 1/4 cup oil. Add to the yeast mixture after it has foamed. Add salt and 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 dough into a ball.

Oil the large bowl and then roll the ball of dough in the oil. This prevents the dough from sticking to the bowl as it rises. Place the ball back in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place it in a warm place. Let the bowl sit for about 1-2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size.

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

Separate the dough and roll out each ball into a strand. I did a six strand challah, but you can do whatever shape you want. Also I made a timelapse of me braiding the challah below :)

After braiding the challah, either butter a cookie sheet or use parchment paper and place on a pan and cover with plastic wrap and allow the 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 mixed). Sprinkle Everything but the Bagel seasoning on egg wash.

Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 or until 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 while the inside continues to cook.

So happy I combined my 2 favorite things.... BAEgels and Challah!