Wanna make challah in a hurry? From scratch? This is the method for you. In 100 minutes from NOW, you can be pulling a freshly baked challah from your oven and filling your home with the wonderful aroma of freshly baked bread.
How can this be? Is there a trick? Not really. A bit of technique, a little compromise, some science and a leap of faith is all you need. Well, you will also need the following ingredients. And a bowl.
1/2 cup warm water
3/4 teaspoon yeast
2 eggs (one for the dough and another for the egg wash)
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 cup sugar
1/8 cup salad oil
2 cups unbleached flour
sesame seeds (optional)
START THE CLOCK!
Minute 1:
Add the warm water to a bowl. Put the yeast in. Stir for a moment. Let it sit while you fetch the rest of the ingredients. This is important since yeast activity can be maximized by proper hydration/activation. So do this step first.
If you only have "Instant" yeast that says on the package you don't need to hydrate it, do it anyway. Doing so won't harm it and will improve performance slightly.
Minute 2 to 10:
Turn your oven on to 200 degrees to warm it up. We are making a warm spot for your dough to rise quickly.
Assemble the remaining ingredients and put them into the bowl. Remember that you are only using one egg. Stir with a spoon until all the flour has been in contact with the liquid.
Turn the oven off. Turn on the oven light - this should provide enough heat to keep the inside of the oven warm enough from now on - leaving the oven on would be too hot!
Cover the bowl and put it in the warm (not hot) oven. Set a timer for 14 minutes.
Minute 25:
The timer just rang! Take the dough from the oven and stretch and fold it. Put if back into the oven and set the timer for another 14 minutes.
Minute 40:
Repeat the stretch and fold and set your timer for 9 minutes. Put the dough back into the oven.
Minute 49:
Clear off the some counter space and drop about two tablespoons of flour in one spot. Drop a teaspoon of salad oil in another spot. Make sure you have enough room to roll out the dough.
Minute 50 to 60:
Take the dough out of the oven and drop it on top of the oil. The dough should be puffy and light. Roll the dough around and coat in in the oil.
Cut it into six even pieces.
Roll out each piece into a long cigar shape. Roll it on the counter. Don't overdo it. It shouldn't be overly rounded. Just roll it out two or three times back and forth. You will adjust the shape when you braid it. If you fuss too much at this point, your braids will end up uneven once they start to bake.
Drop the rolls into the flour to coat them.
Line up the six strands and pinch the tops together. Cross the two outermost strands on top.
You will braid the strands by bringing one of the top strands down into the middle of the four bottom strands, and then replacing the missing strand on top with the second-from-the-top strand from the bottom strands.
It sounds a lot more complicated than it really is.
Place the top strand in the middle, between the four lower pieces. Now replace the missing strand on top with the second strand from the top.
Bring the other top strand down into the middle.
And replace it with the second strand from the top.
Keep going.
If one strand seems to be too short, pull it a little more tightly as you braid it so that its end is as long as the other strands. When you reach the point where the strands are too short to braid, just pinch them together and tuck them underneath the bread.
I figure this can take about 10 minutes. If it takes a little longer, don't worry.
Minute 60 (more or less...) to 70:
Turn the oven on to 350 degrees to preheat it. Cover the bread and let it rise.
Minute 70-75:
Beat the remaining egg. Brush the dough with the egg. You may add a tablespoon of water to the egg mixture if you like.
If you like sesame seeds, grab a handful and wet one finger with the egg solution.
Dab your finger into the sesame seeds and lightly poke a round part of your challah. This will deposit some sesame seeds. Dip your finger into the seeds in your hand again to pick some more up and continue sticking some sesame seeds to the curves of your bread.
Minute 75 to 90:
Put it in the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
This is what it looks like at 80 minutes (5 minutes of baking):
Minute 90 to 100:
Open the oven door and rotate the bread 180 degrees so that it cooks evenly. Close the door and bake for another 10 minutes.
Minute 100:
It's done! Take it out of the oven and put it on a cooling rack.
Put the bread knife down, please! The bread really needs to cool a bit before you can eat it. It's done baking but there are still some chemical changes that need to take place while it's cooling before you can eat it. You are warned! If you try to eat it now, you will be disappointed - it's not turned into bread yet.
Wait about 20 minutes before eating it.
So what's the secret? As I said, compromise, science and faith.
The compromise:
Good bread takes time to make. There's no way around that. I usually recommend using a preferment or letting the dough rise slowly (such as in the fridge for 24 hours) to develop flavour. But, in a recipe like this one, there are other sources of flavour. The sugar, the oil and the egg add flavour to the dough so that the end result is fine without a preferment. That's one compromise.
You can always preferment this recipe if you like. Just add less yeast, and follow the same instructions. Before cutting the dough into six pieces, though, cover it and put it in the fridge until the next day before resuming the recipe. Your bread will taste even better!
We also rushed through developing the gluten in the dough. Fortunately, challah contains a lot of oil which alters the texture of the dough. It also contains egg which provides albumin, another kind of protein. The albumin will quickly develop the dough and provide an acceptable result.
To do a better job, stretch and fold three times (instead of two), and use a longer interval of time between S&Fs. You will notice an improved crumb structure in the final product.
The Science:
Yeast produces carbon dioxide when it eats sugar. Yeast also acts faster at higher temperatures. If you add a lot of yeast, you will produce more CO2. If you keep the dough in a warm spot, it will rise faster. We do both here and end up with a nice round bread.
The leap of faith:
There is something to be said about underproofing. That is, baking your bread before the dough has risen fully. In a braided bread, it's essential for the strands to remain distinct so that the final bread can have the correct shape. If the dough is too wet or has risen too much, the strands will melt into each other and you end up with a soccer-ball-looking challah.
Since we have packed the dough with yeast and have kept it warm for an hour before we bake it we have lots of yeast activity in the dough; we just don't see the proof yet! Underproofing requires faith.
You may be looking at the dough and think to yourself "this doesn't look right - this will never rise!" Have faith. If you have noticed a little rise during the process so far, you will see the bread rise in the oven. Close your eyes and take a leap!
For more bread ideas, visit Yeastspotting at imafoodblog.com