An authentic middle east recipe
Difficulty: Easy4
servings2
hours45
minutes1500
kcalÂ
How wonderful it smells. There is no better scent in the house than the smell of homemade bread. It gives me, Alexandra, the feeling of warmth and security. The feeling of being at home. Today, I would like to introduce you to the Jewish Shabbat bread.
It is baked on Friday morning (just before Shabbat) to be eaten on Shabbat night for the Shabbat feast. Most often, two such "Challot" are baked (one with sesame seeds and one with poppy seeds). The double portion is meant to commemorate the manna that the Israelites ate during their 40-year wandering in the desert (see Exodus 16:21-23).
At the Shabbat meal, after the blessing over the wine, the blessing is said over the bread. After that, the challah bread is broken, and everyone seated at the table is given a piece of bread sprinkled with a little salt. This is how the meal begins. A great authentic recipe from Israel.
Ingredients
4.5 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp kosher salt
1.5 tbs dry yeast
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 fl oz water
2 pcs eggs
Directions
- Mix the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a bowl. In another bowl, mix the liquid ingredients (butter, eggs and water).
- Now add the liquid ingredients to the dry ones.
- Mix everything well with a spoon.
- When everything has been mixed to a mass, you can knead it. About 10 minutes. The dough should be smooth and supple.
- Then let the dough rise in a bowl for an hour.
- Knead the dough vigorously again to get the air out, and then let it rest for another hour.
- Now you can braid the dough. There are so many variations to form a challah braid. I prefer the "4 strand braid". (A triple braid is shown in the photo). The braided strands should be between 8-10 inches long.
- Preheat the oven to 375 Fahrenheit (190 Degrees Celsius )
- After “braiding”, leave the braid covered for an hour.
- Brush the bread with egg white and sprinkle with either sesame or poppy seeds.
- Bake for 25-30 mins until golden brown. If necessary, cover the bread with aluminium foil for the last few minutes to prevent the top from burning.
- The bread should cool completely before it is broken.
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