Challah at Ya Later!

Challah, don't ask me where its originally from because believe me I have had a few ask, and I haven't a clue! Wherever its from its DANG GOOD! More of a pastry bread so I would recommend having it for breakfast or even dessert. I made a large batch of the No-Knead dough I talked about when I made the cinnamon rolls a few weeks ago and was able to get two batches of Challah. One I mixed with Chocolate Chips and the other...an Easter gift for my Mom and Flo! That one I topped with a cream cheese icing and blueberries.

Here is the "master" recipe:

1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tbl instant yeast
1 1/2 tbl kosher salt (or 1 1/2 tsp table salt)
4 lg eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup honey *(I used agave here)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted**
7 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, water, honey, melted butter, yeast and salt. Stir well with a wooden spoon. Add in the flour. STIR, BABY STIR!!! Stir until you don’t see any more dry bits of flour (about a minute). Cover (not airtight) and stick it in the refrigerator overnight, or up to 4 days. The longer you let it hang out in the refrigerator, the better tasting the dough will be.

You could also let it rise for 2 hours on the counter, pinch off the dough that you need to make what you want. However, the bread isn’t supposedly as flavorful as if you had let it sit 1-4 days in the refrigerator. Its ready to use!

**I recently read about Coconut Oil and it's benefits, so of course I bought some to try it out! I substituted the C.O. instead of the butter in this recipe on my second go around, it was awesome, no difference in taste and texture was the same! I'm excited to try it on other things now!!

Here are a few links of recipes I have found but really making it your own is the fun part!!
Nutella and Roasted Hazelnut Challah, No-Knead Sticky Pecan Buns, Pumpkin Pie Sticky Buns



If your real nice I will make you one too! :) They were fun and pretty easy to make. I loved how they looked absolutely beautiful out of the oven. I almost didn't want to touch it, but glad I did because it was great! And I really like how you can adapt this recipe to any fun thing your heart desires...just be creative! This recipe is from a book I really really want called Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. P and I went to the book store this past weekend and I almost drooled on the pages of this book...it will have to be my next holiday prize!