Hand made challah dough

Silver Member Joined: Feb 24 2011 Posts: 684

I have a 6qt kitchen aid, and while it 'should' be good for kneading 5lbs of dough, im always nervous bc the mixer looks like its going crazy...
anybody have a good/easy recipe that is good with hand kneading?

Posted: Thu, Apr 19 2012, 1:28 pm Post subject: re: hand made challah dough

I make five pounds of flour by hand.
copied and pasted from my friend's recipe

5 lb flour (about 16 cups)
6 tsp salt
1 1/2 c sugar or 1 c sugar and 1/2 c honey
6 eggs
1 c oil
2 c. warm water
5 tsp yeast mixed with 2 t sugar and 2 c warm water
Total flour: 5 lbs.

Combine warm water, some of the sugar, and yeast. Let it do its thing for a few minutes and it will start to get a little bubblyish/foamy within a couple of minutes. If it doesn�t�don�t panic. Let it sit another couple of minutes. If it smells yeasty and is starting to get warm, even if you don�t see the bubbles, it�s working. If it does nothing thats bad; check the water to see that it's warm. If it is and the yeast is doing nothing, you might need to get new yeast.Mix flour, sugar, and salt; make a well (kind of a hole in the middle of the pile of the flour-sugar-salt mixture).
Add oil, eggs, water (honey, if using), and yeast mixture into the well.
Knead well.
(take challah (with or without a bracha) if appropriate)
Rub oil on the dough and let rise in a covered bowl for approx. 1 hour, or until roughly doubled in size (again, if it�s not double the size but it�s getting bigger, don�t worry; let it sit a little longer. It's more important to have it double than let it sit for exactly 1 hour).
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit (depending on how long your oven takes to heat up; you want to time it so that your oven is heated up just before you're ready to put the challah in to bake).
Punch down and shape.
(optional: Let dough have a second rise for 1 hour/until approx. doubled in size)
Let rise � hour on a covered baking pan (or in a challah pan if you have those). If you want to add anything like chocolate chips/raisins/craisins/other to the challah and have not yet, now would be the time; I do not add anything in this recipe because it's really good without add-ins.
Sprinkle on poppy seeds/sesame seeds/oatmeal/cinnamon-sugar/za'atar/anything else you want to
Bake until crust is medium brown (can spray with Pam after a few minutes to make the top crusty) and challah feels light (pick it up. If it jiggles or is heavy, it�s not done). You can also turn it over (pop it out of the pan if using a pan) and tap the bottom. If it sounds kind of hollow, it's done. Rolls need approx. 20 minutes, braided challahs need approx. 35-45 minutes, and pull-apart challahs need approx. 25-35 minutes.

Note about this dough: It is a very, very soft, sticky dough. Don't panic because it sticks to your hands and the other dough(s) did not...that's normal. I usually sprinkle LOTS of flour when shaping the dough.

Posted: Thu, Apr 19 2012, 1:30 pm Post subject: re: hand made challah dough

I use a regular 5 lb. flour recipe for challah. I knead it in a large bowl by hand for 10 minutes. My Kitchenaid can't handle challah dough either!