Vegan Challah
Submitted by Ashley
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| prep time: 2 1/2 hours | cooking time: 30 min | makes 2 medium braided loaves |
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I took a break from vegan cooking, long enough to master a delicious "Grandma Rosie's Fabulous Challah" recipe off the web. Now I'm back to an eggless kitchen so I worked out a way to have my weekly challah. The key, I think, is to have really really ripe bananas.
Other tips:
Get the water boiling beforehand, then take if off the stove. Cold water means very cold, but not with ice floating in it. "Wrist" temperature water feels neutral to your wrist, about 70 degrees.
Image from LA Kitchen
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Equipment:
large wooden or glass bowl
2 small bowls (not metal)
fork for mashing
wood spoon
good hands
Ingredients
2 1/2 Tbsp dry active yeast
1/3 cup warm water ("wrist" temperature)
6 cups flour (I usually do a white:whole wheat ratio of 4:2)
1 cup soy flour
1 Tbsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar or dry sweetner
1/2 cup vegetable oil (canola ok, too)
2 overripe (mostly black) bananas
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cold water
another half cup of boiling water for brushing braids
sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or sea salt to top
Directions
1. In one small bowl, dissolve yeast in the warm water, put to the side to stand for 5-10 minutes.
2. Mash bananas in other small bowl.
3. In large bowl mix: oil, sugar, salt, and boiling water, stirring so it's all mostly dissolved.
4. Add the cold water to the large bowl (the mix should be warmish now but not hot). Stir in yeast mix.
5. Add bananas.
6. Add flour, one cup at a time.
7. Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Knead for 5-10 min, dough should be smooth, not too stiff or too runny.
8. Lightly coat the large mixing bowl in oil, turn the dough in it to just coat it with oil, place a towel over the dough in the bowl and let it rise for about 1 hr, till double in volume.
9. Punch dough down, turn out and knead again 2-3 min. Divide dough into 2 balls, divide each ball into 3 sections, roll each section into long ropes and make 2 braids. Preheat the oven to 350.
10. Let the braids rise 45 min. Boil a little more water. Just before putting braids in the oven, brush them with boiling water, then sprinkle with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or sea salt.
Bake 30 min. You'll know they're done when you tap them on the bottom and they sound hollow. Let cool on a drying rack for 10 min before slicing. Enjoy! |
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Reviews (add your own)
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| leah Dieterich wrote on Monday July 11th, 2005 03:06 AM |
 four soybeans |
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This is AMAZING. I halved the recipe in case it didn't turn out well but much to me and my husband's delight, it is impecable. I've always loved challah and have really missed it since becoming vegan. The little bit of whole wheat flour was great and not overpowering. I highly suggest this bread. We ate like 5 pieces when it came out, whoops! |
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| leah Dieterich wrote on Monday July 11th, 2005 03:18 AM |
four soybeans |
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Sorry- i messed up and gave it .5 soybeans when it deserved a 4!
Here is a picture on my blog of the challah: http://lakitchen.blogspot.com/
cheers! |
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| Deborah wrote on Monday September 19th, 2005 04:26 PM |
four soybeans |
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This recipe is FANTASTIC! When I was in middle school, I made a few challahs with my mom's recipe to impress my family, and they were, indeed, impressed. It's been years since anyone in my family has made challah, let alone a vegan one. I made two loaves this weekend and I was pleasantly surprised how wonderfully they came out. (I didn't burn nuthin'!) I'll probably use less whole wheat flour when I make them for the family next month so it's more like my mom's recipe. I thought the banana would be overpowering, but it's really subtle. |
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| Elizabeth & Carolina wrote on Friday October 28th, 2005 01:08 PM |
four soybeans |
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My daughter is vegan and goes to a Jewish preschool - so when I found this recipe a few weeks ago, I was very excited! We both made the bread yesterday and she took it in to school today to celebrate shabbat. It came out great! It tastes just like challah should - and I'm so happy Carolina can finally celebrate with friends at school with the real thing, and not feel left out. THANKS!! |
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| Andrea Carvalho wrote on Sunday November 20th, 2005 04:30 AM |
four soybeans |
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I?ve been looking for good vegan challah recipes for while. Most of them have the lack of excitement as water challah but this recipe is delicious.
I don?t use white flour, so itcame up a little heavier than the mix with white flour. Although heavier, the bread was very very tasty. |
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| jenny wrote on Thursday October 12th, 2006 10:59 PM |
four soybeans |
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This recipe is absolutely fantastic! Our JCC on campus hosts bi-weekly Shabbat dinners and this was a hit, so much so that people wanted the vegan challah more than the regular challah. The only problem I encountered,(though it wasn't really a problem) was that I added about a half more of each ingredient because i needed more loaves, and you could really taste the soy flour. But beyond that, this recipe is excellent. |
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