Raisin Challah
This bright-gold challah, stuffed with raisins, is baked in a spiral shape, traditional at Rosh Hashanah.
Dough
- 1/2 cup lukewarm water
- 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 large eggs
- 4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon instant yeast
- 1 cup golden raisins, packed
Topping
- 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water
- 2 tablespoons coarse white sparkling sugar, optional
Directions
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2) Allow the dough to rise, covered, for 2 hours, or until it"s puffy and nearly doubled in bulk. |
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4) Lightly grease a 9" round cake pan. |
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5) Roll the dough into a 36" rope. If it shrinks back, walk away and leave it alone for 10 minutes, then resume rolling. If the rope isn't exactly 36" long, don't stress; just get as close as you can. |
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7) Cover the challah gently with lightly greased plastic wrap or a proof cover, and allow it to rise for about 60 to 90 minutes, until it's puffy and pretty much fills the pan. |
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8) Near the end of the bread's rise, preheat the oven to 375°F. |
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10) Bake the bread for 20 minutes, tent it with foil and bake for an additional 25 minutes, until it's a deep, golden brown, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 190°F. |
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Recipe summary
- Hands-on time:
- 15 mins. to 25 mins.
- Baking time:
- 45 mins.
- Total time:
- 4 hrs to 5 hrs 10 mins.
- Yield:
- One 9" round challah, 16 servings
- Recipe comments (2) »
Tips from our bakers
- The pretty spiral shape this loaf takes is supposed to symbolize the continuity of life. It's a lovely bread to serve at Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
- The suggested glaze, made with a whole egg and water, makes the bread's crust deep-brown and shiny. for a lighter brown (but still shiny) crust, use a glaze made of egg white and water. For a lighter-brown, matte crust, dispense with the glaze altogether.
Reviews
10/07/2008
After two hours it hadn't risen much, but I left it a bit longer and the bread turned out great -- by far the most success I've had with any challah. Next time I would tent it with foil sooner because the top was a little darker than I care for, but otherwise it was fantastic, but taste and texture.
10/04/2008
This was a really dissappointing recipe, especially since it's from King Arthur's experts. I tried making it three times before rating it. I had high hopes of making it for Rosh Hashana, and was surprised to find a recipe in a synagogue cookbook to be much better. I mixed it in my bread machine. I kept having problem with measurements of the flour. The first time, I had to keep adding flour, came up to about 1/2 cup. I had the same measurement problems, even after contacting King Arthur for help. Finally, the last person on the help line suggested I go by weight only. It's really a lot of rising time--two hours! And then you shape the dough and rise again. That's too much of a time committment for me. The results were dissappointing, too. I needed more direction on how to make the coil stay that shape. It just baked up looking like a cake baked in the pan--it lost it's shape. I read somewhere else how to do it properly later on. And the bread itself was much too dense. I'm using to bread that's more light and airy.
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