Virtual Challah Lesson: Step-by-step instructions for making challah, recipe and photos
A friend called me late one Thursday night in 2004 asking for "challah counseling". She was making challah for the first time, and it wasn't working. She had thrown out two batches.
I thought I had talked her down from the ledge, but when I woke early Friday morning (to bake my own weekly challot), there was a frustration-filled e-mail message, indicating she had given up in discouragement.
At 4:30 a.m., there was little I could do... Or so I thought. I remembered I had a digital camera and a moblog. I quickly threw together a "Virtual Challah Lesson", snapping pictures of each step as I made that week's batch of challah.
My friend was not only able to learn to bake challah, but today she is a weekly challah baker. She has taught and encouraged others using these instructions!
The "Virtual Challah Lesson" was meant for one person, but it helped many who found it on the web and used it in the past few years, despite the difficulty in navigation and the mis-fitting moblog format. Unfortunately, some of the pictures hosted on the moblog have become corrupt over time.
I am posting a restructured and revised version of the Virtual Challah Lesson in this format, because it is easier more conducive to instructions and recipes with multiple pictures. This version has the corrupted pitctures restored from their original photos.
- Regular Challah Recipe
- Yeast
- Mix, rest and knead the dough
- First rise
- Take (separate a piece of the) challah dough
- Shaping a four-strand braid
- Shaping rolls
- (optional) Egg Wash
- Bake and cool
- Recipe for Yekkish (Water) Challah (no eggs)
Links to beautiful challah stories:
Second overall, first in the middle
Sara Yoheved Rigler's "Dr. Laura, God Loves You" at aish.com
