Siegfrieds’ Sweet (and Fluffy) Challah
Servings: 6
Ingredients
Dough:
- 5 cups of warm water add as much needed
- ¼ cup dry yeast
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 extra large eggs
- ½ cup oil
- 2 tbsp salt
- 5 lbs. flour
Topping:
- egg for egg wash
Crumbs:
- 1 ½ cups flour
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 1 stick margarine
Instructions
- Prepare the crumbs. Combine flour, sugar, and margarine. Mix to form coarse crumbs. You can also use any crumbs you keep stocked in your freezer (like Renee does in this post). Set aside.
- Begin by using 4 cups of warm water (3 cups cold water from the sink and 1 cup boiling water). Combine water, yeast, and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir and let sit 6-7 minutes.
- Add eggs and oil. Add ⅓ of the flour, mix for a few seconds, until combined. Add another ⅓ flour, and mix just until combined, then the last ⅓ of the flour. Add remaining water (or just as much as needed for a nice sticky dough). Mix for 10 minutes on high speed.
- Remove dough from mixer and place in a large mixing bowl. Smear the top of the dough with a little oil. Cover and let rise 2 hours.
- Right before you are ready to braid the challah, preheat oven to 200°F. When it reaches that temperature, shut the oven off.
- Divide dough into 6 parts. Braid and place in pans. Place braided challah into the warm oven and let rise an additional 1 hour (otherwise you cover and let rise on the counter until it doubles in size, 1 to 1 ½ hours).
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Brush challah with beaten egg and place crumbs on top. Bake until challah is golden. Challah with crumbs need to bake a little longer than usual challah.
