Just so, can you eat challah bread anytime? Although it's traditional to eat it on holy days such as Shabbat and most other holidays (but NOT Passover!) we can have it any time (except Passover) and if there are leftovers, challah is terrific for french toast and tuna sandwiches.
How to Eat Challah
- Honey and jam: Drizzle challah with a bit of honey or top with fresh jam.
- Toast it: You can slice up challah just like a regular loaf of bread and toast it up for breakfast or use it for a sandwich.
- French toast: You can turn challah into French toast.
It goes well with a heap of roast beef or a simple schmear of butter. It comes braided in a loaf or coiled into a round, with sesame or poppy seeds, filled with raisins or simply, triumphantly, plain. Challah bread is at its best it's fresh and warm: a little spongy, a bit crusty, infused with a tangy hint of honey.
Challah is a yeast bread that is enriched with eggs, similar to French brioche. The biggest difference between the two (other than the religious traditions associated with challah) is that brioche contains butter (and a lot of it!) while challah contains oil.
The Jewish deli announced its new Jerusalem Challah Bread is available at Costco's 17 stores statewide. "This is our first time offering a food product in Costco, and we are confident that Arizonans will love the ease of being able to pick up their favorite bread while doing their routine shopping.”
Delicious Ways to Use Up Leftover Challah
- 01 of 12. Challah Strata With Mushrooms, Peppers, and Asparagus (Dairy)
- 02 of 12. Pumpkin Bread Pudding With Pecan Butterscotch Sauce.
- 03 of 12. Apple and Fennel Challah Stuffing (Pareve)
- 04 of 12.
- Challah Bread Pudding With Chocolate and Cherries (Pareve)
- 06 of 12.
- 07 of 12.
- 08 of 12.
For leftover challah, as soon as you are finished eating the challah, wrap it as tightly as possible in a food storage bag, then twist-close (not tie) that in another food storage bag, and then in the freezer.
Traditionally, challah is defined as any bread that is made for use in Jewish ritual. During the first few thousand years of Jewish life, challah included everything from rich layered breads baked overnight in Yemen, pita pockets in Syria and lepeshka flatbreads in the Caucasus.
When dough has doubled, punch it down and turn it over in your bowl. At this point, you can either let it rise again on the counter or let it rise slowly in the fridge overnight. If you have the time to wait, re-cover the dough and place it in the fridge for 7-8 hours or overnight.
If the dough is sticky, don't worry; just add a little more flour until it's firm. This stiff consistency actually helps the challah have a very finely grained texture and a very high profile with distinctive, separate strands. It will keep longer, too. Rolling the strands creates a finely grained crumb.
Myrna's original recipe calls for all-purpose flour, and you can substitute that here. But I find bread flour gives the challah a nice chew without making it tough, and also helps the braided loaf maintain its shape after baking. And it will taste about a million times better than any fancy challah you can buy.
While many people wrap their challah in multiple layers of aluminum foil, I prefer plastic freezer bags. Foil is both bulky and expensive. When well wrapped in airtight freezer bags and placed in a good freezer, challahs can last for two months or more, if necessary.
Want to make sure your challah is extra fluffy? Try using seltzer in place of water with this recipe for super fluffy challah.
Challah and brioche, while similar, are not the same bread at all. Both breads are rich, eggy yeast breads, but brioche is definitely richer. (Butter will do that). Challah, by the way, is often a braided loaf.
Whether you're calling it egg in a hole, egg with a hat, or gashouse egg, a fried egg in toast is having a moment. Regardless of its name, the dish (and cooking process) is the same: A slice of bread toasts in a buttered skillet, minus its center, which has been cut out with a glass or a ring cutter.
Too little yeast, your bread won't rise sufficiently; too much, and it will rise and collapse. It's important to watch your dough as it rises and bakes; dough that has risen and collapsed may look just like dough that never rose at all, once it's baked. In order to correct the problem, you need to know what went wrong.
