Infinite Light Cooking / Hanukkiah-shaped challah
RACHEL MARCUS @challyschallah
My favorite Hanukkah memory is inviting friends over to my first apartment for a night of homemade latkes and fun! The dough for this exotic challah has been adapted from Challah for Hunger’s basic recipe, uses instant yeast, and is vegan—unless you choose to do an egg wash at the end.
6–8 cups flour (I typically use about 7.5)
2 ½ cups water
¾ cup sugar
½ cup oil
1 tbsp instant yeast
½ tbsp salt
THE DOUGH
Mix the sugar, oil, salt, and water in a large bowl until everything’s dissolved.
Add 4 cups flour and mix. You will not necessarily be able to get rid of all the clumps of flour yet; that’s okay—just keep going.
In a separate, small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon of instant yeast with 1 cup of flour. After the yeast has been thoroughly mixed into the cup of flour, add the mixture to the dough.
Continue adding flour—between 1 and 3 more cups. Add flour until you reach the point when, if you press the dough gently with clean fingers, no dough sticks to your hands.
Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Then knead, using the heel of your hand, not your fingers, for 6 minutes. (You may have to add some flour while kneading, but be conservative.)
Put the dough back in the bowl, cover with oil, and then drape a towel over the bowl. Let it rise for at least one hour (if you have more time, punch the dough down after an hour and let it continue to rise for another 30–60 min). You can let the dough rise overnight in the fridge—the rising process slows down in cooler temperatures.
BRAIDING
Using a scale, weigh your dough. My dough was 1834 grams.
Cut up your dough into 3 different sized balls. Mine were 1,038 g, 450 g, and 346 g, but if your dough weighs differently from mine, you can multiply your total grams by .55, .25, and .2 to get your big, medium, and small balls. The largest ball will be for the candles, the middle will be for the base, and the smallest will be for the shamash.
We’ll start with the largest one, the candles (1,038 g). We’ll be cutting it up into 4 more different sized balls and then rolling them out into 4 different sized strands. Based on my original weight, they were approximately 415.2 g, 311.4 g, 207.6 g, and 103.8 g. If you have a different starting weight, they are just 40%, 30%, 20%, and 10% of the weight of the ball.
Once you have those rolled out, put them on a greased sheet vertically. Shape them like an upside down rainbow and leave some room in the center for the shamash
Put the tray aside and take the smallest of the 3 original balls (346 g). Split it evenly into 2 (173 g each) and roll them out evenly. Twist the strands around each other and pinch the ends. It’s okay if it unravels a little.
Bring back the tray and, using a rolling pin or your hands, push down in the center of our “upside rainbow” so there’s a little indent to place the spiral twist shamash. Place the shamash in its spot—if it’s too long, you can unravel the end and flatten the strands where the base will go on top of it.
Cut off an inch or two of the top of the candles and roll what’s cut off into nice little flame shapes or circles, then put them back on top of the candles.
Take the last ball (450 g) and split it into 3 even balls (150 g each) and proceed with a usual braid. Place the braid in the base position on the sheet.
BAKING
Voilà! Let it rise again for 30 minutes. If desired, add an egg wash and toppings. Bake at 350° until golden-brown (30–45 minutes). Take photos and don’t forget to tag @challyschallah!
