Whole Wheat White Challah

My challah recipe is one of my greatest kitchen successes. I had been looking for a healthier version than the traditional sugary white flour loaves I'd seen. I waded through dozens of different recipes before I finally cut and spliced my recipe together. The result is a healthy, slightly light, whole wheat loaf with a hint of sweetness. It's amazing as French toast.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 c warm water

2 oz active dry yeast

1/3 c raw honey

1/4 c Stevia in the Raw*

1/2 tbsp salt

3 eggs, divided

2 tbsp unsweetened applesauce

2 tbsp olive oil

4 1/2 c unbleached white flour

4 c whole wheat white flour**

sesame seeds, poppy seeds or kosher salt to sprinkle on top (optional)

*I use this brand because it's sold in large bags. There are many other brands who carry stevia products, however, including Truvia, SweetLeaf and some grocery store generics. Stevia in the Raw is in most grocery stores with the artificial sweeteners. Stevia is, however an all natural sweetener made from the leaves of Stevia Rebaudiana, which is actually a relative of the daisy. It has zero calories, and is sweet as sugar. If you don't have stevia or don't want to use it, you can either use all honey or substitute the stevia for sugar or some other sweetener. Erythritol and Xylitol are other all natural granulated sweeteners that are a cup for cup exchange. Or you can add agave or maple syrup. You'll want to scale these back a bit.

**Whole wheat white AKA white whole wheat AKA whole white wheat is a whole wheat flour with a lighter color and flavor than traditional whole wheat. It is made from a lighter variety of wheat. I use King Arthur's version. It's a kosher brand and it's sold at many grocery stores so you won't have to drive to some health food store to find this. You can substitute this with traditional whole wheat flour, but it will be a much heavier bread. I would recommendusing 2 c whole wheat and 6 c white flour. You can also use all white flour, if you want.

Directions:

Pour the warm water and the yeast into a ridulously large bowl. Really. Your Pyrex bowl will be too small. Get a big ol' mixing bow from a stand mixer. Something crazy.

Whisk together and add the honey and stevia. Let stand 5 minutes or so, if you want. If you're in a rush, however, you can just plow through this.

Toss in the salt, 2 eggs, appleasauce and olive oil and whisk it up.

Add 4 cups of each flour, a cup or two at a time, stirring/kneading in the bowl between additions. Once you get 4 or 5 cups of flour in there it will be pretty hard to stir. Knead at this point.

Once it's all mixed together, sprinkle 1/2 c of remaining white flour on a countertop and knead the dough. Give it 5 or 10 minutes (or until your arms are so tired you just can't go on). At this point, I cut the dough in half, put one blob of dough in a freezer bag, label it "challah" and bid it farewell until next week. This dough freezes super well and we can only eat one loaf a week. Genius.

You might want to start thinking about a warm place for your dough to rise, right about now. The oven is the obvious (just turn it to 250F), but near a fireplace, in the laundry room or near a window in certain hellish locales might be just peachy.

Now, take your bowl, make sure there aren't any blobs of dough stuck in there and oil it up. I use this organic olive oil cooking spray, but you can use veg oil or whatever. Place the dough in the bowl, turn it to coat with oil and cover the bowl with a damp towel. At this point I stick the bowl in the oven, turn the oven off, and do find something to do. Like, maybe all the dirty dishes I've just accumulated in the mixing, stirring process. Yeah. It's bad.

Thanks to the miracle of modern technology, an hour or so has passed. Take a peek at your blob. It should be about twice as big as it was when you put it in the bowl. If you used a little Pyrex bowl, or left both loaves worth in the bowl, you might find gobs of dough in the bottom of your oven, glued to your damp towel and caked to the outside of your bowl. Take a picture and send it to me now. I love these.

Once you've cleaned up your mess, punch the dough down. Knead it again for a bit. 5 minutes ought to do it.

If you have nothing but time, let it rise again for 30-45 mins. Put it back in the bowl, cover with the damp towel, etc. This will create a lighter loaf. It's worth it to do. But if you're impatient and/or pressed for time you can skip this. Your loaf might be a bit more dense, but it won't be the end of the world.

Okay! We're in the home stretch! Preheat your oven to 350F. Pull out a cookie sheet and lightly oil it or slap some parchment paper on it.

You generally braid challah, so divide it into however many pieces you will need. Roll out some snakes and braid it up. I braid it on the cookie sheet, but if you like to live dangerously, do it on the counter and move it.

Quick tip- as you braid the dough, you don't want the strands to stick to each other much. If they are glued together ar this point, they will melt in the oven and it won't look like a braid. I suggest flouring the strands a bit before braiding.

Pop it in the oven and set your timer for 10 minutes.

Grab that egg that you didn't use before and crack it into a bowl. Pour in a splash of water. Voila! You just made an egg wash. I've heard of adding vanilla to this, but I have yet to try it. Whatever.

Stir up the egg wash and when the timer goes off, brush the egg wash on the challah. If you're sprinkling seeds or salt, I recommend brushing small sections at a time, sprinkling, then brushing a new section.

Pop the challah back in the oven bake it til it's done. Probably another 15-20 minutes. When you think it's done, pull it out and stand it on it's end. Flick the bottom of the loaf with your fingers. It should make a hollow sound if it's finished. Also, this will most definitely burn the crap out of your hands.