Amy Cohen:
Welcome back for everybody who's coming back. I'm not sure if we have any new people who made the dough ahead of time, but if we did, welcome. Again, I'm Amy Cohen. I'm co-chair with Talee Potter of the Brandeis Women's Network and we're thrilled to have Leah Silver today doing step two of our challah baking class. She was amazing with step one, so I'm sure step two is going to be just as great and we're all going to end up with delicious challah.
Amy Cohen:
A couple of housekeeping rules. We're going to have everybody on mute. Any questions, as everybody is doing, please put them in the chat box and as we kind of learned yesterday, we'll stop periodically and the questions will get read out loud and Leah can respond to them that way. We are posting the recipe and instructions again on the chat box and we'll post them periodically for people who have joined later, didn't hear something, so you may want to scroll up and take a look at that.
Amy Cohen:
Finally, we are going to be sharing two videos. One from yesterday and one from today of Leah's workshop on Brandeis' social media and I'm happy to announce a Brandeis' newly created YouTube channel. So we'll all be able to step-by-step what Leah did today as well as the entire recipe and instructions.
Amy Cohen:
Again, I'm going to ask at the end and we'll ask now. We're going to ask that if everybody can post pictures of their challah on our social media and we'll be providing hashtags at the end. Again, if everybody could mute, we're getting a little bit of some sounds, so that would be great. And with that-
Talee Potter:
Amy-
Amy Cohen:
Did I miss something?
Talee Potter:
You should be able to mute everybody if you are the organizer.
Amy Cohen:
Yes, we will do it.
Talee Potter:
Yes.
Amy Cohen:
Yes. Okay. Have I missed anything else? Nikki?
Nikki Mannathoko:
No Amy, you covered everything.
Amy Cohen:
Okay-
Nikki Mannathoko:
Leah, you are good to go.
Amy Cohen:
Take it away.
Leah Silver:
Okay, hi everyone. Welcome back. I just want to address a couple of... I responded to a couple of things in the chat just now as Amy was talking, but I'll just address them now. I am going to make three loaves out of this batch of bread, so there's going to be three smallish loaves. If you want to make two loaves that are bigger, you can do that too. If you want to make one monster one, you can do that. It just might not bake as evenly if you make one, but I'm going to be making three out of this. The three that I make can fit on one large baking sheet, so you should only need one large baking sheet or you can do two smaller ones.
Leah Silver:
I'm lining it with parchment paper, but you can also line it with tinfoil. If you line it with tinfoil, just spray a little bit of cooking spray. A little bit of PAM or just take a paper towel with a little bit of oil and you can rub it on that, but with parchment paper, you don't need that.
Leah Silver:
Can you freeze the dough? I don't recommend freezing the dough. I think the best times to freeze it, are honestly after you bake it, because get it out of the way, bake all the challah and then after it cools down, after it bakes, you can put it in the freezer and then you have challah whenever you want it. That's what I think you should do. I think the second best option is to freeze it after you've braided it. I think it gets a little messy when you just freeze the dough.
Leah Silver:
Will a challah cooked today stay fresh until Friday? I personally would freeze it. Typically, I make challah later in the week to have it for Shabbat, but making it Tuesday, I would stick it in the freezer for a couple of days and it's still going to be really good when you take it out on Friday. It's going to be fresh.
Leah Silver:
A silicone mat is my favorite thing to use. Deborah asked that. Where I'm staying right now, I don't have those, but that is what I always use at home. One of those silicone baking mats, the Silpat. You can definitely use that too.
Leah Silver:
Emailing the ingredients and directions to all registered participants? Yes, I think Nikki is planning on doing that, so even if you don't have access, if you don't have a social media account, that's fine. We'll make sure you get the recipe and all the ingredients so that you can do this again. Did I answer all of those questions? I think I did. Nikki, you can tell me if I didn't.
Leah Silver:
So we're going to go ahead and get started. Hopefully your dough is close by. This is what I put in my fridge yesterday afternoon when we parted ways and it has, I would say about doubled in size. So I don't know if you remember how I left it, but it's definitely much bigger than it was. So, what we're going to be doing in a moment is portioning this dough out into three... I'm going to do into three. If you want to do it a different way, that's fine, but if you want to follow along, I'll be doing it into three and then we're going to braid each of those.
Leah Silver:
I like to braid it using a stick strand braid, so that's what I'm going to teach you how to do today. I think you're all totally capable of doing that even though that might sound like a lot, but when you figure out the pattern, you'll get it and it looks beautiful. It will look really good on the Brandeis Women's Facebook page, if you do a stick.
Leah Silver:
And then, after we braid it, we're going to let it sit for a little while and that's when we're going to put some egg wash on, put some egg on. I'm going to walk you through all of this as we do it. I'm just giving you a summary. Some egg wash on and then any toppings that you want. So, sesame seeds, plain old sesame seeds are my favorite challah topping, if you want poppy seeds or everything bagel seeds, or cinnamon sugar, crumble. You can kind of get creative with that. That's going to go after the egg wash, but I will walk you through all of this. And yes, when we send anything out, it'll include directions. Not just ingredients.
Leah Silver:
The first thing I wanted to do is a little bit more on the spiritual, magical side of baking challah which is, there's a tradition in Judaism. If you bake a certain amount of challah, it's actually I think over 14 cups which I didn't do individually and I don't think any of you did individuals yesterday. There's a special blessing that you can say over making challah. There's a special myth associated with making challah that involves taking a piece of the challah and actually burning it. Saying a blessing over it and the tradition tells us that, that's a time, that, that's a very sort of spiritual time.
Leah Silver:
It's the time when a lot of people pray for healing of those who are sick. For praying for other needs. Even though none of us are baking that full batch, I figured collectively, we're baking such a huge batch of challah that I would take a little piece. I'll do this on behalf of everyone. I won't do the blessings if it's not technically that whole batch, but if we all want to hold anybody in mind right now who we may be thinking of who is sick and I think we probably all know somebody who is at least under the weather a little bit right now or in need of some sort of healing. Let's just send our vibes to those people and take a moment as we're about to braid our challah. So we can just take a moment.
Leah Silver:
As we take that moment, what I will do is I'm going to take that piece of challah, you don't have to do that, but I'm just taking it on everyone's behalf. I'm going to put it in a piece of tinfoil and I'm going to just put it in the oven and let it burn. That's sort of... That's the best effective, so be right back.
Leah Silver:
Yeah, so it's really nice to come all together to make such a huge batch of challah. I also want to say that it feels particularly fitting to make such a huge batch of challah with so many people as Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day is coming to a close. I know not everyone here is necessarily of Jewish faith, but Brandeis is a very important place in the Jewish tradition and baking challah is a very important piece of the Jewish tradition. So, I think it's fitting that on this day we're baking a lot of challah.
Leah Silver:
Great. Happy birthday to Talee's daughter.
Leah Silver:
Okay, so. Here we go. I'm going to put a little bit of... I'm going to roll up my sleeves. Take a little bit of flour and sprinkle it on my countertop. I'll just lean this down so you can see. I'm just taking a little bit of flour and sort of sprinkling it down and rubbing it around a little bit, because I'm about to dump all the dough onto here and portion it out. I know the dough is kind of sticky and then I'm going to scrape the dough out.
Leah Silver:
I'm not kneading it now. I'm not trying to mess with it. It's done its thing so we don't want to knead it at this point because after you need it, you have to let it rise again. We're not doing that. We are going to be working with it, but not kneading it too much. Not enough to have it really have a full rise again.
Leah Silver:
So, I'm going to divide this into thirds because I'm going to be making three loaves. Not perfect thirds, despite being a math teacher. You do the best that you can and then with each one, I sort of form it into a ball. I'll just put it off to the side. If you feel that... I can tell that this one's smaller than the other two. Unless you feel that there's a huge discrepancy, you can pull some from one and stick it onto another to even it out a little. It's not that big of a deal, these are all making their own challahs anyway. They're not being braided together.
Leah Silver:
Now I have my three portioned out pieces of dough. So I'll give everyone a moment to do that before we then take one of our balls of dough and braid it, which I think I'm going to do that over here, but we'll see. All right, I would like thumbs up if you're ready to go. Ready to braid. You can absolutely make the dough and braid it in the same day, in that case you wouldn't do a rise in the fridge. You would just let it sit out for about two hours, and then you can do what we're doing now. We just this in two parts.
Leah Silver:
Okay. I'm going to take one of my pieces of dough and I'm going to break it up into six. There are two ways of breaking it up into six, either breaking it into halves and then the halves into thirds or into thirds and the thirds into halves. I'm going to break this in half, cut it in half, and then take each half and cut it into thirds. And I find doing this with a knife makes it slightly more precise than if I was just ripping it by hand. I can tell that this one's a little bigger so I'm going to just rip a piece off. I just want basically even pieces if possible. Whoever it was that had the kitchen scale yesterday, you can go crazy and weigh then each and redistribute. I'm not doing that.
Leah Silver:
So what you're looking for here is six little pieces. These are my two... I'm actually going to put these further off to the side because I need a little more space. Okay. Are we ready to keep going?
Nikki Mannathoko:
Leah, there's a question in the chat box.
Leah Silver:
Yeah.
Nikki Mannathoko:
Does the ball need to be smooth?
Leah Silver:
Do it need to be smooth? I mean no. Mine aren't in balls yet. It's not... it's like this. But, I will also say that week to week, it could have a different consistency, like mine feels on the softer side today, but some weeks it's a little denser feeling and that's fine too. As long as you saw your dough rise, then you're going to have a good challah.
Nikki Mannathoko:
Okay. And then another question, ours didn't rise well so I'm only making one challah. So only three pieces, I assume? That's the question.
Leah Silver:
If you're making one challah, you can still divide it into six, I mean these would be your strands. Because this is going to be one challah. These six balls. In a few minutes, these are going to turn into one challah. I think you can still divide it into six. That's up to you.
Leah Silver:
Okay, I'm going to keep going now. The next step is to roll out our pieces of dough and you might need a little bit more flour here, so again, I'm just going to move everyone off to the side a little bit, just sprinkle a little bit of flour and start rolling. Roll it out, you're basically putting a little bit of pressure and pushing down and out and in. So I usually do it a few with one hand and then get both hands in. Now, don't try to pull out too far because it's going to want to just spring right back, so just don't try to pull it too far in any one direction... don't just take it and just drag it apart because then when it bakes, it's going to kind of change form and you're not going to like how it looks.
Leah Silver:
I'm being kind of gentle with it, pushing a little bit as I go. And I'm going to stop when my challah is about... that's about 12 inches, maybe slightly longer. Maybe, I think that's 12. Well, does this look like 12 inches to you? And that's one piece. And then when I'm done with that, I'm going to put if off to the side and do my next one. If one of your strands ends up much longer than the other, as long as they're about the same thickness, it's fine because after we braid it, if there's a part that's too long, we're just going to cut it off. So don't worry too much about that.
Leah Silver:
I've got my second piece and now onto my third. Try not to add too much flour here, just like a little sprinkle with each strand. And if you notice that there's a lump, just roll that piece out a little bit more so that you don't have something that's too uneven. I'm just doing this with all six strands. They start about 12 inches and as you see, they're going to come in a little bit. That's what the dough does and that's totally fine. Okay. So I have my six here just hanging next to each other. I'll give everyone a minute to do the same.
Leah Silver:
Everyone's getting their arm work out for the day, I see.
Leah Silver:
We're just doing this with the first loaf. We're going to do this for each of them as we go, so you just need six strands for right now. The next piece is going to be the most sort of directions looking challenging piece, but we're going to do it three different times. You have three chances to watch and to try and then you have every Shabbat from now until forever to keep trying. Okay. I see people still sort of rolling out, so I think that means people still need a minute.
Leah Silver:
I don't know what that word is. Oh, you can just maybe put a little bit more... You can start by... sometimes if it's a little denser, you can start by rolling it between your hands a little bit until you have something that is sort of oval shaped and then put it on your countertop. All I have done so far is roll out the six strands. I still have the two here that are going to be two other loaves, so I rolled one ball into six strands.
Leah Silver:
Okay. I think I'm going to show you the braiding. You just give me a thumb up if you're ready to braid. Some thumb, but not. Okay. We're going to give one more minute because I think some people need one more minute and then we'll go on.
Leah Silver:
The first step... I'll still give a minute, but the first step is going to be sort of pinching all of the tops together. You can go ahead and do that. It doesn't matter if you don't like the way this looks. You can always just chop it off after. Okay. I'm going to try to explain how this next part is going to work. I'll be as clear as I can with the directions, but it is a little tricky the first time you do it. So again, you're going to pinch to top of all of the strands together. I'm going to be doing this like mirroring you, so I'm going to do it this way, but you're going to stand mirrored to me.
Leah Silver:
So I'm going to do the best to use the words exterior and interior, so exterior meaning the outer pieces and the interior meaning the inner pieces. So let's give this a go. I will do it as clearly as I can. So, what you need to have is... So my computer doesn't fall on a pot right now. You should have your strands as two, two and two. So there's sort of a space in between here and a space in between here. I actually need to move this all down a little bit so I can reach this a little bit better. So, kind of two, two and two, still sort of separated, but with a space between.
Leah Silver:
Okay, what we're going to be doing is a lot of this. Your arms are going to be moving like this. Your arms are never going to cross each other, so you should never do this. When we're doing this, you should always be able to must move, okay? It's going to be specific where I tell you to move it, but just as a tip, your arms are never going to cross like this. So you're going to take these two pieces on the outside. You can mirror me. So for me, these are the left pieces. I assume for you they are the right two and this piece here is going to end up all the way on the exterior of the other side and this piece here is going to end up in this other space. So again, we have it set up as two, two and two for a reason, because we need this space here and we're going to put a piece over here too.
Leah Silver:
Okay, here's what it looks like. I'm moving everything over so this comes all the way out and this comes down. Then I'm going to sort of reposition everyone, so it's two, two and two and we're going to go ahead and do the same thing on the other side. I'm holding these two here, and this second piece is going to end up all the way on the exterior and this piece here is going to end up in that break. So again, we have two, two and two and this is where this outer piece is going to end up. Now I'm going to kind of move everyone again just so I have room on my countertop. And then we're going to-
Nikki Mannathoko:
We have a-
Leah Silver:
Yup.
Nikki Mannathoko:
Oh, I was going to say, there's a request if you can do the first move again. Somebody's requesting if you could do that?
Leah Silver:
Yeah, so every move is actually exactly the same. So, we're back to the start basically where I have two, two and two, and I take the two pieces on the outside, whether or not you're with me or you're just starting now, it doesn't matter, and this piece here is going to end up all the way over and this piece is going to end up in the middle. So watch, my hands are not crossing. And I'm moving everyone over so I have those spaces again, mainly this space here. So I have two, two and two and now I'm going to come over to this side. I take my exterior two, this comes to the middle, this comes out. We're going to do this with two more loaves, so if you're stuck or not sure, that's okay.
Leah Silver:
I'm taking the two over here again, then I'm over here, back here, and then this one comes all the way and this one comes to the middle. Back here... Now the ends can get a little... Whenever you feel like you don't have enough left, just you can stop. I've done this a couple of times so I know how to tie the end up, but I'm actually going to stop right there and I'm going to cut the ends off, but I'll pause while people finish braiding. I can see... I'm a little picky about how it looks and I don't like how it's so much wider up here than it does over here, so I'm just going to fix that by cutting the end off. I just cut the end that I didn't like and now I'm going to pinch this top together, and I'm going to cut a little bit here, I'm going to pinch the bottom together and then a little challah.
Leah Silver:
How are we doing? Oh, nice Amy. Again... Oh, okay. We're doing this with two other loaves so if you don't love the way yours looks, that's okay. All I've done so far is that first challah. I haven't touched the other two loaves yet. I haven't done anything with that. Just working on the first.
Leah Silver:
How do you pinch the ends... Again, so again what I did with the ends, and I'll do it with the other two, I did not like the way the ends looked so I just cut a piece off, whatever piece didn't look nicely braided, and I just pinched the top together and you can sort of tuck it a little bit. I did the same, pinched and tucked, then a little challah.
Leah Silver:
If you have a braided challah, can you hold it up a little so we can see if you want? And smile so I can take a screen shot. Smile with your loaf or just smile. Wait, I need to get to every page here. Smile, keep smiling. Okay, cool. Nice, I think the last page is only... Yeah, the camera's off on that last page. All right, cool. So from here on, the steps are repeating. So, if you are in slightly a different place than I am, that's okay. We're repeating the same process over again. Can you give me a thumb if you're ready for me to continue braiding the next loaf? Okay, cool.
Nikki Mannathoko:
There's a question. Do you alternate sides each time?
Leah Silver:
Yup, so if you... I'll do it again with the second loaf, but what I was doing is I took two, moved them two, moved them side to side. I'll do that again. I'll show you again.
Nikki Mannathoko:
Awesome. Thanks.
Leah Silver:
So I'm going to take this challah here and I'm going to put it on the baking sheet. And, I'm going to take my second loaf and break it into six. Half then to thirds.
Nikki Mannathoko:
Leah, do you... sorry, your feed turned mute.
Leah Silver:
Okay, got it. Sorry. Every time you mute everyone, I'm included in that. Okay, so what I was saying is that I broke up that loaf into six equal pieces by breaking it into half and each of those halves into thirds, so now I have six. I'm just seeing if there's one that's way bigger or way smaller than the others. Make this a little bigger... All about the same. Then I'm going to line them up and get ready to roll them out. So I'm just going to take a little bit of flour, put it down and take my first piece and start rolling it out again. Again, being gentle, not to pull too hard. The dough doesn't really like that. And I think stopping when it's about 12 inches. I didn't put anymore flour when I started with this strand and I'm starting to feel that it's pulling against itself, so then I'm just going to take a little bit more flour because I don't want the dough to do that.
Nikki Mannathoko:
Leah, should the baking sheet be sprayed?
Leah Silver:
If you are using parchment paper, you don't need to spray it. If you're using tinfoil, I would recommend spraying a little. If you're using a silicone mat, you definitely do not need to spray it. And yeah, just a plug for silicone mats, they're really great and they are just stick them in the dishwasher and nothing sticks to them in the oven. It's great. And Amazon... You can buy the Amazon Basics brand. When I'm at my apartment, that's what I use.
Leah Silver:
So, here I have my six... I'll roll this one a little more. All right, and then I'll give everyone a minute to do the same. Is everyone happy or stressed? I don't know. Maybe a mix. We're down, okay. Some down, some up. Yeah, I'll give everyone a few minutes. And just a reminder, if you have not preheated your oven, go ahead and do that to 340 degrees.
Leah Silver:
Yes, I will go very slow this time and if you want to zoom ahead of me, you can totally do that. If you feel like you know what you're doing, you want to just go do the same with the next two, you don't need to wait. I'm just going to wait so that those who want to follow with the six can do that. The other thing I'll say is you certainly do not have to do six. So, for your final loaf, if you want to do three instead, you can. And, if you want to make some rolls, you can also do that.
Leah Silver:
I'll just show you quickly how to make a roll if you want. I'm going to do this and then undo it, but you would take a strand that you have rolled out, and you're kind of tying it into a knot. So I'm folding it over. I'm just showing you if you want to make a roll. So kind of just folding it over like a knot except I'm just not going to pull this last piece through. I'm just going to kind of tuck it. I'll show you again. I have a strand, I'm kind of going to fold it like a ribbon and then tuck this piece under... don't pull it all the way through. I think it looks prettier when it's baked, when it's just like this. So, if you wanted to make some rolls instead of a whole challah, you can definitely do that too. I'll wait another few minutes and then I'll give the six braid tutorial again.
Leah Silver:
Have you ever made completely round challah? Yes, I do. It is still sort of braided. There's a method to that. Usually I do that around the fall Jewish holidays. Around Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur... Not Yom Kippur. Sukkot, Simchat, it's like a traditional time to make round challah. We would definitely do that. Maybe we can do a round challah workshop in the fall.
Leah Silver:
Okay. I am going to, unless anyone opposes strongly, I'm going to give another tutorial on the stick strand. Feel strong opposition to that, please raise... Wait a minute in the chat. And, I will wait a minute. Okay, we're doing it. So, again, I'm mirroring you. I have my strands set up this way and I'm going to pinch them at the top.
Leah Silver:
How many loaves fit on one tray? For me, all three will fit on this tray. If you have... This is a bigger baking tray. If you have a smaller one you may need two. What are the dimensions of this? 12 x 18, I would say? So if yours is much smaller than that, if yours looks more like a big sheet of paper, like 8 x 12, then you might need two. Otherwise, the standard size should fit all three.
Leah Silver:
Okay. So I pinched the six together and I am going to separate them out into two and two and two. That's something we're going to do every single time we braid, we're going to braid, we're going to reposition so it looks like this, so it's ready to go. And if you want to sort of bend your camera down, if it's easy enough to do so I can see that, you can definitely do that and then I can see what's going on. Or, if you want to leave it as it is, that's great.
Leah Silver:
Okay. Cool. So, I'm going to start with the two on this side. You can choose any side, but mirror me so that it feels easier to use. I would start with your right, the two on the most right side, so it looks like you're looking in a mirror. So yeah, Roberta, you might want to turn yours the other direction so that... Turn the whole... Exactly, so that you can mirror me as you do it. I would think that would be a little easier.
Leah Silver:
Okay, so I'm taking the two all the way here. Again, my hands are never going to cross like this. We're going to bring them over. So, this piece is going to come all the way to the end and this piece is going to come in that other space we created, like this. I'll do that one more time. So I had two, two, two, this piece is going to end up all the way on the end, this second piece, and this first piece that's currently all the way on the end is going to end up in this other space. Now I'm going to reposition again so I have two and two and two. Two and two and two. Now I'm starting on the other side. I think you started on the right, moved left. So now you're going to start left and move right. So the piece that's all the way over on your left is going to end up in this space, this piece. And this is going to end up all the way on the exterior, like this. And then I'm going to reposition everybody out again so I have room to do it again.
Leah Silver:
Now I'm back on the right. Your right. So I have these two, again my hands are not crossing each other so don't do any of this. They're staying put. Moving, moving, moving, this comes all the way to the end, this comes to the middle, I reposition, reposition, reposition and now I have to start on your left. So again, this second piece ends up all the way on the end, and this piece is going to end up in my other gap, like this. Space everybody out again. When I do it again, I'm going to start on the right, but I just want to check in.
Amy Cohen:
Leah, can you take it apart and redo it if you've made a mistake?
Leah Silver:
Yeah.
Amy Cohen:
Okay.
Leah Silver:
Yes.
Nikki Mannathoko:
And a couple of more questions.
Leah Silver:
What?
Nikki Mannathoko:
Oh, I was going to read two questions in the chat.
Leah Silver:
Yup.
Nikki Mannathoko:
How many loaves fit on one tray?
Leah Silver:
Three. I think I said that before. Yeah, the three should fit on one big baking tray.
Nikki Mannathoko:
Okay, and how long do you have to let it rest for?
Leah Silver:
So, each loaf should have about 15 minutes before it goes in the oven. They all will because we're going to brush them, we're going to top them, so it's fine. Your first one's getting that, your second one will get that, your third one a little less so, but they'll sit for about 15, 20 minutes.
Leah Silver:
Okay, I'm going to finish braiding this one. I need to start on this side. So again, I have two and two, this is coming all the way to the end and this is coming in the middle. And I'm repositioning everyone and I'm starting on the left now. I really hope this is your left, otherwise that will be very confusing. Your left? Okay. All right. Again, not crossing. This piece is coming all the way to the end, this piece in the middle. So the piece that's on the exterior now is always going to end up back in the middle. The second piece is always going to end up on the exterior of the other side. So exterior is going to go to the middle, and this interior piece is coming all the way over. And again, as you get to the end, you can just sort of stop when you feel like you're not making something that you like the way that it looks or that...
Leah Silver:
So, I'm going to pause about there and I'm going to cut the ends off. I don't like... I'm being kind of picky, but I don't like this... this doesn't look so braided to me, so I'm just cutting the end off and pinching this together. I'll do the same on the other side so it just looks... Well, I don't know. I think I'm kind of fine with the other side. I'm just going to tuck it under just a little bit. It's totally fine to tuck under like this as long as you don't tuck a huge piece under that changes the... I don't want to tuck this whole thing under because then it won't be even, but I just tuck little ends under and then I think that looks pretty even to me. Second little challah baby.
Leah Silver:
Oh, nice. I don't know your name. Glenn, that looks nice. I know your name's not Glenn, but I don't know your name. I can see you're not Glenn though. Zachary and David, how's it going over there? I can't hear you, but you can give a thumbs up. Cool. I'll take it.
Leah Silver:
Okay, good question. May I ask how to make a roll again, if possible? Yes, I will definitely do that. Oh, toddler making a roll, okay. I'm just going to take a little piece and roll it out just to demonstrate how I am making a roll. How tight is the braid? Truthfully, it's not too tight because I think the tighter it is the dough is still going to kind of do what it wants to do, so I think the tighter you... If you make it really, really tight, the dough might pull apart a little bit in the oven. I'm sort of laying one on top of the other. It's not tightly braided the way you would braid long hair.
Leah Silver:
I'm going to show you how to make a roll again. If you want, you can ignore this if you're not making rolls, or if you don't want to. I'm just rolling out one piece... Yes, and while I'm doing that I will just say, if you want to go at your own pace what you need to do from here, so you're preheated to 340. In a few minutes, brush it with egg wash. Again, I'm going to walk everyone through this, but somebody asked because they're leaving in a few minutes what to do. If you're staying with me, you can ignore this. 340, you're going to egg wash, put whatever toppings that you want.
Leah Silver:
After each loaf, just make sure the last loaf has had about 10 minutes, at least 15 minutes before it goes in the oven and then you put all three in the oven. I set my timer for 15 minutes, and then after 15 minutes, I rotate the loaves around because I know, and this is typical of many ovens, it might brown more in the back or whatever, and I like it even looking. So, after 15 minutes, I rotate it and then I set it for another 10 and check on it then. That would be a total of 25 minutes. If it looks golden brown on top, you might be good from there. It kind of depends on your oven, but often times it will need another five. And there's a little bit of choice in here too. Some people like really doughy, not undercooked, but barely cooked challah and some people want a really golden brown really... really, really full baked challah. So you can sort of use your judgment there.
Leah Silver:
So, back to the challah roll for.... Okay, back to the challah roll. I rolled out a piece and I am going to take... I'm going to do it this way. I think it's easier. I'm going to take this and make sort of like one of those ribbons that you would wear for some good cause. Like this. And then tuck this under, but not pull it all the way through. So, I'll do that again. This is again, only if you're making a roll. I make a little loop, so I have my good deed ribbon and then tuck under a little bit, like that, and I'm sure however your toddler does it, is beautiful.
Leah Silver:
I'm going to go ahead and do the third loaf, I think. At least show how to apply the egg wash. Yes, I will do that. To do that, you'll need either with a little brush or a paper towel. Okay, my second loaf is done. I'm going to put it on the baking sheet and I'm going to come to my third loaf because it has some of those extra pieces in it, it's going to be my biggest one. I'm going to put a little bit of flour here. I'm going to start by breaking it up into six. If you want to do something different for your third, if you want to six rolls, if you want to do a traditional three strand braid like this, you can do that too. And if you're going at your own pace, you can egg wash now. I still have one more loaf to do, so I'm going to do that. I'll do it on the quicker side perhaps so I can make sure to share the rest of the directions.
Leah Silver:
Do you place loaves horizontal or vertical on the pan? Mine looks like this. So I think if my pan is horizontal towards me, I am placing them vertically.
Leah Silver:
So I need to break this second half up into thirds making sure they're kind of even. I realized that we are going to go a little bit over 5:00. Hope that's okay. Your challah needs to back anyway, but I'm going to go ahead and roll out. Nikki and Amy, are you okay if I go till 5:10, 5:15? Is that okay?
Amy Cohen:
Yeah, that's okay.
Leah Silver:
Okay.
Nikki Mannathoko:
Yeah.
Leah Silver:
Egg wash is... I do both. I just sort of put the egg in a bowl, scramble it a little bit and then brush it over the top. The egg white and the yolk. If you only use yolk, your challah might be a little darker, which can be really pretty. I do both.
Leah Silver:
I see some people have to go. Yes, let me demo the egg wash for those who have to run. And I'll also say, while I'm getting that out, I'm just going to put that page back up that has the information. You can disregard this top information, in fact I'll just delete it, but please tag me, tag Brandeis, Brandeis Alumni, Brandeis Women on Facebook.
Leah Silver:
Let me get my eggs and a little bowl. And maybe Nikki and Amy we can send the email for the Facebook group in the email that we send the directions to? So again, I still have one more challah to go, but some people want to see how to do the egg wash. It's pretty straight forward. I have a little brush here, I'm actually just going to mix the egg a little with the brush. Let me use a fork first, you can do that. If you don't have a brush, you can take paper towel. Don't mix it with paper towel, mix it with a fork and then you can take paper towel and kind of dunk it in a little and sort of wipe the top of the challah. That's not the most glamorous way, but it's totally fine.
Leah Silver:
Okay, so now I've mixed the egg a little bit, just so the egg and the white are kind of combined. I'm just dipping it in and really just painting. Don't go too hard on it because you don't want to puncture any part of the challah, but you're just sort of painting. Any part of the challah that you can see right now, you're painting. So make sure you get... Basically anything that you don't paint with egg wash is not going to be shinny. This is an aesthetic thing, okay? Anything that you don't paint, is just not going to be shinny. So, you want anything that you would see, okay? So anything that you can see right now, which is what you'd be able to see when you bake, should be shinny. Making sure, I'm trying to fully sort of paint so I get... not just paint the top here, but sort of get in between a little bit.
Nikki Mannathoko:
Leah, is it possible for you to go back on... To stop sharing the screen so people can see what you're doing?
Leah Silver:
Yup.
Nikki Mannathoko:
Perfect. Thank you. Okay.
Leah Silver:
So again, I'm just painting, trying not to be too rough with it because I don't want to pull any piece of the challah, but anything that I can see, I'm brushing with egg. That's kind of it. From there it goes in the oven. Again, I do 15 minutes and then check on it, turn it around and do another 10, check on it at that point.
Leah Silver:
While we still have everyone here, can you hold up either your tray or your challah? Can you show us your dough? Cool, cool. Hold it up for a minute so I can take some more pics. Oh, wait. Hold on. Yay. Keep going so I can see them. There's too many pages. Looks good. Go judges. Go Brandy. Looks really good. Lesley Perlstein, I don't know you, but I like your challah. Lexie, that looks really good with the toppings. Everyone's is good. Yeah, thanks. I took lots of pictures. Thanks, you can put your... The egg wash is just egg. Yes. My egg wash is just egg. Some people put a little honey in, I don't usually.
Leah Silver:
So, I'm going to go ahead and finish... Sorry, Nikki was on mute, or Amy?
Amy Cohen:
Yeah, did you say it was supposed to sit before you put it in the oven? Or did I miss that.
Leah Silver:
Yeah, a couple of people said they had to go, and so they wanted me to show the egg wash, but yeah. Each loaf should get about 15 minutes to sit out. So about 15 minutes after your last one is all done. The egg wash can go on either really at any point before you put it in the oven. How long in the oven? So you're going to do 15 minutes and then turn the tray around so you get a nice even base and then set your timer again for 10 minutes and check on it. If it looks really golden brown at that point, you can take it out. If not, then you can put it back in.
Leah Silver:
Another way of knowing, it's a little trickier to check this, but another way of knowing that your challah is done is if the bottom is brown. So, if you're not sure if the top has become really brown, but it's only been 20 minutes, take a kitchen towel, don't burn yourself. Take a kitchen tong and try to pick it up and peak at the bottom. If it's real pale on the bottom, then it's probably not ready yet.
Leah Silver:
Just three pieces braided... If you've done the egg wash, you can put your toppings on, if you have toppings. If you have not put egg wash on, don't put toppings. Toppings go on top of the egg wash. I think I answered how long in the oven. Is it just three pieces braided like you braid a hair braid? Yeah. If you're doing three, then it's like your hair.
Leah Silver:
Thank you, Eddy. Thank you. So I'm going to do the six one more time if you want to watch. I'm going to go a little faster this time just because we are in a little bit of a time crunch and I want to respect that. So I'm doing two, two, two. And I'll go a little faster also so you can see the pacing of it. I'm starting with the two on the right, again, hands are never crossing each other. Making sure each time to re-space everybody out. After a few braids, the re-spacing kind of... Because these pieces are sort of staying where they are, it sort of happens... I don't need to move them around quite as much. Over here, I can tell this is going to be my biggest one. I'm going to push, if I like the way the ends look mostly, I'm just pushing them down, tucking them under a little bit. This end, I'll show you I don't like this end so I'm cutting it and I'll make a little roll out of it. I'm going to just pinch these pieces together. There's my little challah.
Leah Silver:
I have one more piece, one more little roll that I'll make. And again, if you're saving these for Shabbat, for Friday night, I would freeze them. And, if you're going to freeze them, this is what I would do. After you take them out of the oven, let them cool for a few hours and then wrap them in tinfoil, and if you can also put them in a Ziploc bag and then put them in the freezer. If you're only going to use them Friday, you don't need to wrap them so tightly, but if you want them in there for weeks and weeks, then you should definitely make sure it's wrapped and try and take as much of the air out of the Ziploc if possible.
Leah Silver:
My final roll, cross it over like a good ribbon, then tuck a piece in but not taking the whole strand out. I have a little piece there. I have one more loaf to egg wash so I'm going to go ahead and do that now. I'm not going to put them in the oven quite yet because I just finished this loaf, so I'm going to wait about 10 more minutes, but I'll show you how I put toppings on.
Leah Silver:
Again, I'm just taking my egg wash, kind of painting it. Not dowsing it in egg because you don't want to eat scrambled eggs. You don't want to see any big puddles of yellow. I ended up making three loaves and a little roll. I'm going to take my sesame seeds, I just pour some into my hand... It's kind of hard to see because it's white and the challah is white, but then I'm just sprinkling hoping that most of it lands on the challah, not on the baking sheet. I like a lot of sesame seeds. I like the look of it, or the taste of it. I'm just kind of sprinkling, make sure you get the sides too. That's kind of it.
Leah Silver:
How long do rolls bake? Oh yes. I'll repeat the freezing instructions and I will tell you about the baking. So the baking, one more time. Total, it's going to bake for about half an hour. What I like to do is after 15 minutes, rotate it so that it's a little more even. I set a timer for 15 minutes... Put it in the oven, set a timer for 15, rotate it, set another timer for 10, so now we're at 25 minutes. I check on it, it might be ready at that point, it might need an extra five. It also depends on the size. If you made one or two loaves out of this batch, you might need 30 to 35 minutes in your oven. If you made only rolls, your rolls are going to probably be baked in about 20 minutes or so. So it also depends on the size. I know for this kind of batch, for three, it's going to take me between 25 and 30.
Leah Silver:
For the freezing instructions, the most important... two most important pieces, is that you let your challah cool completely, so that it doesn't sweat in the freezer and then that freezes and gets on the challah, and then it's not as good. So, two most important parts is number one, that it cools completely before you freeze and number two is that you try and take as much air out of the plastic bag as possible. You're going to let it cool, wrap it in tinfoil, put it in a Ziploc bag and try to sort of squeeze the air, as much as you can, out of the Ziploc bag and then put it in the freezer. It's good there for a while.
Leah Silver:
When rolling I saw air bubbles in the dough. Yeah, you can kind of just squeeze it out. Punch it out. How much cinnamon and sugar would you use as a topping per loaf? The ratio would probably be two to one sugar to cinnamon, I would say. You could probably do a tablespoon of sugar and a half tablespoon of cinnamon. If you have any other questions, put them in the chat now. I'll put this information back up so you can see your pictures on Instagram, on Facebook.
Leah Silver:
If we freeze, when do we take out of the oven? Oh, you're going to bake it now, take it out of the oven when its been baking and then let it cool completely and freeze it at that point. How? Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by that, Paul. To freeze it? Yeah, cover in foil and put in a Ziploc bag. How much would you make... How would you make an onion topping? You could use dehydrated, dried onions. I like doing that with poppy seeds, onion poppy, I really like. So you could use dehydrated onions and with a little bit of salt I would do and sprinkle that over the top. I think that would be really good.
Leah Silver:
How soon do you take it out of the freezer in time for Shabbat? That's a good question. I think if you take it out Friday morning, you'll be fine. I think the key is to make the strands of equal length before braiding. Definitely try to do that, but work... Honestly, I would say it's more important that it's equal thickness or else the challah is not going to look even, but yeah, trying to get them equal length is definitely good too.
Leah Silver:
So, I think we are going to wrap it up. Nikki or Amy, is there anything you wanted to say before we do that?
Amy Cohen:
Absolutely. First of all, Leah thank you so much for doing this for us. This was amazing and I know everybody, the feedback I've been getting really enjoyed it, so we can't thank you enough on behalf of the Brandeis Alumni Association, on behalf of the Brandeis Women's Network. Again, for Brandeis women who are on this call, if you do it, if you're not in our Facebook group, I would encourage you to join. Just search Brandeis Women and there's a couple of questions to answer and we will look forward to seeing you there. We have a lot of programming coming up.
Amy Cohen:
For those that are interested, there is a discussion tomorrow night on COVID-19 panel tomorrow night. You can find information about on the Brandeis Alumni page as well as a discussion on Thursday night about leadership featuring I believe two female alumni in leadership positions and they're both going to be really interesting and fascinating, so I would encourage you to attend, and I hope to see everybody there, virtually.
Talee Potter:
This is Talee. In order to find the events, if you go on the Facebook page, there's a tab called events, so you just scroll into and then you can see a calendar and there's going to be additional events we will be posting in the next day or so. And, thank you Leah.
Leah Silver:
Thank you. Thank you, thank you. I'm happy to stick around for a few minutes to answer any other questions, but other than that, we're done.
Amy Cohen:
Everybody, enjoy your challah.
Leah Silver:
And send your pictures. I want to see them.
Nikki Mannathoko:
Thanks Leah. Yes, please don't forget to share pictures on the different media platforms that are on the screen. Definitely want to see how everything came out. Thank you.