We recovered a long lost challah recipe and we’re on a mission to share it with the world.
Challah is divine. A bread like no other. Mostly because of its ethereal lightness. We recently uncovered a long lost classic from the challah archives and will reproduce it here. We’ll also include a traditional challah recipe made in the style of East Coast brown bread – not to be missed!
Tell us more about this long lost challah!
Isa Chandra Moskowitz is the vegan wonder behind The Post Punk Kitchen. She grew up on real Jewish comfort food in Brooklyn and she creates vegan dishes that evoke the same warmth and love. We are fans of her challah from way back. But we recently discovered, to our horror, that it’s no longer on her site. This forced us to dive into the internet depths where we engaged in a seemingly endless search. Until – miraculously – we found a copy under “vegan cooking” on Livejournal!
We’ve copied it below. This is one recipe definitely worth keeping in your repertoire. It’s delicious in its own right, but imagine offering this to a vegan guest? They would probably burst into tears of joy!
What about the vegans who are gluten-intolerant? We can’t ignore their plight – they deserve delicious challah too! Here’s a video from Food52 that has cookbook author and food stylist Aran Goyoaga making a gluten-free AND dairy-free braided challah that’s “tender, moist, and slightly sweet with a crisp exterior.”
Now, we’d be remiss if we didn’t include one traditional challah recipe. This one, from The Kitchn, is a favourite. And who could forget our promise of an East Coast-style brown bread challah? 2020’s MasterChef Canada winner, Jennifer Crawford’s recipe is divine.
traditional challah from The Kitchn
Start baking, warm up your house and your heart with some alt challah love. And now is the perfect time to get in some challah braiding practice, so you can be an expert once Passover and Easter roll around in April.
Here’s the long lost PPK vegan challah – enjoy!
Post Punk Kitchen’s Vegan Challah
prep time: 2 1/2 hours | cooking time: 30 min | makes 2 medium braided loaves
Tips:
Use really ripe bananas.
Get the water boiling beforehand, then take if off the stove. Cold water means very cold, but not with ice floating in it. “Wrist” temperature water feels neutral to your wrist, about 70 degrees.
Equipment:
large wooden or glass bowl
2 small bowls (not metal)
fork for mashing
wood spoon
good hands
Ingredients:
2 1/2 Tbsp dry active yeast
1/3 cup warm water (“wrist” temperature)
6 cups flour (I usually do a white:whole wheat ratio of 4:2)
1 cup soy flour
1 Tbsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar or dry sweetner
1/2 cup vegetable oil (canola ok, too)
2 overripe (mostly black) bananas
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cold water
another half cup of boiling water for brushing braids
sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or sea salt to top
Directions:
1. In one small bowl, dissolve yeast in the warm water, put to the side to stand for 5-10 minutes.
2. Mash bananas in other small bowl.
3. In large bowl mix: oil, sugar, salt, and boiling water, stirring so it’s all mostly dissolved.
4. Add the cold water to the large bowl (the mix should be warmish now but not hot). Stir in yeast mix.
5. Add bananas.
6. Add flour, one cup at a time.
7. Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Knead for 5-10 min, dough should be smooth, not too stiff or too runny.
8. Lightly coat the large mixing bowl in oil, turn the dough in it to just coat it with oil, place a towel over the dough in the bowl and let it rise for about 1 hr, till double in volume.
9. Punch dough down, turn out and knead again 2-3 min. Divide dough into 2 balls, divide each ball into 3 sections, roll each section into long ropes and make 2 braids. Preheat the oven to 350.
10. Let the braids rise 45 min. Boil a little more water. Just before putting braids in the oven, brush them with boiling water, then sprinkle with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or sea salt.
Bake 30 min. You’ll know they’re done when you tap them on the bottom and they sound hollow. Let cool on a drying rack for 20-40 min before slicing. Enjoy!