For the last year or so, I haven’t strayed away from my classic sourdough. I loved the fact that I didn’t need to mess with yeast and was confident in my trusty sourdough starter! However, I recently have been looking into making other risen creations – bagels, focaccia, buns and now challah!
The catalyst which inspired me to make this braided loaf was when I was researching and trying out recipes for my vegan shakshuka. I read that it was typically served with challah in Israel and then it dawned on me – why hadn’t I made challah before? I had eaten this Jewish, eggy bread my entire life, so it was about time I tried it myself. When I was researching how to make this loaf egg-free I saw three main different variations – some with no egg replacement; some used aquafaba (the liquid from canned chickpeas): and others used chickpea flour. For this first go, I used aquafaba, but will try a chickpea flour variation soon and report back!
vegan challah
Ingredients
- 7 grams active yeast
- 25 grams sugar
- 89 ml warm water
- 45 ml vegan butter or coconut oil melted (or a neutral oil like vegetable or canola oil plus more for greasing the bowl)
- 60 ml aquafaba plus a bit more for brushing challah
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 320 grams bread flour plus more as needed if the dough is too sticky
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine the yeast and 13 grams (one tablespoon sugar) and add the warm water mixture and stir slightly. Rest for 10 minutes until the yeast has bloomed and is bubbly. Stir in remaining sugar.
- In a separate bowl mix the baking powder, salt and flour together.
- In a stand mixer, add the aquafaba and use a whisk attachment to beat until light and frothy – about one minute.
- Add liquid mixture aquafaba in the stand mixer and combine with the whisk attachment.
- Change the whisk to a dough hook attachment and slowly add in the flour and baking powder with a dough hook and combine until smooth.
- Knead with the dough hook until the dough isn’t sticking to the sides of the bowl and then continue to knead on medium-high for five minutes until dough begins clearing the sides and forms a smooth bowl.
- Transfer the dough to a large non-metal bowl greased with oil, vegan butter or coconut oil. Cover with cling film and let rest in an oven with the oven light on for one hour until the dough has doubled in size.
- Deflate the dough and let rise again for another hour until it has again doubled in size.
- Turn onto a floured workspace and knead gently to get out any large air bubbles and form into a log shape and cut the dough into three even pieces.
- Braid into shape and transfer to a sheet lined with baking paper and cover with a damp towel and let rise again for one more hour.
- Preheat oven to 176˚C (350 ˚F).
- Brush the dough with remaining aquafaba and bake for 25-30 minutes, brushing with more aquafaba halfway through. To check for doneness try knocking on the bottom of the bread and if it sounds hollow, it’s done.
- Cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.
- Enjoy!
