Chocolate chip and halva challah

Chocolate chip and halva challah

If you’ve never made challah before, this is your chance. And we want to see your pictures when you make it!

This challah recipe uses the same dough as our previous challah recipe (the famous cinnamon roll challah) but with a different filling. However, this time we let the dough rise a second time and a gave it a second eggwash before baking. This makes sure it stays together during baking- so no leaky filling. *** Pro tip: check out the round braid. It’s easier than it looks. Go for it!

Ingredients (1 challah)

Dough-
2 teaspoons dry yeast
1 teaspoon honey
2/3 cup warm water
3 tablespoons honey
1/3 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs (and another 1 for egg wash)
4 cups flour

Filling-
halva
chocolate chips

Directions:

First you need to activate the yeast. Whisk the yeast with 1 teaspoon of honey and warm water and wait a few minutes until it looks foamy.

Add 3 tablespoons of honey, the olive oil, salt and eggs. Mix with a wooden spoon and gradually add in the flour. When the dough forms into a ball, knead for 5 minutes. Cover the dough and let it rise for 1 hour.

When the dough has doubled in size, separate it into 4 equal parts. Shape each part into a ball, and roll into a circle. Sprinkle the halva and chocolate chips onto each of the 4 circles and roll into a long rope. Stretch the ropes as long as you can and braid. Pinch the ends. Now for braiding. You can follow the pictures below or watch the video to learn the braid.

Step 1: set the four braids like in the picture below. Fold the ends of the ropes over each other.

step 2: now the remaining 3 sides

Step 3: now we fold the ropes from 2 different sides like below

Step 4: Squeeze the two ends together

Step 5: Tuck below

Brush the braided dough with egg wash (which is just a beaten egg) and let rest for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 375 °F or 190 °C.

Brush with egg wash again and sprinkle halva crumbs on top. Bake for 30 minutes. If the top begins to brown too quickly you can cover it with foil. Shabbat shalom!