Tamar Ansh's Challah

These challot are actually the challot that I made last week for Shabbat; I'm just getting around to posting them now. This challah is the star challah recipe in Tamar Ansh's book Challah. Unlike Maggie Glezer's A Blessing of Bread, this book has beautiful pictures but very few challah recipes. How lucky then that this one recipe is a real winner! It is an eggless challah, but not a traditional water challah because it is on the sweeter side of things, while not being overly sweet. Having already found a go to egg challah recipe, I think it's safe to say that I've found its water counterpart. Her procedure is far more complicated then my usual mix dry-add wet so I just stuck to what works for me. I made a two kilo batch and I think when that happens I don't  knead the dough as well- I could have kneaded longer- the dough fought me tooth and nail as I was trying to shape it, but in the end the braids ended up nicely risen, so I didnt do a terrible job. It's helpful to separate the dough into two parts and knead separately before combining. I used 1 1/2 cups sugar, where she gives a range of 1 1/3-1 1/2 cups. I think I would cut the sugar back a bit and then they would be PERFECT. I upped the salt another tablespoon because 1 tbsp just would not have been enough. Also, I am IN LOVE with sesame seeds on challah- not only do they look stunning but they add so much flavor. These didnt just impress me but the people I served them too as well. And they were good the next day. I am totally sold. This recipe is off to Yeastspotting. I think my challah trials have proved fruitful. I wonder if there will be any more...

Challah
adapted from Tamar Ansh's recipe

2 kilo flour
1 1/3-1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tbsp instant yeast
2 tbsp salt
4 3/4-5 cups water
1 cup oil
1 egg, beaten for glazing
sesame seeds

Make the dough as per your usual challah method. This recipe yields 6 loaves. Bake them at 350 until they are golden and delicious and a thermometer registers at least 190. Time depends on your oven.

Here they are braided.

Proofed and glazed.

And baked to challah perfection.