Challah Rolls
I've been making a lot of whole grain breads lately but I really felt the need for something completely opposite and not quite as healthy. We were going to have some chicken burgers for dinner one night last week and they wouldn't have really worked on slices of 100% whole grain bread so some Challah rolls were needed.
This formula is based on one of Peter Reinhart's with a few modifications and ended up making some great rolls.
Formula
Directions
Separate the egg yolks in a separate bowl. Add the yeast to the water and stir briefly. Next add the egg yolks, salt and oil and stir until thoroughly mixed. Now add the flour and mix on low for 4 minutes and medium for another 2 minutes until you have a nice soft dough.
Take the dough out of your mixer and form it into a ball and place in a well oiled bowl or dough rising bucket. Knead the dough by hand inside the bowl for a minute and then immediately place the dough in the refrigerator overnight for up to 2 days.
When ready to bake, take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature for about 1 - 1.5 hours.
Next gently deflate the dough and form into rolls and place on cookie sheet with parchment paper. Cover with a moist towel or plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray. Let it sit at room temperature for about 1 hour or more until the rolls have almost doubled in size and pass the poke test.
Around 30 minutes before ready to bake the rolls, pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees and prepare your oven for steam as well. I use a heavy-duty pan in the bottom shelf of my oven and pour 1 cup of boiling water in right before placing the rolls in the oven.
Right before you are ready to bake the rolls prepare an egg wash and paint your rolls and sprinkle on poppy seeds or your seed of choice.
Bake the rolls at 450 degrees for the first 5 minutes and lower the oven to 425 degrees until they are nice and brown. These should take about 25 minutes to cook thoroughly. When done let them cool on wire rack for at least half an hour before digging in if you can wait that long.
Comments
Great looking Rolls, well done.
Cheers,
Wingnut
Thanks Wing. These are tasty ones.
Regards
Ian
Perfect for chicken. Can't remember a time at Grandma's when there wasn't challah for chicken! These had to be tasty as they look so good inside and out, Well done ....and I think Max wants to go for a walk on the beach.
Happy Baking Ian
Thanks DA. These sure are tasty rolls...not the healthiest but they make great sandwiches and burger buns.
Its in the 40s this weekend so Max will certainly get to play at the doggie park. He wishes he had Lucy to play with:(
Happy Baking DA.
Regards
Ian
I bake challah a lot but have never used brown sugar. Does that darken the dough? Also, is it safe to leave dough with raw eggs uncooked for days? I would worry about growth of bacteria.
I bake my challahs at 325 to 350. Have you tried doing your rolls at a lower temp?
Not really sure if the brown sugar had any effect different than white sugar but the dough had a nice rich flavor to it. If you leave the dough in your refrigerator there is no issue at all with the eggs. The heat when baking it will kill any bacteria anyway but it's really not an issue at all. I like to bake at higher temperatures but you can certainly go to 350 without a problem but for rolls there is no reason to go that low.
David
Thanks David.