Spelt Challah

Here it is, folks. The long-awaited spelt challah recipe. I must apologize to all my friends who were begging me to post this earlier, but I have a very good reason for waiting. Well, very good in my eyes. They just wanted the recipe! I wanted to wait until I made a fresh batch of these so the recipe can have an accompanying photo of its deliciousness.



Spelt Challah

5 lb white spelt flour

3 cups white kamut
2 Tablespoons dough conditioner, optional

2/3 cup oil

4 oz dry yeast

1 cup sugar OR xylitol, OR 1/2 cup honey

3 tsp salt

5 ½ cups warm water

3 eggs

Dissolve the yeast in warm water with a bit of the sugar or honey and let it sit for about 10 minutes until it bubbles. If you are using xylitol it will not help the yeast bubble at all, so either use sugar or honey, or skip it altogether. Your yeast may take a bit longer to bubble.

Combine all remaining ingredients in the bowl of a mixer and knead until just combined. Knead an additional 2-3 minutes. Cover and let it rise in a warm place (the top of my refrigerator is my fave location) until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Punch the dough down, and divide into 5 balls. Braid and place in greased medium sized loaf pans such as this one. Okay, not quite that one, it's pricey, but that size. 

Now you have 2 options. You can either cover your loaves again and let them rise on the counter until doubled in size. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle sesame seeds. Personally I like to use challah topping. Preheat oven to 350, and bake for 1 hour.

The second option is to do the egg wash and topping first, and then place the loaves in an oven preheated to 200F. Let them rise in the oven for 20 minutes. Then raise the temperature to 350, and bake for 1 hour.