I'd like to thank Mary Ellen Jordan for sharing this recipe - I'm now hooked on Challah so much so I've included another recipe (Honey Challah) on the website. 

Challah is a sweet, rich Jewish bread, eaten on Friday nights and at many festivals. It is usually shaped as a long braid. It makes the best French toast when it’s gone a bit stale the next day. 

This recipe was created by Mary Ellen Jordan and Seraphina Weldon from bread recipes by Libby Cornish and Dan Lepard and a traditional challah recipe by Jeffrey Yoskowitz and Liz Alpern.

 

This recipe was designed specifically to be made with Bakers' Magic gluten free flour. The finished baked product will not be the same if you use another gluten free flour and you will need to adjust the recipe, particularly if the flour you're using contains rice flour. 

 

Ingredients

450 g Bakers' Magic Gluten free flour - the loaf was made with the brown flaxseed blend. 

3 Eggs + 1 for coating the loaf

2 tsp Yeast

15 g Psyllium husk

1/2 cup Sugar

Pinch Salt

220 mL Lukewarm water

50 mL Oil

Sesame seeds

 

 

 

Method

Place all ingredients* in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix with the flat beater until everything is well combined. You’ll need to stop and scrape the bowl down a few times, and you might even need to finish it off by hand to get it truly combined.

Place the wet, sticky dough in a lightly oiled bowl and leave it to prove for about 45 minutes or until doubled in size. (The dough becomes much more workable after it has rise.) 

I imagine you could bake this as a loaf, but traditional challah is braided, so divide the dough into six equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball and then roll the ball into a long rope.

Braid the loaf. This process is impossible to describe, so check out one of the many guides online such as this https://www.instructables.com/How-to-braid-challah-6-strand-method/.

Beat the extra egg and using a pastry brush, lightly coat the loaf with egg. Leave it to rise for 45 minutes or until doubled in size. Preheat your oven to 200°C.

Just before placing in the oven, do another coat of the egg wash and then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake at 200°C for about an hour. If the loaf starts to darken too much, turn the oven down to 180°C.

*Mary Ellen usually doesn't pre incubate the instant dried yeast.