COVID-19 lockdown: will swap toilet paper for yeast…..

It’s almost the weekend - challah is needed for Friday night. 

At the beginning of the lockdown in the UK there was panic buying.  People were seen leaving supermarkets with several multipacks of toilet paper and the stores soon ran out. Rationing was introduced and many jokes were circulated such as “I have six rolls of toilet paper, will swap for a cottage in the country”.

There were more shortages – flour, eggs, long-life milk, pasta and others as well. However as the supply chain smartened up and people stopped panic buying things have calmed down. There remains however a dearth of yeast. Unlike Switzerland where fresh yeast is available in every supermarket here it is only in specialist shops or on line. There is no fresh yeast, nor dried, nor instant so perhaps it is a bit mean to offer this recipe up now.  I have yeast….

Elaine and I served on a board together. We both arrived early for one meeting and were chatting about the recent Jewish New Year.  I told her that I had queued for 30 minutes to buy a challah at the bakery.  She wondered why I didn’t make my own – yeast baking is a challenge I had never attempted. While we were waiting she wrote out the recipe and I was very proud to bake the challah for my grandson’s barmitzvah.

Challah – Elaine’s recipe

40 g          fresh yeast *

100 g        white granulated sugar

1 K 
           Strong white bread flour

1 tab 
        Salt 

120 ml+
    oil

430 ml+    warm water – above hand hot as the oil cools it
an egg, beaten

CHANGE UNITS

Put the flour in a large bowl.  Crumble the yeast on top and sugar on top of that.  Mix the warm water and oil and add – it should be handhot.  Add salt.  Mix until sides of the bowl are clean.  Add equal amounts of oil and water if needed.  Final texture should be damp but not too sticky.  Leave to rise 2 – 3 hours or more in a warm place.

If you are making challah divide the dough into three pieces and roll into strips for plaiting. Otherwise you can make a round loaf.  Make loaves and put on a tray lined with baking paper and leave to rise for ½ hour for round and 1 hour for plaited.  You can alternatively put it into two 500 gram lined baking tins for regular loaves. Bake at 180C for 20 – 30 minutes. Brush with beaten egg. The loaves are ready when the base sounds hollow when tapped.  Remove from the tins if using and cool all loaves on a wire stand.  

* If you can’t get fresh yeast the equivalents are 3 grams of fresh – 1.5 gms of dry or 1 gm of quick.  So for this recipe it would be 20 gms of dry or about 14 gms of quick.   

If you have never tasted toast made from challah you have a treat in store.