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Challah knot rolls are great dinner or sandwich rolls.
Delicious Challah Knot Rolls
I just love challah. Since it’s so versatile, who wouldn’t. So extending it to rolls makes perfect sense.
This is the bread that makes the absolute best French toast since it has an egg base. However, it doesn’t stop there. Made into rolls, it’s perfect for dinner rolls. The taste is so wonderful, I often cut out any butter when I eat them.
Challah knots also make wonderful sandwich rolls since they have “moxie” and can stand up to many highly flavored sandwich filling. They also resist falling apart which matters with sandwiches.
Time Investment As Always
With yeast dough, there’s no getting away from the time investment you have to make. Most yeast-based products are pretty easy to make but you have to factor in the length of time it needs to rise. For really optimal results, giving the dough two rises before shaping and rising again gives very good texture and taste. However, with more modern yeasts and recipes that use them, only require one rise before shaping.
With this challah dough, it will require at least three hours to rise. That’s because it’s a pretty heavy and dense dough. What I’ve taken to doing is letting it rise in the refrigerator overnight. This will, of course, result in a slower rise, but that’s pretty incidental. Because of the slower raising time, the texture will be better
And while we’re on the subject of the dough, you will need a sturdy stand mixer for it. Hand-held mixers are not up to this. Just an FYI but I also let the machine knead the dough and just give it a few turns by hand before I put in the bowl to rise. Actually, the more you abuse the dough, the better it will be so if you want to hand knead and slap it around a bit, that’ll be really good. Take all your aggressions out on the dough; wonderful therapy!
Shaping, Etc.
I’ll state upfront that I’m not a wonderful shaper. I did not inherit my mother’s amazing skills at shaping breads so my knots look mediocre at best. What I do is just tie a knot in the rope and tuck then ends under. Just don’t be intimidated if they’re not perfect.
If you serve these as dinner rolls you can always melt a little butter and garlic and brush that over the top when they come out of the oven.
The Recipe
Challah Knots
Ingredients
- 1½ tbs dry active yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1¼ cups lukewarm water
- 5 cups unbleached bread or all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- ½ tbs salt
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg beaten (for the egg wash)
Instructions
- In a small bowl, place yeast, 1 tsp sugar and lukewarm water. Allow to sit for around 10 minutes until it becomes foamy on top.
- In a large bowl or stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, mix together 1½ cups flour, salt and sugar. After the water-yeast mixture has become foamy, add to flour mixture along with oil. Mix thoroughly.
- Add another cup of flour and 2 eggs and mix until smooth. Switch to the dough hook attachment if you are using a stand mixer.
- Add another 1½- 2 cups of flour, mix thoroughly, then remove from bowl and place on a floured surface if kneading by hand or switch to the dough hook for machine kneading.
- Knead remaining ½ cup flour into dough, continuing to knead for around 5 minutes (or however long your hands will last). Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise for at least 3 hours.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Cut dough into 2.5-3 oz pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and then form a knot by just tying it, tucking the under end underneath.
- Allow challah rolls to rise another 20-25 minutes.
- In a small bowl beat 1 large egg. Brush egg wash liberally over challah.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden. Remove from oven.
Roberta Powell says
Are you sure about the tbs of yeast?
Judith Hanneman says
Yes. The yeast amount is correct.