Chocolate Challah - dairy
2 cups Lukewarm Water
3 pkg Yeast
8 cups Flour
1 1/2 cups Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Salt
3/4 cup Cocoa -- or less, to taste
1/2 lb Butter
4 Eggs -- beaten
12 oz Chocolate Chips
1 Egg -- for glaze
4 oz White Chocolate -- chopped
Mix water and yeast in a super huge bowl. Add 3 cups flour and 1 cup
sugar. Stir with a fork and let rise a half hour in a warm place.
Meanwhile, in another bowl, measure in 5 cups of flour, salt, 1/2
cups of sugar, and the cocoa. Add butter and cut in with a knife
until mixture resembles coarse meal. At the end of the half hour,
add 4 beaten eggs to the yeast mixture and stir well. (Mix will
decrease in volume.) Add flour-butter mixture to yeast mixture and
work in bowl. Add chocolate chips and white chocolate, and work them
in, too. If sticky, add up to two more cups of flour. Knead well on
floured board until smooth and elastic. Put in oiled bowl and cover
with towel.
Put in warm place and let rise two hours (or until doubled).
Punch dough down. Knead lightly for a minute or two. Divide dough
into three parts. Set aside two. Divide the remaining one into four
equal parts. Braid three of them together. Take the fourth and
divide it into three equal parts. Braid those and lay them over the
large braid. Repeat for the other two hunks of dough.
Once the loaves are braided, put them onto oiled pans. Cover and let
rise in a warm place as long as possible (3-5 hours is fine -- the
longer they rise, the lighter the loaves will be -- but don't
wait so long that you kill the yeast.) When they are done
rising, brush the top with remaining beaten egg and bake at 350
degrees for 45 minutes. |