Recipe: Chocolate Challah

recipelink.com Chat Room Recipe Swap - 2001-06-10
From: recipelink.com

Chocolate Challah

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 large 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. Source: unknown