Pumpkin Chip Challah

Wow, what a busy semester! Now that school is coming to an end, and only 1 exam separates me from coming home, I am finally able to blog. Living in a sorority house I haven't been able to make challah because we aren't allowed to use the oven. However, when I went home to Boston for interviews for a summer internship I made tons of challah to bring back for all the girls in my sorority.

The week before I made the challahs my mom and I visited Jenn at Miami for skating parents weekend. We got to see all their programs which was very exciting, especially because only a few weeks later they won 1st place at their first competition of the season, and Jenn's first competition on the Miami University Senior Varsity Synchronized Skating Team.

Jenn Makes The Best Faces!

While I was home I interviewed at PwC and another big 4 accounting firm in Boston. This was my first time going to an office interview but they must have liked me because I will be interning at PwC this summer. I felt like such a big kid, especially because they paid for my flight and hotel room!! Jealous much?

Can you believe i'm going to be working here?!?!

Anyway, I have been dying to make pumpkin challah since the summer but it just was not the right season. This was one of our more difficult challah recipes to create because of the pumpkin puree. I personally think that the challah needed some more pumpkin, but we also did not want it to lose it's bread consistency. I'm gonna have to play around with this one a little more, but over all it was good challah.

Recipe: (makes 2 loaves)
3/4 cup water
1 packet of active dry yeast (about 2 tsp)
1 tbsp white sugar
1 cup pureed pumpkin
3 extra large eggs: 2 for dough, 1 for baste
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 tbsp oil
1/2 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
about 5 cups flour
1 tsp salt
Chocolate chunks
White chocolate chips
Pumpkin seeds

Mix water, yeast and white sugar into a mixing bowl. Place in a warm place. This could be next to a window that gets sunlight or I like to place it in the oven at 120 degrees. Let stand for about 10 minutes or until the mixture starts to foam.

 

In a separate bowl mix pumpkin, 2 eggs, brown sugar, 2 tbsp oil, honey, vanilla, and cinnamon. Add to the yeast mixture after it has foamed.

Add 2 cups of flour, followed by the salt, and then the rest of the flour. Make sure you mix the flour as you are adding it. Continue to add flour until the dough is no longer sticking to you hands.

Knead the ingredients and form into a ball. Oil the large bowl and then roll the ball of dough in the oil. Place the ball back in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place it in a warm place. Let the bowl sit for at least an hour and a half.

Remove from bowl and knead the dough to get out all the air. Roll out the strands. Place what ever type of chocolate you choose inside and pinch each strand closed.

We made four strand challah single challah knots and a round challah.

After braiding the challah place on a buttered cookie sheet and allow challah to rise for at least 30 minutes in a warm place.

If you want to put pumpkin seeds on the challah I would recommend toasting them while the dough rises.

Baste with egg wash (1 egg and 1/2 tbsp water) and then sprinkle the pumpkin seeds on the baste. 

Bake the knots for about 20 minutes, and round and four strand challah for about 30 minutes at 350 or until internal temperature is around 170.

And of course, to no surprise, the chocolate that oozed out was the best part, YUMM!!!