Raspberry, Pecan & Cream Cheese Challah

Look who’s back to sweet baking!! Though I am still on my sweet ban, I just couldn’t resist baking this challah, especially when I knew I could safely put honey in as the sole sweetener… Having honey’s not cheating, right? Totally right. I don’t think I’ve even heard of challahs before my blogging days, I’ve never really seen them around in bakeries either. But who would pass a recipe for sweet, egg rich bread that sounds like brioche without all the butter, plus they get an A in the visual appeal. The braiding, my friends may look intimidating, and I won’t lie and say it was super easy, I mean I did panic quite abit when I scrolled the tutorial video straight to the beginning in the midst of braiding and losing track of which strand to move where… You could probably imagine the mess my red stained, floury hands made on the trackpad… Miraculously, I sort of found the pattern again and braiding was accomplished. YES. So top tip of the day: maybe have some friend watch the video next to you with clean hands, ready to replay the steps in the beginning until you get the hang of it.

The flavour combo was inspired by the new bakery at the city called The Dough Collective. They make amazing bread with yum combinations that almost always has cream cheese cubes in them. Oh yes… If you don’t like the tartness of fresh raspberries, you could always add dried fruits, or jam would give you the same swirly effect too. Whatever you put in, it’s probably going to be great. Enjoy toasted with a generous pat of butter, or make some french toast with these babies. They’ll make good ones, I’m so sure of it.

Raspberry, Pecan & Cream Cheese Challah

Recipe adapted from Irina @ Wandercrush (she makes a wholewheat version so check that out if you prefer)

• 1 heaped teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 3.5-4 cups all purpose flour (use only just enough to get the dough to not stick terribly as you knead)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 tbs honey
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 1 tbs greek yogurt
• 2 eggs (one whole, one yolk)
• handful of raspberries, coarsely crushed
• honey, to taste
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
• 50g cream cheese, cut into small cubes
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 heaped tsp sesame seeds

1. Combine yeast and water and a drizzle of honey in a bowl. Stand for 10 minutes until foamy on the top

2. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl combine honey, olive oil, yogurt and eggs and mix well until homogenous. Add the yeast mixture into the other bowl of liquid ingredients. Mix and gradually stir into the dry ingredients until a dough forms

3. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes), adding more flour if needed. Gather dough into a ball and place into a lightly oiled bowl. Leave to stand at a warm place covered with a damp tea towel for about 1 hour. Meanwhile combine raspberries and honey together in a small bowl and stand aside.

4. Punch dough and cut into 6 separate pieces. Roll each piece into long strands of equal length. Proceed to braid as per the instructions in this video, filling in dough with berries, pecans and cream cheese as you go. (Yes it’ll get messy but try to be consistent in this part as you wouldn’t want to leave sections out from having the nice bits)

5. Leave to stand in a warm place for 30 mins.

6. Preheat oven to 170C. Brush the challah generously with the beaten egg. Dip your index finger into the egg and then the sesame seeds and make imprints onto the dough evenly (this I find is a better/prettier way than sprinkling to make sure each slice gets their sesame seed quota fulfilled). Bake for 25-30 minutes until it sounds hollow when tapped and it is a golden brown colour (make a foil tent if it’s browning way too fast). Let cool for an hour before slicing (though I think I only waited for 15mins… you decide!) Makes one loaf.

Until next time then. Stay gold till then x

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