Electric hand mixers were rarely used before the 1920s. But now, almost everyone has one (in the Western world). So when a recipe says to mix, you take the hand mixer with the beater blades and mix.  If it says to knead, you take the dough hooks and you knead. And it is very okay to do so, I use them too. Who wants to beat egg whites, or knead a dough with hand power? It is unnecessary, and we don't have time or the actual force in our arms anymore...:)

This time I made a challah (kalács in Hungarian) and I kneaded the dough by hand. It is fun to test yourself sometimes, and also to think of the old days, when this was the only way to do it. When you knead with a hand mixer, you can think of something else, for example what is going to be the next step, or what you are going to do, when the dough is going to rest and raise. Not to mention the stand mixer, when you can leave the machine on its own to knead...But when you knead without a machine, you do not think of anything else. You knead and you are present. It is extremely hard work! Try it sometimes, it is total mindfulness 🙂

This version is always made at Easter in my family. So we simply call it Easter challah. Here comes the recipe.

I really recommend to use stonegrounded flour instead of rollermilled. I usually use biodynamic milk and butter, and free-range eggs. The lemon is organic, especially because I use the peel of it. And except the lemon all the ingredients are local. For a healthy environment, for healthy guts and for a healthy soul I recommend you to do the same.

500 gram flour

20 gram yeast

50 gram sugar

salt

300-350 ml milk

50 gram butter

1 egg (+1 for brushing)

lemon peel

handful of sliced almonds (optional)

Dissolve the yeast in warm milk, let it sit. In a big bowl mix the flour with sugar, and salt. Add the yeast mixture, the egg, the lemon peel. Mix it well. Slowly add the warm milk, and the melted butter to the dough. Knead it very well with a wooden spoon, beat as much air into it, as you possibly can. You can hold very short breaks, or change arms 😉 You have to continue till the dough is smooth and tiny blisters appear just below the surface. You did a good job, if the dough is one whole, shiny unit, which wants to stick to itself more than to the wooden spoon or to the bowl. Cover with a clean kitchen towel, put it to a warm place to raise. It is going to be about double sized. Flour a surface in the kitchen and divide the dough into two parts. From this amount I made two loafs. So divide both parts into three equal parts. Roll them into long ropes. Gather the three ropes in the end of the loaf and fold them under. Braid them, until you do not have ropes left, and finish the end of the loaf, just as you started, fold under. While braiding, stretch, pull and twist the dough, these will make your loaf tender and loose 😉

Place the two loafs into a greased baking tray, brush them with a beaten egg, sprinkle with sliced almonds and place them into the COLD oven. Set the temperature to 180 degrees, and bake the loafs for 35-40 minutes.

You can eat them with butter, marmalade, chocolate spread for breakfast or just plain challah next to your Easter supper with the smoked ham, radish, spring onions, horseradish cream and eggs boiled together with the ham. Hungarian Easter supper recipes will come in a post very soon 😉