Help with challah baking problem

[cappucino]

I am not a usual Challah baker, but would like to try to do it semi-regularly. My problem is that whenever I make Challah, the bottom gets overdone. My kids like a soft, doughy (but not raw) sweet Challah with a soft underside. How do I do this? I was using aluminum loaf pans and corningware. I would spray pam on the bottom and lightly flour them.

[azna29]

I generall have this problem with all my baked goods because my oven is old and the heat comes from the broiler on the bottom of the oven rather than the top. I solved it by putting the challah on the top rack and putting an empty roasting pan under it so the heat rising up gets dispersed. Not sure if that's your issue but I thought i would mention it.

[cappucino]

I think this may indeed be part of my problem. I do think that things do not heat evenly in my old oven. I will try your idea, but also use parchment to cover my bases. If that doesn't work, I'll buy the silpat. This reminds me of a post I've been meaning to write.

[marissaj]

I too bake challa every week. I use fresh yeast after trying numerous dry yeast recipes, and I always use aluminum cookie sheets which i spray first with pam or use parchment paper. I have found cooking chala for 28-30 mins always acheives the desired look/ taste/ crust and tapping the bottoms to check for a hollow sound works nicely.
My favorite recipe is in the Kosher palette.

[azna29]

I always use parchment and this helps because you don't need to use extra oil.

[masteraleph]

As mamaleh already mentioned, parchment paper also works nicely, as an alternative to silicon.

My grandmother's recipe also calls for 20 minutes at 250 and 20 minutes at 350. Your mileage may vary, but starting it off at the lower temperature helps it to rise and to start changing consistency without really starting to form a crust.

[PRLady23]

I bake challah every other week in disposable challah tins. I spray them lightly with Baking Pam and then sprinkle each with corn meal. They never stick or get soggy.

Corn meal works great under pizza dough too, by the way!

[cappucino]

Interesting ideas Never thought of corn meal. Thermometer sounds like a good idea, but I'm likely to forget to do it. Spilmat sounds like a good idea. Thanks to all of you. If anyone has a no-fail sweet, doughy recipe that does not require a bread machine, please let me know. Mine is ok, but not exactly what the kids want.

[GilaB]

Mine is fairly sweet and consistently gets rave reviews, but isn't good for yom tov because it gets crumbly fairly quickly. It's a no-knead recipe, so it's very, very easy.

For a four-pound batch of challah dough (this is easily halved/quartered/doubled - four pounds is about two very big ones and a few rolls):

1 tablespoon plus 1.5 teaspoons yeast
1 tablespoon kosher salt (use significantly less if using table salt)
1 1/2 cups water, a little warmer than body temperature
1/2 cup canola or other neutral oil
3/4 cup honey
4 eggs, lightly beaten
6.5 cups bread flour (use all-purpose if that's all you've got)
Egg wash: 1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water (I use only the yolk if possible, which gives color without making a super-hard crust)
Sesame, poppy, or cumin seeds for garnish, optional.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together yeast, salt, and water. Add oil, honey, and eggs. Stir in flour, until everything is just mixed (try to distribute the extra-wet-sticky areas evenly, although the batter will be wet.) Do not knead. Cover with clean dishtowel, and place in a warm area. Let rise two hours or until it collapses on top when you jar the bowl slightly. In my kitchen, this generally takes 2.5 hours; if your house is chilly, it could be more. Refrigerate for at least one hour (this makes it easier to work), or for up to five days; the dough will ferment a bit the longer it sits, getting less sweet and more sourdough-ish over time. I prefer unfermented, but it's up to you. You can also freeze it for a few weeks at this point, although the longer it's frozen, the less well it will rise afterwards.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with a rack at the center. Shape your dough as you see fit, and place on whatever surface you're planning on baking it on; as mentioned, I use a Silpat (not Spilmat) on an insulated cookie sheet. You will need a good amount of flour to keep it from sticking while you braid it. Allow it to rise; if it's only been in the fridge for an hour, it needs 45-60 minutes of rise time, but if it's been refrigerated overnight or longer, it needs an hour and fifteen to an hour and thirty minutes or so. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with seeds if desired. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden-brown; I error on the side of slightly underdone, and my oven takes precisely 31 minutes for this, but the original recipe called for 25-30. Allow to cool completely, then store in a ziplock bag. (The ziplock is important! It dries out otherwise.) It's not that great when it sits around, so try to make it as close to Shabbos as possible.

[vallevin]

Okay, I feel like Gila has thrown the gauntlet down.

Here my recipe.
5 lbs of Heckers (or any high gluten) flour
3 T dry yeast
1 cup sugar (plus extra to start yeast)
2 tablespoons of salt
2 eggs
1 cup of oil
4 cups of warm water. (keep an extra cup on the side)

Use the largest bowel you have, put the water in the bowl and add the yeast, use anywhere from 1 T to 1/4 cup of sugar to start the yeast

Once your yeast has activated, add in the salt, sugar, oil and eggs and mix well. Add in about a 1/3 of the bag of flour so that you've you've got a good mixture - very gluey. Now add in the flour a cup or town at a time, at some point you will have to start kneading and adding in extra water, about 2 T at a time, when you've incorporated all the flour, your dough should not be too dry or too gluey, don't worry if you haven't kneaded enough, as long as you can form it into a ball you're good. Let it rise in a warmish place for 2 hrs. punch down and divide into 8 equal amounts, ( I cut the dough in 1/2 and keep going from there). Put the dough into loaf pans and let rise for 1 hour. Bake in a 350 oven for 20 minutues, check the loaves and continue for another 5-10 if you think they need more.

Freeze your baked loaves. Reheat before serving,

[lburrell]

I bake challah every week. i usually use insulated cookie sheets or jelly roll style baking pans (rectangular with sides about an inch high.) When the tops are done, but the temperature as taken with my instant read thermometer is not quite high enough (I look for 185), I flip over the challahs and the bottoms then brown nicely in about 5 to 10 minutes. I cannot emphasize too much how greatly improved our challahs have become since we started tested with the thermometer rather than just tapping the bottoms or going by looks or aroma.

[GilaB]

I bake my challahs on Silpat mats on top of baking sheets, no extra flouring or greasing, and never have overdone bottoms.

[mamaleh]

Use non-stick challah pans and do not spray or flour them. You can also try using parchment paper without greasing or flouring.

[vallevin]

I use disposable aluminum and never spray or flour. I like my challah to have a crust all over so I can't really speak to this, but I do usually cook in a pre-heated 350 oven, I have occasionally let a loaf slip out of pan so I could check it on the bottom to see if it was cooked enough, so I guess you could do the same for 15 min and see if it is done to your liking.