AMALENA

This is gluten-free challah that is actually good. Or at least, not too bad. Gluten free stuff is never going to be the same as full gluten stuff and I’m not going to pretend to you that you can’t tell the difference. You can. But, the taste is there. And the texture is as close as I’ve been able to get it after a *lot* of experimentation.

So, here it goes. Gluten-free challah.

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 egg yokes, 2 whole eggs (save egg whites for egg wash before baking)
• 2 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt (optional if you want a non-dairy challah, but does add to the moisture very nicely)
• 2 tablespoons psyllium husks
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon xanthum gum
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup instant yeast (yes, you read that right)
• 1 cup tapioca starch
• 1.5 cups gluten-free bread flour

Instructions:

1. Mix the olive oil, eggs, and Greek yogurt together first, then add the psyllium husks and mix.
2. Let sit for a few minutes so that it turns into a kind of gel.
3. Then mix in the rest of the stuff, adding the tapioca starch and flour last.
4. Squish it into a ball.
5. Spritz a clean bowl with olive oil and set the ball in, covered in plastic wrap.
6. You can leave it in the fridge for a few hours, I usually do two or three.
7. Take it out, use a knife to cut three identically sized portions and squish/roll them into long strands. If you get cracks, you can pinch and smooth them together. Don’t try to do a 6 strand challah with this, it’s hard enough with 3.
8. Braid, set covered for an hour and a half in a room temperature or outdoor Florida location.
9. Coat in the egg whites from earlier.
10. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, then flip the tray around and bake for another 15 minutes so that both sides get evenly colored.
11. Eat!