Gluten Free Challah

• Preheat the oven to 200°F.
• Dissolve the teaspoon of sugar in the ¼ cup warm water. Add the yeast, mix well with a fork for about 15 seconds, and set aside until frothy, about 5 minutes.
• Measure and combine the dry ingredients in one bowl, getting rid of clumps.
• Combine the honey, oil, milk, eggs, and warm water.
• Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture slowly and mix to combine.
• Add the yeast mixture from the first step.
• Mix well for 3-5 minutes (I do it all by hand, folks, but feel free to use your mixer). The mixture will be a little runny, but shouldn’t be too runny.
• Turn the oven off.

Rising (~ 2 hours)

• First Rise: Cover the dough bowl with parchment paper and leave in the warm (but off!) oven for about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
• Take the bowl out and turn the oven back on to preheat to 200°F.
• Stir the dough down and spoon into your lightly greased pans — small loaf pans work, but I use the challet pan, and this recipe makes 4 challets.
• Turn the oven off.
• Second Rise: Cover the pan(s), return back to the warm (but off) oven, and let rise again for another 40 minutes or so, until the dough has doubled.
• Remove the rising challah from the oven.

Baking (~ 30-35 minutes)

• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Part One: Bake uncovered at 375°F for 15 minutes.
• Line a cookie sheet with the parchment paper you used to cover the dough.
• Remove pans from oven and invert half-baked loaves onto the cookie sheet. They should be solid at this point.
• Lightly glaze loaves with the egg yolk, then return to oven.
• Part Two: Bake uncovered at 375°F for 15-20 minutes. You’ll want the tops to have a nice, golden brown coloring.
• Move to wire rack to cool.