Ingredients

• 1 - 1.5 kilos of plain flour (approx.)
• 1½ cups of lukewarm water
• 40g fresh yeast (or 1 tablespoon active dried yeast)
• 4-6 tablespoons caster sugar (plus one more teaspoon to mix in with the yeast)
• 2 eggs (plus one more egg yolk for the egg wash)
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• ¼ cup of sunflower oil
• Yellow kosher food colouring (or natural alternative, such as a teaspoon of turmeric)
• Pink kosher food colouring (or natural alternative, such as a tablespoon of pureed beetroot)
• Rolling pin

Method

First, pour the lukewarm water into a big mixing bowl, add the extra teaspoon of caster sugar and then carefully dissolve the fresh yeast into the water.  Once bubbles start to appear on the surface of the water, pour in about a third of the flour, followed by the 2 eggs, the rest of the caster sugar, the salt and the oil.  Get your hands into the dough and combine the mixture, adding flour little by little as you go, until you get a big ball of dough.  You will know when the dough is ready to knead because it shouldn’t stick to your hands any more.  Divide the dough into three roughly equal pieces, add and mix in a few drops of yellow food colouring (or turmeric) to one piece and pink food colouring (or beetroot) to the second piece and leave the third piece plain.

Sprinkle a clean work surface with flour, tip your dough out onto it and knead each piece for 5 minutes, adding a bit of flour if the dough becomes too sticky again.  Drizzle a little bit of leftover sunflower oil around three bowls, place one piece of kneaded dough in each bowl and cover with cling film.  Leave the dough to rise for about 1 ½ hours or until doubled in size.  Once the dough has risen, take each piece of dough in turn and give it a little punch to knock the air back out of it.  Place the dough back on the floured work surface and knead it a little bit, with a bit of flour if needed, so that it’s ready to shape. Please see the video on www.thejc.com for instructions on how to shape the dough.

Once you are happy with the shapes, cover the yellow, pink and plain challah with a clean tea towel or cling film and let them rise again for half an hour to one hour.  Towards the end of this time, pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees and prepare the egg wash.  Divide the egg wash into three portions, leave one portion plain and add a few drops of yellow food colouring (or turmeric) to the second and pink colouring to the third portion.  Spread the plain egg wash generously over the challah-shaped challah, the yellow egg wash over the candlesticks and the pink egg wash over the kiddush cup with a pastry brush.  Bake the challah for 30 minutes at the bottom of the oven.