The gluten free world in Israel has become obsessed with Molino Caputo flour! Since it’s made with wheat, don’t worry the gluten protein has been removed, it is both motzei and delicious! AKA it is the BEST flour for challah. Once you start using it, you won’t go back to eating oat challah.
I’ve seen a few “challah” recipes using this flour but for the most part they just taste like bread and lack the sweet flavor I crave when I think challah. Not this one! I like to use silan to give my challah a deeper brown color (plus its vegan) but feel free to replace it with honey for a more traditional challah flavor.
Molino Flour Challah
Yes, it is motzei and gluten free and yes this is the most challah like gluten free challah you’ll ever try!
- 1.5 tbsp Active Dry Yeast
- 1 3/4 cup warm water
- 4 cups Molino Flour (I like to use 3 cups molino and 1 cup schar bread flour which allows it to still be motzei I find it makes a lighter challah)
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp honey or silan
- 3 tsp salt
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- extra flour for braiding
- Place yeast into a large bowl, add the warm water, mix to dissolve and let sit for 5 minutes.
- Add in the flour, sugar, salt, egg, olive oil, vinegar and silan.
- Add the flour in slowly, I add it 1 cup at a time. You want to make sure you add just enough to create a dough but not too much that it gets dry. Knead the dough until combined- it should be a fairly wet dough.
- Continue to knead the dough (I use a dough hook) for about 5 minutes. It should create a slightly wet dough ball that is sticky to touch but still manageable.
- Cover the dough and let it sit in a warm spot for 1.5 hours to rise.Braid the dough, it will be wet and sticky but if you flour your hands (or continuously run them under water) you will be able to braid. Be patient and continue to flour your hands to prevent sticking. Don’t flour the surface as it allows too much flour into the dough and will dry it out.
- Leave the braided challot to sit again for 30 minutes. The dough should make 2 large challot, 3 medium challot, or 5 tiny ones. Before putting them to rise a second time, I like to freeze any dough I wont be using this week and bake it at a later time. The challah keeps better this way than freezing fully baked challot.
- Wash with egg wash or with coconut oil / silan/ olive oil and bake the challot on 180 until golden, about 45 minutes.
Toppings are also great! My favorite challah topping is a gluten free crumble made from butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Additionally Sesame seeds, Everything but the Bagel seasoning, and cinnamon make great toppings.
You can order the flour on amazon.
In Jerusalem you can find the flour at Gluless, Rus El Hanut, and Mizrachi (in the shuk). Also, it’s available for order from Guluten and Tenjoy.
Read about my challah journey and how celiac disease affects Jewish practice here.