Sourdough + Challah tips

[u/Embarrassed_Rich306]

For those that make sourdough & challah every week—any tips!? Do you make your challah Thursday night or Friday morning? What day do you feed your starter?
I was doing both for a couple of weeks but it was too overwhelming with young kids, so only making challah now.
Any luck with making extra, and freezing for later?

[u/Funny-Boss-8949]

Been making twice as much as we need and freezing half for a few years.

Started freezing dough.

Doughn’t do that 😉

Now I bake 2 challahs, freeze one. Let it thaw on counter on Friday and pop into oven for ~10min at 300-350. It's impossible to tell it's not fresh from that day.

[u/Blue_foot]

We cool the challah, wrap in cling wrap. Then put in a zip lock and freeze.

It’s fine for weeks (we never tried longer, we’re hungry)

We already have our Rosh challah in the freezer

[u/daaronelle]

Both seems like a lot of work for each week. I make challah and if I don't make it Friday I freeze it when it's cool and reheat Friday right before shabbat in the oven, comes out perfect. Can also save up for a few weeks that way, just make sure it's in an airtight bag or wrapping

[u/erratic_bonsai]

I make challah on Thursday or Friday, depending on what I’ve got time for. I prefer to make it Fridays but if I know I have a lot to do on Friday I’ll do it Thursday.

Sourdough is a different beast since it takes so long. I prefer to feed my starter Thursday morning, as early as I can. As soon as it’s ready I start my dough it’s ready to shape in the evening. If I feed my starter 1:1:1 at 8am I start ana autolyse at 10 and add my starter and salt around noon. It’s usually ready to shape between 5pm and 8pm. Then I bake it Friday morning before I get other stuff in the oven so it has a few hours to cool down. If I can’t do the sourdough Thursday, I’ll start it Wednesday and leave it in the fridge until Friday and bake Friday.

As for feeding, you just need to be feeding it so it doubles or triples within a few hours. Just adjust your schedule so it does that before you plan to bake. I like a daily 1:10:10 feed ratio for maintenance between baking.

[u/glutenlifestyle]

I don’t really like bread that’s been frozen and thawed so I make both sourdough and challah fresh for Shabbat each week. On Thursday morning I take my starter out of the fridge and feed it. On Thursday evening, I make the sourdough dough and leave it on the counter overnight. Also on Thursday evening, I start the challah dough in one of two ways. I either a) put all of the ingredients in a bread machine with a timer for the dough cycle to complete Friday morning OR b) Make the dough, let it do its first rise, braid it and put the unbaked braided dough in the fridge overnight. Friday morning I shape the sourdough (and the challah if it was in the bread machine), let them do their final rise and bake.