Rhubarb, White Chocolate and Sweet Geranium Challah Bread

Thu, 22 August 2019

Ingredients:

For the Challah Bread:

1-1.5 kilos of plain flour (approx.)
1½  cups of lukewarm water
40g fresh yeast (or 1 tablespoon active dried yeast)
4 tablespoons caster sugar (plus one more teaspoon to mix in with the yeast)
2 eggs (plus one more egg for the egg wash)
1 tablespoon of salt
¼ cup of sunflower oil

For the Rhubarb Compote Filling:

400g rhubarb (chopped)
4 tablespoons of caster sugar
Handful of white chocolate chips
Handful of sweet geranium leaves (finely chopped)
You will also need rolling pin

Method:

1. Pour the lukewarm water into a mixing bowl, add the extra teaspoon of caster sugar and dissolve the fresh yeast into the water.  
2. Once bubbles start to appear on the surface of the water, pour in about a third of the flour, followed by the two eggs, the rest of the sugar, the salt and the oil.
3. 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. You may not need all the flour to get to this point so just use what your own dough mixture needs.
4. Sprinkle a clean work surface with flour, tip your dough out onto it and knead for 5-10 minutes, adding a bit of flour if it gets too sticky again.
5. Drizzle a little bit of leftover sunflower oil around the big mixing bowl, place the ball of kneaded dough back inside and cover with cling film.
6. Leave the dough to rise for about 1½  hours, or until it has doubled in size.
7. While the dough is rising, make the rhubarb and sweet geranium compote by gently mixing the rhubarb, caster sugar and sweet geranium leaves over a medium heat until the rhubarb becomes soft. Leave to cool.
8. Once the dough has risen, give it a little punch to knock the air back out of it.  Place it 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.
9. Roll out the dough into a long, thin and flat rectangle. Cut the dough into three long strips and place some of the filling down the centre of each strips.
10. Fold the dough up and around the filling to seal it inside. Plait the three sealed strips of dough together in the usual way.
11. Curl the plait around on itself into a swirl shape, cover and leave again for half an hour to one hour.
12. Towards the end of this time, pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees and prepare the egg wash.
13. Spread the egg wash generously over the challah with a pastry brush.
14. Bake the challah for 30 minutes at the bottom of the oven. You may need to cover the challah in foil at around 20 minutes if it’s getting a bit too brown and crispy.
15. Decorate with white chocolate chips and serve warm.