Challah Cone

I am not sure that I have ever met someone who doesn’t love Challah, have you? I make challah on a weekly basis and look forward to the process every week. Before the days of working full time I used to make my Challot fresh on a Friday, trying to time it so that they would be one of the last things to come out the oven before Shabbat so the house smells of fresh homemade Challot. Since working full time, I have had to resort to making them on a Sunday, freezing them and then warming them up on a Friday night. If you do this as well, I would like to give you some tips to keep them as fresh as possible.

Don’t wait for the Challahs to completely cool down before freezing. They should be wrapped and frozen when they are luke warm to touch, about 30-40 min after they come out the oven.
Double wrap them tightly in foil as this stops any air from coming in contact with them, as when sealing them in bags it’s harder to get rid of all the air pockets.

Friday nights in my house are often filled with many young professional from all over the globe sitting and eating in our dining room. I love entertaining and love doing it on a large scale as it allows me to try out many new dishes as well as seeing new people meet each other and become friends ( and possibly something more ;)) . The one part of the meal that always keeps me on my toes is the hors d’oeuvre course. As I am catering for 20-30 people at a time, I want something that I don’t have to serve, but be plated when people come in or can be served by the guests themselves as otherwise by the time the last person is served the first person has already finished their plate. I have made things, like steak salads, stuffed tomatoes, duck sushi, wraps and the boring chopped liver and egg. So when I was passed on the idea of making cones out of Challah I couldn’t resist but to use it for an hors d’oeuvres to accompany my hot dog challahs that I wrote about 3 weeks ago. Everyone loves eating challah with their hors d’oeuvre so making Challah the hors d’oeuvre just makes perfect sense. The best bit was that I am now on summer holidays as school broke up last week so I knew I could make these fresh on Friday. Those of you who don’t have this luxury, making them in advance and freezing them also works.

The notion behind it is, you make a cone out of paper and wrap it in foil, then you roll out strips of challah dough after the first prove into thin sausage shapes and wrap them carefully around the cones. You need to make sure they are thin strips as otherwise they will be too big and no one will have any room to eat main course! You then allow them rise for another 20-40 minutes depending on your time, before egg washing them, adding optional seeds and putting them in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Here is a clip of the method for all you visual learners. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfQmz6ij3o8. I preferred to make the cones slightly smaller than what is shown in the video.

I offered two fillings on the table for my guests to choose from – bolognaise and falafel. I had bowls of humus, ketchup, mustard and pickles on the table as well so they could make their own. This went down as such a hit. My personal favourite was filling the cones with bolognaise as the combination of mince, tomato sauce and challah was just perfect. Other ideas for filling could be, tuna salad, flaked salmon with a sweet sauce, shredded chicken, duck or steak with dips. I would love to hear about your own variation of this dish.