Eggless Chocolate Cinnamon Challah | Sweet Braided Bread

These are the braids of love, of warmth, of happiness.

I am in love with Challahs. And this is part 2/2 of my Challah Series. When I had first seen braided breads, it wasn't even a far fetched though for me to be able to make them. They look so beautiful without any styling or any special addition it. The braids make these breads exquisite. But years later when few weeks back I decided to make them, I couldn't stop at one. I made two varieties of it, had so much fun braiding them in different styles and designing the entire shoot.

I posted the recipe to the savoury Sesame Garlic Cheese Challah few days back and you can find it right here. Just a little tweak to the same recipe and I made these Chocolate Cinnamon Challah Braided Bread. I was experimenting if I could use a base recipe to make multiple flavours and Im so happy that it actually came out super yummy.

And for all the vegetarians there, this is completely eggless. I used Aquafaba to replace eggs and vegetarian yeast, and they both worked wonders. I will soon do a separate post on Aquafaba and how it can be used, since a lot of you are asking for it.

You can find below the recipe for these amazing, eggless, vegetarian Cinnamon Chocolate Challah Braided Bread and you can thank me later for this master piece that you can serve at your next dinner. ;)

EGGLESS CHOCOLATE CINNAMON CHALLAH | SWEET BRAIDED BREAD

INGREDIENTS

For the Basic Bread

Active dry yeast	4.5 tsp
Sugar	1 tbsp
Warm Water	¼ cup
Milk	1 ¼ cup
Sugar	5 tbsp
Salt	¾ tsp
Butter	¼ cup
Flour (Whole Wheat + All Purpose)	2 + 2.5 cups
Aquafaba	6 tbsp.

For the Filling/ Topping

Sesame (black + white)	1 tbsp
Chocolate Spread	5-6 tsp
Cinnamon Powder	3 tsp

METHOD

1. Mix yeast, sugar and water in a deep bowl. Let it rise nice and high.
2. In another bowl mix sugar, salt, butter and aquafaba.
3. Add the sifted flour to the second bowl slowly and simultaneously add the risen yeast to it.
4. Knead all of this to form one large dough.
5. Let it rise for over and hour. It should ideally double ins size if your yeast is fresh and working.
6. Now prepare the topping mix and keep aside.
7. Once the dough has risen, divide it into 3 equal parts.
8. For each part, again divide into two and flatten each into a circle. Apply the chocolate spread and sprinkle cinnamon powder over it. Now roll it back into a pipe shape.
9. Now cut each of this rolled pipe vertically half, to reveal all the rolled chocolate layers. Now this half becomes one strand.
10. Use 4 such strands for one challah and braid them. You can follow this tutorial here. 
11. Now preheat the oven at 180C and bake for 20-25 min. This will totally depend on the size of your challah. You will see it browning slightly on top which is when you should stop baking. The above mentioned time can vary as per your size.
12. Drizzle the baked bread with some cinnamon-sugar powder, and melted chocolate spread and some black/white sesame (optional).

 Challah Bread is ready to be served nice and warm. Happy Eating !