Easy, No Knead, Vegan Challah

So, this is the challenge: create a bread that is moist, tender, flavorful, mildly sweet, & pulls apart into tasty layers when you tear it. But, it doesn't have eggs, butter, milk or oil. Oh, and did I mention that it should be super-easy to make?

Well, some friends recently asked me if I knew of a recipe that would do just that. I didn't. So, I did some online research for them. I couldn't find anything that was JUST right.

I always make bread by the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day method  (and, I think EVERYONE should own their book!). I sought to use that method, but vary it so that it would be Vegan and Oil Free, and, of course, delectable. I also found a festive loaf recipe by Bryanna Clark Grogan, but it wasn't JUST what I was looking for - and it was a old fashioned recipe requiring kneading. So, I took those two ideas and ran with them.

I set about experimenting to create just the perfect recipe. It took a lot of tweaking, but the more I played with the idea, the more great variations I ended up with. Challah, Tsoureki, Crescent Rolls, Brioche a Tete, Greek Olive Rolls, Dinner Rolls . . . . and the variations are still being created. I hope to feature many of these recipes in the months to come.

The use of Tapioca Starch, Potato, and Sugar tenderizes & moisturizes the dough, and make a moist, tender, fluffy loaf without the use of oil or eggs. 

I'm featuring Challah today, because it is a very good "Basic" recipe from which the other variations can be made. And, it's pretty. And, well, this is the season for it! : )

It is SOOO easy to make - and produces such spectacular results! This recipe produces 2 loaves, 2 pounds each. (You could also make 4 small one pound loaves if you so desire)

Easy, No Knead, Vegan Challah **** (Scroll Down for Smaller Batch)
Measure into a 6 quart container*, in this order
3 Cups Warm Water (baby bath water temperature. If in doubt, make it too cool rather than too warm)
5 1/4 Cups Unbleached, All Purpose Flour
1/4 Cup Tapioca Starch (I get this cheap at the Asian Ethnic Market) (you can substitute Cornstarch, if you like)
1 Cup Potato Flakes (yes, that's right, the stuff people use to make Instant Mashed Potatoes)
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon Yeast
1 Tablespoon Salt
Stir well with a spoon till no patches of dry Flour remain.

The dough should look like this right after you stir it.

Cover loosely with lid (don't fasten so securely that it cannot "breathe")
Leave it on the counter for 2 to 5 hours.
Now, put it in the fridge till you're ready to use it **

The dough should look like this after it has sat out on the counter for 2 to 5 hours.

Note - do not "Punch Down" this kind of dough. 

When you're ready to bake the bread, remove it from the refrigerator and dust it VERY WELL with Flour. This is a moist, sticky dough, so don't be afraid to use lots of Flour!

Oil your pan (I use a Perforated, Non-stick Pizza Pan, like this one for baking)

 Gently Divide the dough in half, and divide one half into three pieces. Pull each piece into a long rope & dust with flour again. Lay the strands side by side, and braid them. It works best if you start at the middle and braid toward the end. If you've never braided bread before, this is a great tutorial post - but because of its lower gluten content, you may find this dough a little easier to form into ropes that the bread in the tutorial.

Shape another loaf with the second half of the dough if desired***, or return the remaining dough to the refrigerator to use later. This dough CAN be kept in the fridge for a week or more and still be quite good to use, but with this particular dough, you'll find the fluffiest, sweetest results if you bake it within a day or two of mixing.

Leave to rise for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and bake in the middle of the oven, without steam for 35-40 minutes.

For best results, cool before serving.

Small Batch Easy, No Knead Vegan Challah
 (Makes 2 pounds of dough - for one large loaf or two small ones)
Follow above directions, but use these amounts
I prepare a batch this size in an 8 Cup Container - the one in the above pictures.
Be sure to add in this order:

1 1/2 Cups Warm Water
2 1/2 Cups + 2 Tablespoons Unbleached, All Purpose Flour
2 Tablespoons Tapioca Starch (you can substitute Cornstarch, if you like)
1/2 Cup Potato Flakes
1/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 Tablespoon Yeast
1/2 Tablespoon Salt

Stir well, then follow above directions - the same as for a large batch.

* For my 6 Quart Container, I use a new plastic shoe box from the Dollar Store.
** This dough CAN be used the day it is made - but it is a tad easier to shape after it is refrigerated.
*** If you bake two loaves at the same time, put one loaf on the middle rack, and one on the bottom rack. Then, set a timer to switch their positions half-way through baking, so that they brown evenly both on the top and on the bottom.

Nutritional Information
This is the nutritional info I calculated on Sparkpeople

Nutrition Facts per pound- with 1 batch making 2 pounds

Amount Per Serving

• Calories 706.1
• Total Fat 2.5 g
• Saturated Fat 0.6 g
• Polyunsaturated Fat 0.7 g
• Monounsaturated Fat 1.0 g
• Cholesterol 1.1 mg
• Sodium 1,834.1 mg
• Potassium 291.4 mg
• Total Carbohydrate 155.4 g
• Dietary Fiber 5.9 g
• Sugars 25.9 g
• Protein 16.9 g

 23 WW Smart Points per Pound calculated on EasyCalculation

This Post was featured on



This is being shared on:
The Art of Homemaking Mondays
What'd You Do This Weekend?
Motivation Mondays
Mom 2 Mom Mondays
Modest Mondays
Anti-Procrastination Tuesdays
Simple Supper Tuesdays
Tuesdays with a Twist 
Women Helping Women
Wake Up Wednesdays 
Penny Pinching Party
Plant Based Potluck Party 
Think Tank Thursdays 
Our Simple Homestead
This is How We Roll
From the Farm
Home Matters
Try a New Recipe Tuesday

10 Home School Lessons from A.C.E. Curriculum

A Page from my A.C.E. School Yearbook

I am a homeschooling Mom, but when I was a child, Homeschooling in our state could land a parent in jail. But, Prayer had been removed from public schools, and public schools also weren't teaching phonics-first (most still don't!), so Mom sent us to Christian schools. She made great sacrifices to do this, since she was a widow, and we didn't have much money.

When I was in 6th Grade, I went to a very small Christian School that used A.C.E. Curriculum. It was quite possibly the best academic experience of my life*, because it taught me skills that I have used constantly since then. The skills I learned did not depend on using A.C.E. Curriculum, but they were habits that were encouraged in users of that curriculum. These principles have been a great help to me, not only in my own life, but as a homeschooling Mom; I apply these principles when I teach my daughter.

1. Kids should learn academic self-discipline. In the A.C.E. program, each student was expected to make his or her own lesson plan. At the end of each day, we were to make a plan of what materials we would cover the next day. When I later transferred to public school, then went to college & grad school, if I knew what the syllabus said, I never again had to wait to get an assignment to start it. Nor did I have to wait for the night before the due date to get it done. I had learned to plan my own time. This inspired my 2 1/2 Minute Homeschool Lesson Planning which allows my daughter to plan her own lessons.

2. Kids should not be left to themselves academically. Although we were expected to be self-disciplined with our lesson planning, we were not left to choose what or whether we would learn. We regularly heard "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6) Children were expected to be raised in the Faith and in life skills by Christian adults who would guide them in the right way.

3. Don't move on until you "get it." When a new student started at the school, he or she was given a placement test for each subject, and then was given materials in the proper grade level for each subject. A student could be 11 years old, and doing 10th grade math, but 3rd grade reading if that was what they needed. Because, you really can't do 6th grade reading if you haven't mastered 3rd grade reading. Students were also given "patches" for areas of difficulty. I remember one girl in 7th grade was given a 1st grade workbook on how to tell time. She had never learned before. Then, when she finished that, she immediately moved up to 6th grade math. Many parents worry that Mastery type curricula are too easy, since the student isn't doing things that are as flashy as their peers. But the schools that are really "dumbed down" are the schools that pretend to teach Algebra & Latin to students that cannot read English competently or do simple Addition with accuracy.

4. A "C" is NOT passing! Mediocre work was not accepted. An 85% was passing - and only just. A person who got a 70% on an exam simply did not understand the material, and had to do it again.  This was such a blessing when the student moved to more difficult work. It is scary to think that when I go to the hospital, I might be treated by a doctor or a nurse who had "passed" an important class with a 70%.

5. If you work hard, you'll be able to play more! If we finished the assignment we made ourselves, we were done for the day! There was no homework unless we slacked off. There was a "light at the end of the tunnel" for each day's work.

6. You can't have too much Religion! As a student, I was quite worried about my A.C.E. school. It was "unaccredited," AND I spent THREE HOURS EVERY DAY on religion! We had Opening Exercises for 1/2 hour in the morning, then Private Devotions for 1/2 hour, then academic work to do in Bible and Church History, then afternoon Chapel! I was convinced that I was falling behind academically, and would be in bad shape when and if I transferred to public school. When I did transfer to public school, the Principal was also certain that I would be doing badly. He threatened my Mother, "Well, you've had your girls in an unaccredited school. We'll have to test them and see if they're at grade level. If they're behind, we'll have to put them back a few grades. But, we'll let them go ahead and start school at the level you say they should be at." A few weeks later, Mom called the Principal. Why hadn't we been tested yet? Well, as it turns out, we were at the top of our respective classes (I had NOT been at the top of my class before A.C.E. - I had been a mediocre student) - and he wasn't going to bother. You see, learning about the Bible teaches a lot of other skills like reading comprehension, logic, and historical understanding. But more importantly, God blesses the study of His Word.

7. A little motivation goes a long way. A.C.E. had a motivational system. Each week we could earn various privileges for doing an appropriate amount of school work, volunteer work, and Bible memory work. At the highest level of privileges, we were free to take a break any time we wanted. You can bet that I made sure I had the highest level of privileges every week!

8. Read for content. Most A.C.E. materials were workbook-based. There was a lesson to read, then there were fill-in-the-blank questions to answer that made sure we had distilled the important information from what we had read. Then, there was a test at the end of the workbook to be certain that the material had been retained. This approach helped me learn to read quickly for content, a skill that was a huge blessing in the subsequent years of schooling.

9. Learn Phonics First! Our school was very small - only about 100 kids in grades K through 12. So, those of us who were in 5th - 7th grade were on the other side of an accordion-curtain from the Kindergarten. All day, every day, I could hear the rigorous, intensive, phonics-first instruction given to the Kindergartners. There was no sight reading in sight! And, I still remember at the final assembly of the year, hearing those 5 year-olds (who were dressed in cute little suits and dresses) reading to all of us - long passages, straight from the King James Bible - without a flaw!

10. You can teach yourself most things you need to learn. Most people feel that if they need to learn something, they should sign up for a class, attend at inconvenient hours, and pay a lot of money for someone to teach them. Then, if the material is not properly spoon-fed by the instructor, they don't know how to study on their own, and they blame the instructor for their failure. But, I learned that most learning can be done by simply sitting down with the materials by myself regularly and studying on my own. After that, if I hit a snag, I could ask for help from a professional.

*Although I am a big fan of many ACE distinctives, I have not chosen the curriculum for my own use. I am a Greek Orthodox Christian, and the ACE Curriculum, while officially non-denominational, would not work for our family doctrinally. Besides which, I really LOVE customizing my own curriculum and having the relationship advantage of teaching my daughter face-to-face.

This is being shared on
Making Your Home Sing Monday
Modest Monday
The Art of Homemaking Mondays
Good Tips Tuesday 
Anti-Procrastination Tuesday 
Trivium Tuesdays
Wake Up Wednesdays 
Mom's Library 
Coffee & Conversation 

How to Fix Sticky Spaghetti

We've all had it happen. Cook Spaghetti for dinner, drain it in the colander - then wait a few minutes.

There's a good chance that your Spaghetti is sticky! For most of us, that's not the ideal way to eat Spaghetti.

Now there are a few methods of preventing sticky spaghetti:

1) Put a little oil in the cooking water. This is not very effective, and for those who must avoid oil for health reasons, it is problematic.

2) Buy a brand that is less inclined to become sticky. This can help, but it's not an exact science.

3) Leave the Spaghetti in its cooking water - and just add a cup of very cold to stop further cooking. This was my Mom's method - and a pretty effective one. But, as you serve the Spaghetti, you have to wait for each serving to drain so that you don't get water on the plate, which could result in watery sauce.

But, let's assume that you've already drained your Spaghetti, and it turned sticky on you. What do you do NOW?

Here's my trick - and it works quite well:

Run cold water over the Spaghetti in the colander, tossing the Spaghetti to rinse all sides thoroughly. This will un-sticky it.

Then, simply rinse in your hottest tap water to re-heat, or for even hotter Spaghetti, microwave it hot again.

This works great for me, and is so easy to do.

By the way, when I have leftover Spaghetti, and am preparing it for refrigeration or freezing, I rinse it well in cold water, then add a couple of spoonfuls of water to the container to keep it moist. Then, when I remove the container from the fridge, the Spaghetti isn't sticky.

To thaw frozen Spaghetti, I simply rinse it well in hot tap water - it thaws and warms at the same time. If serving diners who don't like food piping hot (as is often the case with children), you'll find that you might not even have to heat the Noodles additionally after thawing in hot tap water : )

This post was featured on



This is being shared on
Motivation Monday
The Art of Homemaking Mondays
What'd You Do This Weekend
Anti-Procrastination Tuesday 
Penny Pinching Party