This recipe has been adapted from my friend, Marlaine Darfler's original. It's delicious, if not exactly like the challah you get in a bakery. Link for the pan is at the bottom.
Ingredients For the Rise
2¼ tsp dry yeast or 1 envelope
1 tsp sugar
1/4 cup warm water
Dry Ingredients
1 cup gluten free baking flour
½ cup coconut flour
½ cup flax seed flour (use a coffee grinder to grind the whole seeds)
½ cup garbanzo flour
½ cup sorghum flour or tiger nut flour
1½ tsp salt
Wet Ingredients
1/4 cup coconut nectar
¼ cup avocado oil
½ cup plant-based milk
½ cup warm water
2 large eggs
For Baking
1 egg yolk
Mixing
1. Preheat the oven to 200°F
2. Dissolve the teaspoon of sugar in the ¼ cup warm water. Add the yeast, mix well with a fork for about 15 seconds, and set aside until frothy, about 5 minutes.
3. Measure and combine the dry ingredients in one bowl or right into the bowl of a mixer.
4. Combine the coconut nectar, oil, milk, eggs, and warm water.
5. Pour the wet mixture into the mixer, on a low setting and mix to combine. (Using the whisk attachment for about five minutes allows for a lot of air in the dough, which made it rise better and it turned out to be much lighter)
6. Add the yeast mixture from the first step to the mixer, on a low setting.
7. Mix well at a higher speed for 5 minutes. The mixture will be a little runny.
8. Turn the oven off.
Rising and baking
1. Spray the silicon challah pan with oil and pour the batter in. Cover the pan with parchment paper or a damp towel and put it in the warm (but off!) oven for about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
2. Take the challah pan out, turn the oven to 375°F and when it reaches temperature put the challah pan back in and bake for 20 minutes.
3. Remove challah from pan by inverting the challah pan onto a cookie sheet. Put the cookie sheet on top of the challah pan and, with oven mitts, flip them both over so the challah falls out onto the cookie sheet
4. Brush with egg yolk to make the challah shiny and sprinkle on sesame or poppy seeds. Return to oven for 10 or 15 minutes.
5. Let it cool on the tray and then transfer to a baking rack
Challah pan: