Nutella and Roasted Hazelnut Challah

This is what you do with the monster in your fridge :0)

Nutella and Roasted Hazelnut Challah
450g of Master Dough
4 1/2 tbsp Nutella
Small handful of hazelnuts
1 egg whisked with 1 tbsp water, to make egg wash

Weigh out the correct amount of dough and return the rest to the fridge.  Generously flour your hands and the dough. This is a no-knead dough but there is still some light muscle power needed to shape the dough into a ball, do this by stretching the surface of the dough and tucking it to the bottom all around, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. This creates a taut, smooth surface. Cover witha  tea towel and leave it to come up to room temp while prepping the hazelnuts.

Heat a small fry pan over a med-low heat then add a handful of hazelnuts and roast, continually moving the nuts so that they don’t burn.  Roast until nuts are golden brown and fragrant. Roughly chop the nuts with a sharp chef’s knife and cutting board.  (I cheated and used ready chopped and roasted hazelnuts!)

Cut the dough into 3 equal pieces. (Steamy Kitchen suggests shaping the ball of dough into a log for this step to make it easier to get even sized pieces). Roll each piece with your hands to stretch into a long 3-4cm thick rope. Try not to just stretch it out by pulling, the dough will break, just roll the pieces backwards and forwards, its important that each piece is roughly the same length and thickness.

Take one piece of dough. I used the side of my little finger to create an indent in the middle of the strand. Spoon about a third of the Nutella in this indent.  Strictly speaking I can't say that I stuck to this measurement all that well ;0)

Bring up the sides of the dough, encasing the Nutella and pinch dough closed. Repeat with other strands. 

To braid the bread Steamy Kitchen offers another very good tip ~ start in the middle and braid to the ends!  This means that the dough is (somewhat!) neat at both ends.
 

 
Cover with towel and let rest for 1-1/2 hours. 20 minutes prior to baking, preheat your oven to 180C.
 

When dough is ready, brush top with egg wash and sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts. Bake for 25 minutes.

Makes 1 loaf which is very quickly hoovered up!
Taken from Steamy Kitchen Blog