Vegan French Croissant Challah

Tools:

• Electric mixer with dough hook
• Dough scraper
• Pastry brush
• Scale
• Plastic film
• Rolling pin
• Pizza cutter

Ingredients:

• 3 cups and 2 tbsp (500 g) all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups (280 ml) room temperature water
• Half a stick (50 g) melted vegan butter
•  2 tsp (12 g) Himalayan salt
• 1/3 cup (75 g) sugar
• 2 rounded tsp (7 g) dry yeast

 3 sticks (300 g) cold vegan butter

Baking wash:

• 2 tbsp non-dairy milk
• 1 tsp olive oil

• A little bit of maple for the shine (sugar syrup also works)

1. Pour the water onto the mixer bowl, add the dry yeast, and leave for 10 minutes. The yeast will start to foam slightly.
2. Add the flour to the yeast mixture first, and then add all the rest of the dough ingredients in the mixer bowl, except for the cold butter.
3. Turn the mixer on medium speed, until the ingredients form a nice and flexible dough (about 5-7 minutes). If some of the flour get stuck to the bottom or sides of the bowl, scrape it with your dough scraper  until the dough is unified.
4.  Remove the dough onto a lightly floured surface, create a ball and leave the prepared dough to rise, covered. (Leave 1 hour on the counter).
5. While the dough is rising, prepare the cold butter:
6.  Place the cold, dry butter between two baking paper sheets, use the rolling pin to roll the butter into a square. 
7.  
8.  Place the butter square in the fridge. The dough is easier to work with when all the ingredients are as cold as possible (butter + dough).
9.  After the dough rose, shape the dough into a rough square (no need to be precise, don't overwork the dough). 
10.  Prepare a clean surface for rolling the dough (you will need a lot of space to roll the dough), lightly flour the surface. 
11.  Use the rolling pin to spread the dough from the edges, creating a spikey diamond shape that is just big enough to cover the butter square. Take out the butter square, and place it in the center of the dough.
12.  If the butter is not coming out easily from the paper, it is not cold enough, place in the fridge or even in the freezer for a few minutes.
13.  
14.  Pull the edges of the dough gently and cover the butter like an envelope.
15.  
16.  Make sure the surface is floured, and using the rolling pin, start rolling the dough into a very long rectangle.
17.  
18.  Brush off the flour, fold the the dough 1/3 of the way from one side. Fold the other side on top of the other. The fold should result in 3 layers of the original rectangle.
19.  
20.  Roll the square out into another long rectangle, the direction of the dough should be opposite than the previous rolling. 
21.  Cover the dough well with plastic film and place in the fridge.
22.  Leave the folded dough to rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
23.  After the dough rested, repeat steps 15-20 with the dough and place back in the fridge. Let rest for 30 minutes.
24. The dough is now ready to work with. Roll the square into an inch thick sheet.
25. Using the pizza cutter, cut 3 x 1.5 inch wide slices. Braid the 3 slices into a wide braid, place in a loaf pan.
26.  
27.  Mix 2 tbsp of non-dairy milk with 1 tsp of olive oil. using a pastry brush, brush the braided dough.
28.  Proof, covered for at least 1 hour, until the challah doubles in size.
29.  Preheat over to 375 F.
30.  Place a heat-resistant pan with water at the bottom of the oven (helps the dough rise).
31.  Bake for 20 minutes, reduce heat to 350 F and bake for another 15 minutes or until golden.
32.  Brush a little bit of maple on top right out of the oven, to give it a nice shine.
33.  Enjoy!