Challah bread

Challah bread. I made a bread I’m not quite sure how to pronounce. Is it cha-hallah or chal-la? Three syllables or two? Either way, I made it. This bread was fun. It involved braiding. I felt like I was in grade school again, braiding those friendship braids everyone had to have and share. Otherwise, you didn’t have friends. That’s how it worked, right?

Ok, maybe not, but again, I got to braid my food, so that has to count for something. I found this recipe, and adapted it per some helpful comments at the bottom of the page, here.

Here’s how I made it.


Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients:
1 ¼ cup warm water (110*F)
1 packet active dry yeast
½ cup honey + 1 tbs for egg wash
2 tbs vegetable oil
2 eggs, whole
3 egg yolks
1 ½ tsp salt
4 cups all purpose flour

Like most yeast breads, in a large bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water; then beat in the honey, oil, 1 egg and the 3 egg yolks, and salt. 

Then, 1 cup at a time, flour was mixed in, beating after each addition. 

{The dough after mixing in only 1 cup of flour.}

At about the 4th cup of flour, you will need to start kneading the flour into the dough, while it’s still in the bowl. Knead it until the dough is smooth and elastic and no longer sticky, adding flour as needed. 

{The dough after kneading in the 4th cup of flour.}

Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let rise for 45-60 minutes, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Punch the risen dough down and turn onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes, adding flour to the surface as needed to prevent it from sticking. Divide the dough into 3 parts and roll each piece into a long rope, about 1 ½” in diameter. Pinch the ends together and braid from the middle. 

Grease a baking sheet and place the braided dough on it. Cover it with the towel and let rise for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 375*F and beat the remaining egg and the 1 tbs of honey into an egg wash and brush it over the dough, making sure to get into all the crevices of the braid. You can also sprinkle the bread with a bit of granulated sugar, over the eggs wash, to give it a slightly sweet flavor. 

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped. After the bread has baked for 20 minutes, loosely cover it with foil to prevent it from over-browning. Let the bread cool on a rack for at least an hour before slicing.

This bread was fun to make and it produced a very dense spongy bread. I’ll call this a successful kitchen experiment.