Bread is a wonderful thing, and I contend that there are few smells more alluring, inviting, and all-around wonderful than the scent of baking bread. I have made a few breads before, like coconut loaves and dinner rolls, but few things beat the tender, well, breadiness of challah.
Make no mistake, making bread can be a bit of a challenge if it’s not something you do often (or ever), but this recipe from Einet Admony’s incredible Balaboosta cookbook is approachable enough even for total bread newbies. Unlike some other recipes I’ve followed before, there are no starter doughs or anything of that ilk. You just need some brawn for kneading and looooots of time for proofing. Keep your courage! The payoff to your toils will be so worth it.
I made just a few changes to the original recipe. I use olive oil instead of canola because when I first made this, I only had olive oil on hand. The same goes for the honey and brown sugar substitute in place of plain white sugar or honey. All desperate substitutions initially, but I happened to like how it all ended up, so I’m sticking with it.
The result is 4 beautiful loaves of golden, fluffy challah, which freeze beautifully* if you can’t mow through that much bread at once (quitters). And if you need another excuse to make this, challah just so happens to be excellent as French toast if you leave a few slices sitting out overnight.
But what is challah without some fancy challah braiding? You can find a bunch of braiding methods online, but I’ll show you here how to do the braided round because it just looks so damn impressive. Invite some people over to watch you construct this thing (then send them home immediately afterwards so you can hoard the bread to yourself, I mean, who said that?).
Divide your dough into four equal pieces. Roll each one like you’re making a Play-Doh log until they’re about 18 inches long and as even in thickness as possible. Now, explaining this with words will be a little confusing, so just refer to these handy pictures as you read on:
Arrange them into a tight hashtag shape, alternating which piece goes over and which one goes under.
Starting with the dough that is currently under another piece, move it to the left and have it drape over the dough immediately to its left (one that is currently over another). Do this to all of the legs of dough that are currently under another until you’re back where you started.
Now, starting with the dough that is now under another, move it to the right and have it drape over the dough immediately to its right. Do this to all of the legs of dough that are now under another until you’re back where you started.
Repeat the previous two steps until your dough cannot be woven any more. Tuck the ends under the mass, rounding the mound of dough in the process so that it’s a nice, tall, domed shape.
Challah Bread
Barely adapted from the Balaboosta cookbook
Yield: Makes 4 loaves
Prep Time: about 3 hours (including proofing time)
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes
- 2 1/2 cups whole milk (you can substitute with water)
- 8 2/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
- sesame seeds (optional)
Heat the milk until it’s warm, but not hot. Ideally, it should be between 110-115°F to get the yeast happy.
Put the flour in a large bowl. Make a well in the center. Put the yeast in the well, along with a drizzle of honey (don’t count this towards your ¼ cup). Pour in about a ½ cup of the warm milk and let it stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.
In another bowl, whisk together the remaining milk, honey, brown sugar, olive oil, and 3 of the eggs. Add the salt, and whisk that in too.
With a wooden spoon, gradually stir the liquids into the flour mixture, about ½ cup at a time. Once everything becomes near impossible to stir, dump it out on to a generously floured surface and knead by hand until it’s smooth and elastic, about 10-15 minutes. Dust with more flour if it’s still too sticky to handle while you knead. Once done, the dough should feel a bit tacky, but not sticky.
Shape the dough into a ball and put it into a large bowl slicked with oil. Turn the dough a few times inside the bowl so that it’s lightly greased. Cover this with a damp tea towel and let it rest in a warm place until it is doubled in size, about 1 to 1½ hours.
Gently punch the dough down and divide it into four equal portions. While you work with one piece, keep the rest covered with plastic or a damp tea towel. For each piece, divvy it up and braid it as you like. I usually do one round and three regular three-prong plaits (like how you’d braid hair).
Whatever shape you go for, remember to braid firmly, but not tight. If you braid too tight, the dough won’t have any room to expand, so when it rises, the braids will break. This can happen as it proofs a second time or as it bakes, so give your braids some room to breathe!
Put two loaves each on some parchment-covered baking sheets and cover them with a damp tea towel. Let them rise until they’re nearly doubled in size, about 25-40 minutes. You’ll know they’re ready when you gently poke them with your ring finger and the dimple stays instead of immediately springing back.
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Beat the last egg in a bowl and brush it over the tops of the loaves. If you’re using sesame seeds (or any other topping), sprinkle that on top of the egg wash. Bake for about 20-30 minutes until golden brown, or until the internal temperature reaches at least 190°F. You can also tell if the challah is done by gently tapping a loaf like you would a melon — if it sounds hollow, it’s ready!
Serve however you please.
*Freezing the challah: If you want to freeze the challah to enjoy later, wrap up baked loaves snugly in foil, then put that inside a freezer bag. Get as much air out of the freezer bag as possible before sealing it shut. They should keep for a few months this way, and whenever you want to enjoy some, just let it thaw enough to where you can slice off as many pieces as you’d like, and toast those slices normally.
I am going to investigate how feasible it is to freeze unbaked challah and then baking it later. I shall report back on that front.
2 Comments
What was the end result with freezing unbaked challah?
November 18, 2014 at 6:14 amThank you!
Sorry for the late response! But I had my boyfriend report back with that. He said that if you put the unbaked challah (still wrapped in foil) straight into a 350-degree oven and bake it for about the same amount of time it’d take to bake a fresh loaf, it’ll come out delicious. HOWEVER, it will look kind of ugly, haha — the foil doesn’t exactly help the bread retain its shape, I guess! I still prefer freezing pre-baked loaves and then slicing into it and toasting those frozen slices (uncovered) for about 5-8 minutes in the toaster oven. It’s delicious and fluffy each time!
January 30, 2015 at 4:25 pm