Home Baked Challah

This last Friday I decided to tackle Challah. I like to bake bread in general and I thought it would be nice to have a fresh loaf for dinner. I cruised the internet looking for a recipe with good reviews and finally settled on a mix of two different ones with a few tweaks of my own.

4 cups flour (2cups AP, 2 cups bread flour)
1 tblsp yeast
3/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup honey, or 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup veg oil

Turn oven on at 170 (or whatever is the lowest setting on your oven), let it get warm for a few minutes and then switch off. Mix salt into flour.

Mix together 3/4 cup warmish water, sugar or honey, and yeast in bowl of stand mixer. Let stand for a few minutes until slightly foamy. Lightly beat in eggs and oil. Using paddle attachment or wooden spoon, gradually add flour until shaggy dough forms. Switch to dough hook and knead (adding water or flour as needed to arrive at correct consistency ) until dough is smooth and elastic (it is okay if it is a bit sticky). Coat large bowl (I use a big wide salad bowl) with some vegetable oil and place dough ball (rolling to coat) in bowl loosely covered with plastic wrap into turned off (but still warm oven), let rise for a couple of hours. Punch down dough and return to oven or warm spot for a couple more hours. When dough has re-risen, gather together and cut into three equal pieces. Form into small balls and let these rest for ten minutes or so before shaping. Roll each piece into a long snake shape, slightly larger in the center than at the ends. Starting with two lengths of dough in a loose X shape on your baking sheet (I oiled mine but you could use parchment), place the third length down the center. This will start your braid in the center. Braid down each end, just as if you are braiding hair. Tuck ends neatly. (I made a mistake of making my braid too short and fat. When the bread rose during baking it sort of spread and tore and my braid lost most of its pretty shape. Make your snakes longer and thinner to avoid this, but allow the middle of the snake to be slightly thicker than the ends. Cover with a wash of beaten egg. If you don't have a brush you can use a paper towel dipped in the wash, which is what I did. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise for a while. 30 minutes should do it. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat loaf in egg wash again bake for 40-45 minutes. This makes one LARGE loaf. Lately I've been dividing the dough into two parts and making two smaller loaves.

If you want to make kosher Challah (besides cooking in a kosher kitchen with kosher ingredients!) you also have to set aside a small piece of the unbaked dough to be burned in the oven after the bread has been baked. :-)