Bravely Baking: Challah Bread

This was a fun challenge! This was my first attempt at a yeasted bread, so this was a little scary. Having said that, there are few things more satisfying than making your own bread. I was going to just make some yeast dinner rolls, but of course, Nina was like let’s make something more exciting! Then, my friend Kate wanted to make some Challah for Rosh Hashanah, so we decided to just do the damn thing. It was awesome. Challah is an enriched dough. It is a rich, eggy, and buttery bread that is braided onto itself. I tried two different braiding techniques because this makes TWO loaves of bread. More bread, more better? PS, challah makes the absolute best French toast, so when you’re like what am I going to do with all this bread?! Make some French toast. You’ll thank me.

This recipe is from the book “Baking with Julia”. I borrowed this recipe from a friend’s copy… If you want the original recipe, let me know, and I can send you my crappy pictures of the book, or you can buy the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Baking-Julia-Savor-Americas-Bakers/dp/0688146570/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1545924568&sr=8-1&keywords=baking+with+julia+book

Anyway, I will write out all the steps and make sure to tell you if there were any deviations from the original.

Making the Dough:

2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted *this is used to greasing, not in the dough

1 ½ tbsp. active dry yeast

½ c tepid water (80 to 90F)

1/3 c granulated sugar

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1 c whole milk

1 tbsp honey

2 ½ tsp salt

4 large eggs

6 ½ c (approximately) high gluten flour, bread flour, or all-purpose flour *I used bread flour because you want the extra gluten.

1. Brush a large mixing bowl with some of melted butter, set aside. Reserve the remaining melted butter to brush the top of the dough later.

2. Whisk the yeast into the water. Add a pinch of sugar and let it rest until the yeast has dissolved and is creamy, about 5 minutes. *I did this in a small measuring bowl.

3. Cut the butter into small pieces and toss into a small saucepan with the milk; heat the milk and butter until milk is very warm to the touch and butter is melted. *Why do I need to cut butter if I’m gonna melt it anyway??? Hmm?? I get it makes the butter melt faster, but probably not completely necessary. Just saying.

4. Pour the mixture into a large mixing bowl and add the remaining sugar, honey, and salt, stirring with a wooden spoon to dissolve the sugar and salt. Make sure the mixture isn’t hotter than 110F so you don’t kill the yeast. *I did this in my stand mixer. I didn’t use a wooden spoon. It was fine.

5. Add the creamy yeast to the milk mixture, along with the eggs, and stir with a wooden spoon to mix. *Again, I didn’t use a wooden spoon.

6. Stirring vigorously, add ½ c of flour at a time, stopping when you have a dough that cleans the sides of the bowl and is difficult to stir. *or letting your stand mixer stir vigorously with a hook attachment, add 3 c flour to start, slowly adding more flour to get to the same clean sides bowl stage.

7. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead, adding more flour as necessary to keep dough from sticking to your hands. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. *If you do it in a stand mixer, still knead on low speed for 8 – 10 minutes until it’s smooth and elastic. You can still take it out and knead for a minute or so at the end to see how it feels. I did this because I'm new to dough.

First Rise:

Form the dough into a ball and transfer to the buttered bowl. Brush the top of the dough with the reserved melted butter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and top with a kitchen towel. Let the dough rise at room temperature for 1 to 1 ½ hours, or until doubled in volume. *I’d suggest making a mark somehow so you know where you dough started. This makes it easier to see if it has doubled. I’d recommend a dry erase marker or a rubber band.

Second Rise:

When the dough is fully risen, deflate it *ie punch it down*, cover as before, and let it rise until it doubles in bulk again, about 45 minutes.

Shaping and Final Rise:

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. *I floured my surface, but then I had no traction as you can see, so maybe start with on flour and flour if you feel like it's sticking to the surface.* Cut the dough in half, covering up the half that you aren’t using so it doesn’t dry out.

3. This is where you are going to braid. There are several options here. I did two different ones- the long braid and the circular braid. Here are some YouTube videos that were helpful:

Round braid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7D8PSBsy1M&t=74s *I did the six strand braid, not the four.

Three-strand braid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR6aIAh2Vt8 *This video is annoying, so watch with the sound off.

5. Place on a baking sheet and cover to allow a final rise. Let the loaves rise for about 40 minutes at room temperature until soft, puffy, and almost doubled.

Glaze, Topping, and Baking:

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 tbsp cold water or heavy cream

Coarse salt

Sesame, poppy, or caraway seeds (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Position racks in oven into thirds.

2. Whisk the egg, egg yolk, and water or heavy cream and push the glaze through a sieve. *I didn’t do this. Just whisk it so it’s not chunky. You’re brushing this shit on anyway, so if there’s something weird, take it off the brush. Or sieve. Maybe you’re that kind of person. I’m not.

3. Brush the tops and sides of the challahs; let the glaze sit for 5 minutes, then brush again. Reserve the leftover glaze to brush on during the bake.

4. Sprinkle coarse salt over the loaves. If you’re topping the loaves, dust them with seeds now.

5. Bake for 20 minutes. The loaves will expand and expose some of the inner dough. Brush the newly exposed dough with reserved glaze and bake for 15 to 20 longer, or until the loaves are golden and sound hollow when thumped on the bottom. If they start to brown too quickly, cover them with a piece of foil, shiny side up. *First of all, I think I brushed ALL of the bread again, including the newly exposed parts. I think maybe that’s why I still have some lighter parts and darker parts. Secondly, I had shitty baking sheets (this has since been remedied). I felt like the bottom of my bread was getting too brown, so I took them off the sheets halfway through and just set them right on the racks in the oven. This helped to not let it get too brown.