"Every one of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do."
One of the best movie quotes ever, right?
Ah. Jewish bread. I suppose I should've saved this for Passover or something, but who can wait for this kind of thing? If you were to ask me what my favorite bread to make and/or eat is, it would most likely be Challah. I was first introduced to it when I was in culinary school. I didn't think much of it at first. We were in the middle of the "bread block" and so I'd been exposed to all kinds of different breads over the course of 3 weeks or so. Then my chef instructor started braiding it and I saw one completed and I was in love!
CHALLAH IS GORGEOUS!
But then I tasted it.
CHALLAH IS DELICIOUS!
Oh it's so good. It's a really thick dough, there's 4 eggs in it for crying out loud, so it's just.... it's perfection.
The simplest way to present a Challah loaf, as a braid, is to do a regular 3 strand loaf (you know, a regular braid). My personal favorite is 8 strand though, which is what I did for this. If you are wanting something more complicated than 3 strand, let me know and I can pass on directions for 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 strands or even a star shaped loaf.
One thing you need to know about Challah, it is the bread of life. Cutting it with a knife is akin to committing murder. It is customary to tear pieces off. It's really quite delightful to stand around a loaf with Mike and tear off chunks of braids.
Also, this recipe makes two loaves, so I recommend taking one to a friend! Or you can be completely selfish and eat it all for yourself. Which Mike would have done. But we shared.
(and just fyi, this is pronounced like "holla" except not so much in a ghetto way, more of a Hebraic way, are we kosher on that? Good.)
Challah
Ingredients
- 2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast
- 1 cup warm water (110° to 115°)
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 4 eggs
- 6 to 6-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- TOPPING:
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon cold water
- 1 tablespoon sesame or poppy seeds, optional
Directions
- In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the oil, sugar,
- salt, eggs and 4 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough
- remaining flour to form a firm dough. Turn onto a floured surface;
- knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a
- greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a
- warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
- Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide in
- half. Divide each portion into thirds. Shape each piece into a
- 15-in. rope.
- Place three ropes on a greased baking sheet and braid; pinch ends to
- seal and tuck under. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover and let rise
You don't have to give the yeast time to activate in the water, before adding in the other ingredients, so it's pretty much going to look like this.
I find it hard to make Challah without a scale and a bench scraper. I like for my loaves to be as even as possible, so when I divide the dough in half, initially, and then divide both halves into sections for the strands, I weigh the dough to make sure it's all the same. You could definitely eye-ball it, I'm just horrible at doing that.
Do you remember when I made bread sticks that left Olive Garden's in the dust? And do you remember how I said you have to take your time rolling out the dough so as not to overwork it? The same thing applies here.
First, roll each section (it doesn't matter if you're doing 3 or 7 or 25 - that would be a cool braid! 25 strands!) into a ball.
Then start rolling the strands out, a little at a time. It's important to take turns with each strand, and let them rest as you work on the other ones. You don't want to overwork the dough.
Also, you will get bubbles in the dough. If you don't get bubbles, call me right up, because you are some sort of bread-making genius. When you get bubbles, fight every natural urge to pop them (I know! It's hard!), and instead use a sharp knife to slice the bubbles open and let the air out.
Roll them out to about this long!
When you start braiding, pinch the top of the strands really tightly! And also, braid tightly. I did one loaf where I was very particular about the rolling out and pinching and braiding (I like being a perfectionist with Challah). The other loaf, I did it half-heartedly. I wanted to show y'all the difference between taking care and not giving one.
Don't worry, the pretty one went to my friends.
At this point, pinch the OTHER end of the strands together. I like to cut a little of the excess dough off both ends.
If you do cut excess dough off the ends, pinch the ends together even more! Okay go ahead and pinch them anyways. Then tuck them underneath and, guess what!, pinch the dough there so that it all stays together! :)
What is with all of this pinching, Sandi? Well, I will tell you. If you don't pinch properly, it will all go to pot when it's baking.
Do you see how the one on top is just not very pretty compared to the one on the bottom?
Look what happened when it baked! Not my worst Challah baking experience (one time, half of a loaf came completely unbraided; do you see why I'm anal about the pinching and tight braiding?), but still, the top one is definitely prettier.
See how it came apart and looks torn? Pinch pinch pinch! Tighten those strands as you braid!
Beautiful, if I may say so myself.
I was very upset to find that I was out of sesame seeds (and yet had plenty of poppy seeds, bleh, I don't like those on Challah), or else I would've put those on with the egg wash. I highly recommend adding those before baking!
L'Chaim!!