Challah bread.

Today I would like to share my favourite bread recipe, which is challah. Challah is a Jewish bread which is eaten on Sabbath and holidays. Homemade challah is AMAZINGLY moreish and I make it ready for every Fridays.

Just a few pointers about this bread:

♥ It’s a firm dough. Firm dough makes the braids look more prominent.

♥ A high sugar content in the dough makes the it rise slowly (on a cold day, the first rise will take nearly 2 hours at my place). So I would recommend starting the dough a day before. Start in the evening about 4pm. Then you can leave the dough overnight for the second rise. In the morning, all you need to do is to braid and let it prove before baking ready for Sabbath.

♥ The dough may rise significantly large overnight (depending on the yeast and temperature). So you would need to cover the bowl with oiled cling film and possibly place a plate over the bowl so that the dough will not explode out of it (this depends on the bowl you are using – I am using a deep bowl of approx 25cm depth).

♥ This page shows you how to make a 4-braid challah.

♥ The recipe is a modified version of The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum (great book BTW!). This is my version.

Ingredients:

Ingredients A

2 medium eggs + 1 extra for egg wash
warm water to make up to 250g when weight with eggs (see below for how to measure both eggs and water correctly and separately)

Place two small bowls on a weighing scale and set to zero. Then put eggs in one bowl, then in the other bowl, measure the appropriate quantity of tepid water.

1/2 tsp yeast (originally I stated 1 tsp yeast – this will make the dough rise quickly. Less yeast means that bread will last a little longer and you can taste the bread flavour more I think).
10g honey

Ingredients B

500g strong white bread flour
8g salt
70g honey
25g sunflower oil

Preparation:

Step 1: Mix water, honey and yeast together from ingredient A. If your yeast needs to be activated leave the mixture for about 10 min until the liquid starts to fizz a bit.

Step 2: In a large bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the yeast mixture into the bowl and whisk it for about 1 min until it is slightly bubbly (pic 1).

Step 3: Sieve the flour onto the eggy-yeasty liquid. Make sure all surface are covered. You can leave this mixture as it is for 1 hour (pic. 2) to deepen the flavour. If the liquid bubbles through, it’s OK. Just cover it again by scooping the flour in the bowl with a spoon. I don’t usually leave a mixture and go straight into making a dough.
Note: I don’t know the TRUE reason for covering the eggy-yeasty liquid with flour completely but I think it’s mainly to prevent bacterial growth where moisture facilitates it as much as maturing the flavor.

Pic 1. Mix eggs and yeast solution until lightly bubbly.

Pic 2. Sift flour over the eggy-yeasty liquid to cover it.

Making the dough

Step 1: In the same bowl, add salt, honey and sunflower oil. Knead the whole mixture for 10 min either by hand or 5 min by machine.

Step 2: When the dough is nice and smooth, make it into a ball by keep folding into the centre (close any seam) and rest it in a large oiled or floured bowl and cover with a cling film.

Step 3: Let the dough rise to double its size.

Step 4: Tip the dough on a surface and remove gas by pressing it all over. Make the dough into a ball again and place it in a large bowl again.

Step 5: Let the dough rise for the second time to double it’s size. This time it will take less to reach the desired size.

Step 6: Tip the dough on a surface and remove gas by pressing. Flatten the dough to more or less a square. Like you would fold a letter, bring the top third into the centre line, then the bottom third on top of it (check this page on baguette section and see how the dough is folded like a letter).

Step 7: Weigh the dough and divide into four equal parts.

Step 8: With your palm, flatten the individual dough and fold length-wise three times again. Then roll it into a long tube of approx. 40cm with the centre slightly thicker than the ends.
Note: If the dough is tough and the dough bounce back even when you stretch, rest the dough for about 20min to allow the gluten strand to relax. You will then be able to roll easily.

Step 9: Braid the dough (see the video link above for how to braid the dough).

Step 10: Let the braided dough rise to double it’s size.

Step 11: Prepare oven: Approx. 30 min after braiding the bread, start and pre-heat the oven to 180C.

Step 12: When the bread is double the size, apply an egg wash (pic 3).
Note: I tend to use just the egg white only. I keep the egg yoke for other cooking and freeze 1/2 egg white for next time I make challah (or meringue).

Pic 4. Applying the egg wash.

Step 13: Sprinkle poppy seeds (for me, more poppy seeds on the bread the better).

Step 14: Bang into the oven and bake for 15-20min (pic. 5). Then cover it with alminium foil to prevent from surface being burnt, then bake for further 10-15 min.

Pic 5. Baking it.

When the bread is out of the oven, place it on a cooling rack. When the bread is cool enough (not cold, but slightly warm) wrap it with cling film to prevent it from drying. By doing this, the bread will keep moist over the weekend.

Enjoy!