Challah #recipe by @LeslieKarst

 

Since it’s the day before Thanksgiving, I figured anything I posted would be too late to use for the holiday, so this recipe is not meant for your big feast tomorrow. Nevertheless, this delicious bread would go splendidly with turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, and cranberry sauce, if you do get the urge to do some baking today. 

 

Okay. So why, you may well ask, is a nice goy like me baking challah? Well, it’s because my wife wanted to learn how, and since she doesn’t tend to cook, she asked me to help her the first time around. Right. So why does Robin want to make challah? you might now ask.

Why, it’s because she’s decided to convert to Judaism and she wanted to be able to make challah for the Friday night Shabbat celebrations.

No, Robin is not religious (she’s in fact an atheist). Moreover, she was raised as a Christian by her United Methodist parents—though she rejected all of that at the tender age of five. But the more she’s learned about reform Judaism over the past many years, the more she’s been drawn to its particular moral and ethical bent, as well as its tradition of questioning and deep, thoughtful analysis.

Oy vey! I could write a lot more on this subject, but since this is a food blog, I think it’s time to get to the bread.

Challah, like its cousins brioche and Portuguese/Hawaiian sweet breads, is what’s called an “enriched” bread, in that it contains ingredients besides merely flour, water, yeast, and salt: in this case, eggs, oil, and sugar. (So-called “sweet” breads also use milk or cream, as well as butter and a lot more sugar—and sometimes even pineapple juice, in the case of Hawaiian sweet bread.)

This recipe will make one large or two small traditional braids, or two loaves in pans. (I made the mistake of using only one large pan, which ended up overflowing, so next time, I’ll split it into two loaves.)

Challah

Ingredients

1 ¾ cup warm water

2 tablespoons dry yeast

1/3 cup sugar

2 ¾ teaspoons salt

3 eggs, beaten

½ cup neutral vegetable oil

6 ½ – 7 ½ cups bread flour (plus extra for kneading)

Egg Wash/Topping

1 egg plus 1 yolk, beaten

1 tablespoon water

sesame or poppy seeds

 

Directions

Pour the warm water into a large bowl, then sprinkle the yeast, along with a pinch of sugar, into the water. Stir the water briefly, then let the mixture stand for two minutes to let the yeast swell and/or dissolve. 

 

Stir in the rest of the sugar and the salt, then stir in the 3 beaten eggs and the oil.

 

Add 6 cups of the flour and stir, until it makes a shaggy mass.

Dump the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 8 to 10 minutes (by hand or with a dough hook), adding more flour as needed, until it becomes a soft, elastic dough. (My culinary arts baking instructor liked to say that yeast bread dough should feel “smooth as a baby’s butt.”)

 

Lightly grease a large bowl (at least twice the size of the dough as it is now), form the dough into a ball, and set it in the bowl. If you live in a place where the air is dry, place the bowl inside a large plastic bag to ensure enough humidity.) Let the dough rise until doubled—45-60 minutes.

 

While the dough is doing its first rise, whisk the 1 egg and 1 yolk with the 1 tablespoon of water and set aside.

Gently punch the dough down.

For a traditional braided challah: Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut the dough into three equal portions and form it into three ropes about 14 inches long. (Or for two braided challahs, cut it into six portions, for two separate braids.) Set the ropes on the parchment paper and braid them together on the baking sheet.

For loaf-style challah: Grease two 9-by-5-inch loaf pans. Divide the dough into four portions, and make each into a ball. Place two balls in each loaf pan, side-by-side. [You can see that I did three balls in one pan--a bad idea.]

 

Brush the dough with the egg wash, then sprinkle on sesame or poppy seeds. Wait 10 minutes, then do another coating of the egg wash. 

 

Let rise until almost flush with the top of the pan (if making loaves) or almost doubled (if making a braid)—about 45 minutes. [You’ll see from the photo that because my pan was too small, the dough rose too much, then fell a little, and there was no sign of the three separate balls once it had risen.]

 

While the bread is doing its second rise, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Bake the bread until evenly browned, about 20-30 minutes for braided bread, and 35-45 minutes for loaves. [I had to bake my loaf for closer to an hour before the center was cooked through, since there was too much dough for the pan. If you’re in doubt about the bread being done, you can insert a knife into the center and pull a little of it out to see if it’s fully baked.]

 

Cool on a rack before slicing.

Shabbat shalom!

🌿 🍞 🌱

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