K: Challah!
May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads.
I admit that before this challenge, I had never knowingly eaten challah – what a loss! Apart from the amazing history and symbolism of challah, it is extremely easy to make and delicious. I would probably recommend doing a half-recipe, since we wound up with two gigantic loaves and one very tired standing mixer. =]
Challah (Honey White)
Ingredients
Directions
- In mixer bowl/large mixing bowl combine ½ cup warm water, 1 Tbsp. sugar and 2 Tbsp. yeast. Allow to proof approximately 5 minutes until foamy.
- To the yeast mixture add the remaining water, honey, oil, eggs, salt and 5 cups of flour. Knead (by hand or with your mixer’s dough hook) until smooth, adding flour as needed. Knead for approximately 10 minutes.
- Transfer dough to a clean, oiled bowl, turn to coat or add a bit more oil on top. Cover bowl with a kitchen/tea towel. Leave to rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 ½ hours.
- Punch down the dough, divide it into two sections. Use one half to make each loaf (shaped or braided as desired).
- Place loaves on parchment lined or greased baking sheets, cover with a towel, allow to rise 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Brush tops loaves with egg wash. (Sprinkle with seeds or toppings here if wanted.)
- Bake loaves 30-40 minutes until done.
- Cool on wire racks.
The first rise took me slightly by surprise – this is our largest bowl:
The really fun part of this challenge was shaping the loaves. I wound up doing two shapes – the first was a four strand braid.
And the second was a four-strand braided round.
After baking, we wound up with two delicious loaves. We took the round to our small group, and used the other loaf for sandwiches and french toast!
You have too eaten Challah! Remember senior year, Thursday nights, they’d deliver me a warm loaf with chocolate chips while a bunch of us were whining about Quantum homework? Or maybe you were already in bed by then; it was around 9pm ;)
This does sound vaguely familiar, now that you mention it. I can’t remember if I ever had any, though. It’s highly possible I was in bed, although my bedtime was closer to 10 or 11pm back then. =]
Great job!! I agree that it makes a ton of bread, but it is so delicious and versatile, it never lasts long… or that could just be me… LOL. You did a fantastic job!!
Too true! I think we ate through both loaves (with some help) in 6 days, between the sandwiches, French toast, bread and cheese, and just munching.
The overflowing rising bread made me giggle – it was indeed a LOT of dough and yes, gigantic loaves! I love the braided round you made :)
Yes, it is a bit funny looking! I liked how the round turned out, too; we took it over to a friend’s house, and people just pulled chunks out to eat. It was fun, and tasty!
i’m sure french toast with the challah was wonderful! beautiful looking bread :)
Thanks!
Hi, great looking challah:) And as you wrote, I was also saying to myself that next time I have to half the recipe, those loaves were LARGE!
Thank you! Part of me wonders how large the dough would get if I doubled the recipe instead, but I’d rather not have the bread take over my kitchen. =]
I love your challah. And the dough that ate your bowl…! I find it helpful to make a large batch into smaller loaves and freeze them. Which also keeps me from eating too much challah at one sitting… Your loaves look great and Iam so glad you were able to bake with me this month!
Thank you – it was a lot of fun! That’s a good suggestion to freeze loaves, though; I’ll have to try that next time.