Last night I had some time to myself for a bit, and decided to make some Challah. According to Judaism 101, “Challah is a special kind of bread used for Shabbat and holidays”. I am not Jewish, but the bread looks beautiful and tastes great! This recipe comes from George Greenstein’s book, “Secrets of a Jewish Baker’.

First, grab yourself some basic bread making ingredients. I used:

235 ml water

14 grams yeast

650 grams King Arthur organic bread flour

1 egg

2 egg yolks

60 ml vegetable oil

57 grams sugar

17 grams salt

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Put the water in your mixing bowl and sprinkle the yeast on until it starts to get bubbly (10 min or so). Add the rest of the ingredients (but only half of the flour), and turn the mixer on low with the dough hook, gradually adding the rest of the flour.

Turn up the mixer to medium and knead the dough for about 8 minutes.

Remove the dough and place it in an oiled container.

Let rise to about triple the size (about 2 hours). This thing rises a lot! Then divide the dough into 4 equal pieces.

Roll 3 of those pieces into equal length ropes. I did about 18 inch ropes. The last piece you divide into 3 more pieces to make the smaller top braid.

Make the first braid, by wetting the tips of the dough, sticking them together, then folding the tips under. Then do a simple 3 part braid, and do the same with the other tips. Next take the 3 small pieces, roll them out into very thin roes of the same length. Make another smaller braid with those pieces. Make an indentation in the large braid to cradle the smaller one.

Then place the smaller one on top. Now make an egg wash mixture with:

1 egg, beaten

1 Tablespoon water

Brush some of the mixture all over the dough, then set in a warm place to rise for about an hour more (double in size). Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I use parchment paper and terra cotta tiles in my oven for a baking stone. Wash the bread with the egg wash once more, and sprinkle some poppy seeds on top. Then throw that monster in the oven.

After about 30 minutes or so (half baked), pull it out and brush with the egg wash again. Put is back in and bake until bread is firm and 195 degrees internal temperature. Pull out and cool on a rack. Yummy.



