Now it's official. I've finally baked Challah bread for the first time.
When it comes to baking special or such traditional things I'm always a master of procrastination. But now I've tried it and the bread turned out great having this certain fluffy but still very soft texture which I adore. Working with a yeasted and braided dough is not as complicated as I thought it would be and the lightly sweet taste plus the soft texture make this bread well worth trying. It's now definitely my number one on my favorite-bread-list.
But enough blah-blah, here are some pictures ...
Challah
(makes 1 very large or 2 medium size breads)
dough
42gm fresh yeast
400ml warm water
1000gm white flour
1.5 tsp salt
6 Tabsp melted and warmed honey
3 eggs, lightly beaten
120gm melted butter
glaze
1 egg
2 Tabsp whipping cream
Combine about 100ml of water with yeast and melted honey in a glass bowl, stir well until yeast dissolves and let sit for about 10 minutes. The mixture should start to become bubbly and creamy.
Sift flour and salt together in a very large glass bowl.
Add the yeast mixture, melted butter, eggs and the remaining water. Slowly stir with a wooden spoon until everything is very smooth and well combined without any lumps.
Remove the dough from the bowl and knead on an even surface for about 5 minutes until the dough becomes very elastic.
Place into the glass bowl again and let rise for about 1 hour until doubled in size.
After the dough has risen for about 1 hour, take out of the bowl and knead again for about 5 minutes.
Form a large roll or devide the dough into 3 parts and make a braid (or whatever you want your challah to look like).
Line a baking sheet with baking paper and place the challah onto the baking sheet.
Before placing the challah into the oven, whisk together the ingredients for the glaze and brush the dough with the egg-cream mixture evenly.
Bake for about 50 - 60 minutes.
Let cool completely.
Enjoy.
