I remember, a long time ago, as a kid, I would go with my grandpa to a farmer's market, where he would buy a couple of large, dark golden brown challahs. Back then, it was my favorite bread. It was pleasantly sweet, chewy, soft inside, and slightly crusty on the outside. I wished we would buy it every day, or even every week, but it only happened around holidays, a few times a year.
I've been looking for a challah bread recipe that would give me the same taste that I remember. Most challah recipes I've tried produce bread that is a bit, and sometimes much, too rich, too eggy, or too sweet for my taste. The one that I remember was like just slightly enriched plain white bread. It was tasty, almost too tasty; it was addictive. I liked having it with jam, butter or a few slices of sausage, or just eating it on its own.
After a lot of experimenting and reading up on old challah bread recipes, I seem to have finally come up with precisely what I was looking for. This challah tastes just like I remember it. My family loves it. I don't think it needs any more tweaking, but feel free to experiment with this recipe to customize it to your taste. From this recipe, you can make a single large, about a 3-lb bread, or two smaller loaves.
Simple Challah Bread
This challah is a looker; it's stunning. It will be a centerpiece at your holiday table, and people will be talking about it. I love the dark color of the crust. You get that from using an egg yolk wash. If you like a lighter color, use a whole egg wash.
To make this challah bread I use a two-stage process. First, I make a poolish. The bread that utilizes poolish tends to have a richer taste and a chewier crumb. To make the poolish, I use 60% of the flour and almost all of the water, together with all of the yeast. Once the poolish is ready, doubled or even tripled in size, I mix the final dough. That's stage two. The rest of the process is fairly typical to any bread - bench resting the dough, shaping, proofing, and baking.
For a single large loaf, I use a 6-strand braid to shape my challah. Each strand is about 14 inches, with the middles quite thicker than the ends. This allows making a big, plump, gorgeous looking bread.
Challah Bread Part 1: How To Make Challah Dough
Here is the most helpful instruction video I was able to find on how to braid a six-strand challah. It has the right orientation so you can easily follow the instructions.
Given the sugar and the egg in the dough, baking on a baking stone results in a slightly burnt bottom. This bread comes out better if baked on a baking sheet.
To get the color and the crust I was looking for, I bake my challah bread at 425F. This seems to work quite well in my oven, but you may have to adjust the temperature as, as they say, each oven bakes differently.
Challah Bread From A Starter
Calories: 183 kcal | Carbohydrates: 35 g | Protein: 5 g | Fat: 2 g | Saturated Fat: 1 g | Cholesterol: 17 mg | Sodium: 255 mg | Potassium: 59 mg | Fiber: 1 g | Sugar: 3 g | Vitamin A: 50 IU | Calcium: 25 mg | Iron: 2 mgThe first time I made challah I nearly cried. Ok, not nearly. I full-fledged cried. I was expecting instant success because I did everything right. However, I was left with dense (in a bad way), crumbly (in a bad way), tasteless (is there a good way?!) poor excuses for braided bread undeserving of being called challah. I was traumatized for a bit and swore off the whole thing because, frankly, I don't handle failure all that well.
My sister, Goldie, makes the most amazing challah known to man and eventually after watching her make it a few times, I decided to take another stab at it. Success!! They weren't gorgeous and I needed some practice but they earned their way into my heart and I felt like I could finally do this. Finally! Fluffy, sweet goodness! This is her killer recipe. Thanks Goldie!!
Few things in the kitchen are more intimidating than working with yeast. It kinda smells weird and if you haven't worked with it, it can be hard to tell what's right and what's not. There's fresh and there's dried and there are those packet thingies. Rapid rising, active dry, instant. Ahhh!! Take a deep breath, I got your back. Let's walk through this.
Fluffy Challah Bread
Active dry yeast is what's used in this recipe. It's granular and is alive but not actively growing until it's proofed in warm water. Instant or rapid rising dry yeast is more finely granulated and is therefore more easily proofed. Some recipes call for mixing yeast right in with the dry ingredients. That's when you'd use instant or rapid rising dry yeast. Technically, they can be subbed for one another but since the instant yeast is more finely granulated, there is more yeast per tablespoon, so decrease the amount by 20%. Dry yeast lasts a very long time. I buy a large package from my supermarket and store in a zip top bag in my freezer. Fresh yeast needs to be proofed as well, but since it is highly perishable, I stick with the active dry.
Now let's talk about flours. Is there really a difference between high gluten and all purpose flour? Yes. Gluten is what gives baked goods their structure. All purpose flour contains about 8-11% gluten whereas high gluten flour contains 12-15%. Here's the good news, you can use either flour for this recipe and it will still come out great! How? I don't know. Magic or something like that. I prefer not to question it. Another magical tidbit. My sister (same one as before.. the one who developed this recipe) uses 6 lbs high gluten flour, buuuuuut it works great for me when i use just 5 lbs.
Contrary to the name of this blog, this is NOT a time to cook with tantrums. Unless you're one of those patient creatures I've heard about. If you're human, wait until the kids are in bed, pour yourself a glass of wine and focus. Pre-measure all of your ingredients so you don't have to fumble around measuring things while your hands are covered in flour or sticky dough. Rubber gloves are a Godsend. Dough doesn't stick as much to them and you won't be cleaning out dough from under your fingernails for a week. You can thank me later for that tip.
How To Make Challah Bread (easy Step By Step Guide)
The first step is proofing the yeast in warm water with a bit of sugar. Why do we do this? Because as mentioned previously, yeast is living and we want to make sure it is still active and living. One might say.. we want.. proof. Yeah, sorry, moving on. We are looking for the yeast to foam up. If the yeast does not foam up, it is no longer living or active and the only waste is warm water and a bit of sugar. Time to start over with new yeast. How warm should the water be? About 100°F, or in mom-speak, the temperature of a baby's bath. Not too hot, not too cool, Goldilox approved. Why sugar? Because sugar feeds the yeast and helps it grow. Combine the yeast, warm water and sugar in a glass bowl, give it a stir and set a timer for 10 minutes to allow it to proof. You know what they say.. a watched yeast bowl never proofs.
Gigantic bowl. Although the recipe calls for a specific amount of flour, don't use it all right away. Save some on the side to add into the dough later, if it's too sticky to work with as you knead. Better to add flour later than to start off with too much flour. Incorporate the wet ingredients, aside from the yeast mixture. When it gets too difficult to mix with a utensil, get in there with your hands and mix some more.
Now it's time to knead. Pour the contents of your bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Press the heel of your hand into the dough, pushing down and forward slightly. Fold the dough over and onto itself and repeat the pushing down and forward movement. Rotate the dough slightly and repeat. And repeat. And repeat. And a few more times as kneaded (Ha!) until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Grain Free Braided Challah
Return the kneaded ball of dough to your gigantic mixing bowl and cover with plastic wrap and a towel. Sing it a lullaby and place it in a warm, draft-free spot to allow the dough to rise for an hour and a half. About as long as it takes to calm a toddler whose toast was cut the wrong way.
Remove the bowl from hibernation. This is when we take challah or do Hafrasha. We recite the following Bracha and then
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