Probably you are here because you’ve had some challah bread I made and you’d like to learn how to make it yourself. I’d like to help you do that. Good news: unlike many other things, making this bread is easier than it looks (if you have a bread machine).
The recipe is adapted from Bread Machine Challah on http://kosheronabudget.com/
Makes a lilttle more than 3 lbs of bread. Takes about 4 1/2 – 5 hours of elapsed time from start of baking until you can eat the bread.
Ingredients
- (about) 13.5 oz water @ 95 degrees F (see instructions)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 29 oz King Arthur bread flour
- 1/2 cup sugar or honey
- 1 T dry yeast
- 1 large egg, beaten for glaze
Notes:
- I put the 3 eggs in a bowl of warm water when I first start making the bread, to de-chill them
- I use extra virgin olive oil. I have used other oils, but the olive oil gives the best flavor in my opinion.
- I’ve tried many kinds of flour and King Arthur bread flour (blue bag) is the best I’ve found.
- I honestly can’t tell the difference in flavor whether I use sugar or honey. So, I generally use sugar because it is easier to deal with. Try both and see what you like.
- I use Fleischmann’s Bread Machine Instant Yeast, a “rapid rise” yeast; “ordinary” yeast rises more slowly and won’t work right with the timings listed here
You’ll need these, too:
- a bread machine – see comments below
- scale
- instant-read thermometer
- parchment paper
- large (approx 16 x 20) baking sheet or tray (or 2 half-size sheets)
- pastry brush
- rubber spatula
- plastic wrap
Instructions
How much water. The recipe is sensitive to prevailing humidity and to the amount of water in the mix – this is not unusual in bread making. My starting point is to use 13.5 ounces of water, but I scale that down if the humidity is high, as on some summer days. If it is really high, I’ll go as low as 12.8 oz. In the winter, when the air here (near Boston) is never humid, I’ll just stick with 13.5 oz.
1. Place water, egg, salt, oil, flour, sugar/honey, and yeast in bread machine. Do so in the order recommended by your bread maker’s manual.
2. Select the dough or manual cycle. “Dough cycle” means we are not going to go into baking mode, we are just mixing/kneading. See comments below about Bread Machine.
About 7 minutes after starting the machine, do 2 things. Scrape down the sides with the rubber spatula. And check whether you need to make an adjustment for moisture. If at the bottom of the machine below the ball of dough there is more than a small amount (say, more than 1/4 inch) of sticky unconsolidated dough, add a tablespoon of flour and check again after the machine has run another minute. Then add more flour if necessary and check again – add one more tablespoon if necessary. We want no more than a little – say an eighth to a quarter of an inch in thickness – of the sticky stuff at the bottom at the 8 or 9 minute mark. As the machine continues beyond this, any remaining small amount of too-wet-dough will get pulled in and all will be fine. A normal ball of dough will be soft and damp but not more than slightly sticky at the 7 minute stage. If instead the ball of dough looks dry – poke it with your finger – only experience will really tell you what “dry” is – does not usually happen if you follow the scheme – then add a tablespoon of water and check again in a minute, adding one more tablespoon of water if the dough still seems too dry.
Leave the machine alone until the dough cycle completes – in 90 or so minutes (time depends on your particular machine/mode).
3. Remove the dough promptly when the machine beeps. Put a little flour down on the counter before taking out the dough.
[“not strong enough” – Some bread machines may underknead the challah dough. This is not surprising in that we are using a 2 lb machine to make 3 lb of bread. How can you tell that your loaf is underkneaded? Go by the shape. If it is about like this you are good:
The dough feels “firm” and is more or less in a ball.
On the other hand, if it “soft” and kind of sprawls out and does not hold approximately a ball shape – think flatter, in the direction of a very fat pancake – you’ll have to manually knead it to get the best baking result. If you skip this, the bread will still be “good,” just not at its best.
It’s easy to knead. See the video below. I use the first method shown. Don’t worry about a little flour being on the counter, though we are not trying to add any extra flour here. You should only have to knead for a few minutes – not more than five, probably. You are looking for the dough to get firmer and hold a ball shape more or less.]
4. Preheat over to 350°.
Put parchment paper on the baking sheet. Now it’s time to braid.
We are making around 3 lbs of bread. As a single “mega” loaf that can be fun for a team or a social gathering, but it’s large for a family, etc. You can instead make (2) 1 1/2 lb loaves. These are generally easier to deal with – think slice size – than the mega loaf, anyway, so even for a big gathering, I usually make the 2 loaves.
For one loaf: divide bread into two pieces about 60 / 40. Take the larger piece and split it into three. Roll each of the three pieces into a snake about 16+ inches long. Braid – easier to start braid not right at the end but part way in. Pinch ends to hold together. Put this braided assembly on the tray. Then repeat using the smaller original dough chunk. Put the 2nd braided assembly on top of the first braided assembly. Try to get it on square otherwise during baking the top layer may kind of keel over – may look a little odd but that is the only harm.
For two loaves it is the same but first split the dough into 2 approx equal pieces. The snake will be maybe more like 12+ inches long.
Cover loaf (or each if two) with plastic wrap and let it rise on top of stove for 25 minutes or so. Maybe up to 5 minutes less if the kitchen is hot. Or maybe a little longer – 2 or 3 minutes additonal – if your kitchen is on the cool side. Do not let the bread rise a long time (not >30) or the loaf will lose a certain perkiness and who doesn’t want perkiness.
When the rise is over, take off the plastic wrap. Make up egg wash – just an egg in a dish, beaten with a fork. Use the pastry brush to coat loaf with this wash after the rise – this makes loaf shiny after baking – looks nice. But if you forget, the bread will still taste great.
7. Bake to an internal (as close to the center as you can get) temperature of 195 F. For one big loaf, I set the timer for 37 minutes. Your situation might require a somewhat different amount of time so your first time you might want to go lower – say 35 minutes so you are assured of not overshooting. The final time may be something like 39-43 minutes (in my oven – yours will probably be a little different). For two medium loaves side by side, I set the timer for 23 minutes. Final time may be something like 26-29 minutes (again, in my oven). But don’t go by the timer – I include the timings so you have a rough idea – go by the temperature. Leave tray in the oven if you can and take the temperature read quickly – you do not want to let a lot of heat out of the oven. Again, we are looking for a temp of 195 F. If at check the temp is like 160, add say 5 minutes to the timer and check again. If 180 add say 3 minutes. Try not to go much past 195 or bread may be a little hard/somewhat on the dry side. But it’s not a catastrophe if you go a little beyond.
Take out and cool on rack for at least 30 minutes. You can slide the parchment paper off with the bread on top to get onto the rack. If you do not wait for cooling, the bread will be too hot to handle and too soft – may fall apart a little. Do not be in a big rush to put the warm loaf in a tight bag – needs to give off some moisture. I usually wait a couple of hours before putting in a bag. Actually, I often don’t use a bag at all, I just wrap in foil.
Large-width heavy duty foil is good for wrapping loaf if you are giving it away – if it is still warm, wrap loaf loosely so moisture can get out.
The bread freezes very well. Wrap it tightly in foil and then place in a plastic bag. Get the air out of the bag. To bring a frozen loaf back to life, remove the bag and place the foil-wrapped bread in a 350 oven. A 1 1/2 lb loaf will take somewhere around 30-40 minutes to reheat.
About the Bread Machine
The recipe is intended for use with a bread machine or food processor (I have never personally used a processor for this). Challah is easy to make if you let the machine do the mixing/kneading but not easy to make totally by hand. You’ll need a bread machine listed as “makes a 2 lb loaf.” That said, we are making over 3 lbs of bread here so I can’t promise that a particular “2 lb machine” will be large enough or strong enough (see instructions for dealing with “not strong enough”).
We are looking for a knead-rise-knead-rise sequence in the dough (manual – no baking) cycle, running something like 90 – 120 minutes. Not all machines have a dough cycle that resembles this. You may have to choose a baking cycle – i.e., not manual – that approximately fits, but then stop the machine before the baking begins. I’ve tried different cycles on two different machines and found that the bread is fairly tolerant of differences in cycle timing. You may have to experiment.