This is a very easy recipe and went pretty quickly. If you have a bunch of leftover egg yolks from using whites in another recipe, this bread is a good way to use up those yolks.
All the ingredients go into the mixer at once.
And then that’s all mixed together. My dough never quite came together cohesively until I added some additional flour.
The mixer does most of the kneading so once that’s done you just bring it together a bit and then fold it a few times to prepare for the first rise.
It goes into an oiled bowl to rise until doubled in size. This took a couple hours.
The dough is then portioned into three pieces.
These pieces are rolled out and braided together to create the loaf. My dough might have been a little dry, as I ended up with a lot of creases in the “ropes” that I couldn’t work out. I also realized that I should have tried to braid it more tightly from the start – it would have helped with evenness and improved the look of the baked loaf. Tighter is better!
The braided loaf is placed on a baking sheet to proof. Once it’s done proofing, it’s brushed with an egg wash and I also opted to sprinkle some poppyseeds on top, which the MSBH says is a traditional way to prepare Challah.
Then it’s into the oven for about an hour. You can see how my braids spread apart considerably because I didn’t braid it tightly enough.
The loaf gets quite dark.
I have had Challah before and it’s never been my favorite bread – I find it to be on the bland side. It’s great for strata, however, and I made a big casserole dish full of strata with this loaf of Challah.
If you have found challah boring then you have not tasted real challah. It should be rich, dense, eggy and slightly sweet. I am happy to share a few fantastic challah recipes. Real
Challah makes the best toast, French toast, and bread pudding.
Louise – This challah was, indeed, dense, eggy and slightly sweet. Not so sure about rich. I believe you about challah making great french toast and bread pudding. This loaf was excellent in the strata I made.