Making Challah has been on my bucket list for years… and years. But braiding bread is intimidating, so it took me quite some time to muster up the courage to do this! But here we are and wow, that was easier than I figured it for! You just have to practice a bit and BAM, you’ll nail it (well, almost).
Thank you Chanie for the Challah pronunciation help! You’re a rock star!
Want the diagram I was using? It’s from Lauren Monaco and it’s an excellent reference: https://laurenmonaco.com/MintysTable-Challah-Diagrams
I followed the recipe from Once Upon a Chef. You can find Jenn’s recipe here: https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/challah.html
Print your Challah recipe here:
Challah
Ingredients:
- 4¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon instant yeast
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ¾ cups lukewarm water
- 4 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 4 Tablespoons honey
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 egg yolk, room temperature
- For egg wash – 1 extra egg
Instructions:
- Add flour, yeast, and salt to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Turn the mixer on and allow it to mix while you are mixing together the wet ingredients.
- Mix together the water, oil, honey 2 of the eggs and 1 egg yolk.
- Add the wet mix to the middle of your mixer and knead on 2 until you have a sticky dough which will take about 5 minutes. It will seem too wet, but it’s not.
- Using a dough scraper, scrap your dough out onto a pastry mat or well floured surface. Dust your hands with flour and knead your dough into a smooth ball (dusting with flour as needed so it’s not sticking).
- Grease a large bowl with cooking spray and place the dough in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise to double (will take 2-3 hours)
- Dump the dough out onto a pastry mat or well floured surface and cut into 4-6 even pieces. Roll the pieces into 20 inch ropes then follow a challah diagram to braid (https://laurenmonaco.com/MintysTable-Challah-Diagrams). Once braided, tuck the ends under and transfer to your final baking sheet lined with parchment.
- Once on your baking sheet, push together the braided strands to make the challah a little stouter.
- Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow it to rise about 50%.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a small bowl beat your egg and brush generously over risen dough.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes or until the internal temp reaches 200°F
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