May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads.
Edit – for ALL the lowdown on challah, visit Ruth’s blog The Crafts of Mommyhood. She gives the history of challah, info about the significance of different methods of braiding, three recipes and even videos on how to braid the different loaves. She is an inspiration and a great Daring Baker!
I’ve been meaning to try challah (you don’t pronounce the c, if you were wondering) for some time. I love the look of it, but until now I didn’t know that there were so many different ways to braid a challah. The braids I tried were six strand braids, though you can also do a simpler three strand braid, a four strand braid or a really fancy round braid. I did want to try a round loaf this month but, alas, the time ran away with me! So much so, in fact, that my post is a day late. Tsk tsk.
I chose to make the Honey White recipe that was provided, which you can find here at Tammy’s Recipes.
My first attempt didn’t go too well… I didn’t add enough flour to the dough, which made it very soft and a bit, well… runny. Here are some photos, though I sort of gave up after it went in the oven so I don’t have a finished product photo!
The first challah dough after rising
The dough deflated a lot after punching down – it was very fragile
The dough was so elastic that as I rolled it out it just stretched and stretched, meaning that the strands I was braiding were growing as I worked with them. I thought I might never reach the end of them, like trying to drink a cup of tea in the rain. I rolled it into the scroll shape because it was a bit unmanageable by the time I was finished, and I rather liked the effect. It could have been a lovely loaf, if it hadn’t been so relaxed. It was still a nice bread, though a bit on the thin side. There was certainly lots of it – that was only using half the recipe.
I tried the same recipe again but adding more flour to get a tauter, firmer dough. This attempt went much better and kept its shape beautifully as I shaped and braided it.
This is the dough before rising – much more firm
I did a six strand braid, which was fun to pull together. I’m an old hand at the three strand braid, having had lots of toy ponies as a child whose tails I would braid. In fact any scarves I own that have tassels on the end get braided over and over again if I happen to be at a loose end. Bus journeys see a lot of braiding, for example. The six strand braid was a fun challenge – you start from the left and go over two, under one and over the last two, then repeat until you run out of space. Then you tuck the narrow ends under and let the challah rise for a little while before glazing and baking.
I happened to have run out of eggs, so I brushed the loaf with oil before scattering with sesame seeds. It didn’t give the lovely lacquered, deep coloured finish that you usually see on challah but I liked the end result all the same.
The close up shows the stripes in the finished loaf, which I think are made by the dough stretching as it rises. Stretch marks have never been so appetising.
I really enjoyed making challah. The bread itself is soft and rich and it kept me in sandwiches (tiny sandwiches) for a while. It wasn’t as yellow in colour as I’d expected, but I know there are hundreds of different recipes for challah available and some will include more eggs, or just egg yolks, to give that really deep colour. It was also quite a sweet bread, with the honey in the recipe – next on the list is a wholewheat challah, I’m looking forward to trying a more savoury version.
May 28th, 2012 at 12:15 PM
pretty!
May 28th, 2012 at 2:20 PM
Your adeptness at braiding shows: even the failed loaf is beautifully braided.
May 28th, 2012 at 8:18 PM
Thank you! I don’t know why, I’ve just always been good at it.
May 28th, 2012 at 4:18 PM
The second looks perfect ! That’s not so easy to get the ideal texture for the dough.Well, that gives a pretext to bake some more.
May 28th, 2012 at 8:19 PM
I completely agree – it’s all in the name of ‘practise’…
May 29th, 2012 at 1:31 AM
This is beautiful.
P.S. I braid my scarf tassels, too!
May 29th, 2012 at 10:14 PM
Scarf tassel braiders, UNITE!
May 29th, 2012 at 3:42 AM
Your braids looks so lovely! I’d wanted to try the six strand braid, but when I had tome for challah I had no internet access and couldn’t remember how to do it! Seeing yours makes me want to try again.
May 29th, 2012 at 10:13 PM
Thank you! It was fun to do the six strand braid, though I don’t know if it looks very different from a three strand braid. Perhaps just more satisfying to make?
May 29th, 2012 at 1:54 PM
I love challah (haha always pronounced the c!) I love the scroll and the beautiful shiny second loaf just as well:)
May 29th, 2012 at 10:13 PM
I always pronounced the c until I was gently corrected just recently – every day is a school day
May 29th, 2012 at 2:19 PM
I always mess up the braids – nice job
May 29th, 2012 at 10:12 PM
Thanks! It just seems to come naturally to me, heaven knows why.
May 29th, 2012 at 4:05 PM
Love it! That looks LUSH! My fave bread, grew up eating it, I always remembering it being rather golden inside and just the tiniest bit sweet. mmmmm
May 29th, 2012 at 9:21 PM
Thanks! I’ve never had challah except for this one, I’ll have to try some of the real deal so I can find out how good (or not) it really was.
May 30th, 2012 at 1:41 AM
I love the scrolled challah – I might just have to keep that in mind for some holiday loaves! I am glad you persevered and tried the recipe a second time. There are so many factors that affect the consistancy of bread dough, and your second version really worked. I also love the “stripes” in the baked bread. They just make me want to pull off a piece and gobble it up. Thank you so much for baking with me this month!
May 30th, 2012 at 1:23 PM
Thanks! I know it’s not traditional but it seemed to make sense at the time, and it would have looked lovely if I’d just got the dough right