Challah Bread

Our family has a tradition of making a big breakfast on Sundays with sausage or bacon, scrambled eggs, and pancakes, waffles, or the favorite... french toast.  And in my opinion, the best french toast ever is made with Challah bread. Challah bread is an egg based bread that is rich and buttery, slightly sweet, and is traditionally used for the Jewish Sabbath.

Since I am lucky enough to be at various farmers markets every week to sell candles, I can usually find Challah bread being sold by one of the artisan bread makers there, but when I don't find it, I make it!

Here is the recipe I use, which I have taken from one of my favorite cookbooks, "The New Best Recipe" from America's Test Kitchen.  I have many cookbooks, and I use this one by far the most of all of them.  Anyway, here is the recipe...

Challah
Makes 1 Large Loaf

3-3 1/4 cups (15 to 16 1/4 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the work surface
1 envelope (about 2 1/4 tsp)  instant yeast
1/4 cup (1 3/4 oz) sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs, plus one egg separated (white will be used for the egg wash)
4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp room temperature water

Directions
1. Whisk together 3 cups of flour, yeast, sugar and salt, then set aside.  In the bowl of a standing mixer, or a separate bowl if you will be hand kneading the dough, mix together 2 eggs + 1 yolk, melted butter, and 1/2 cup water.  Add the flour mixture to the liquids, then knead with a dough hook, or knead by hand.  You want to knead the dough until it comes together to form and smooth ball. At this point you can add more flour (up to 1/4 cup) if needed. Take the egg white from the egg you separated earlier and whisk it together with the remaining 1 Tbsp of water. Put this in the fridge and save it for later (this will be your egg wash)

2. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning it to coat with oil.  Then cover it with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Deflate the dough, cover with plastic wrap again and let rise until doubled in size again, another 40 to 60 minutes. 

3.  Next comes the fun part, dividing and braiding the dough.  Divide the dough into 2 pieces, one roughly about half the size of the other.  Divide the larger piece into 3 pieces then roll each piece until it is 16 inches long.  Line up the dough ropes and braid them together, pinching the ends of the braid to seal. Repeat this process with the smaller ball of dough.  Place the larger braid on a lightly greased baking sheet, and use a pastry brush to coat it with egg wash. Then place the smaller braid on top of the larger braid.  Loosely cover the loaf in plastic wrap, and allow to rise for another 30-45 minutes or until the loaf increases in size by 1/3.

4. Finally, adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Brush the top of the loaf with egg wash and bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until it is golden brown and an instant read thermometer inserted into the side of the loaf registers 190 degrees F. Cool the baking sheet on a wire rack and wait until the loaf is completely cool before slicing.



Next week I'll show you how to make this Challah bread into the most delicious french toast you have ever eaten!

Recipe Taken From:

The Editors of Cook's Illustrated. (2004). The New Best Recipe. Brookline, Massachusetts: America's Test Kitchen.