Today I’ll be showing you how to make a loaf of challah bread, this is a super simple recipe that makes a tasty loaf.
If you’re not sure what challah is, I’ll give you a quick run down. Challah is traditionally a bread eaten at Jewish holidays and celebrations, such as Passover.
Challah bread starts with an enriched dough, which is simply a bread dough that has higher percentages of fat, sugar and dairy compared to basic breads.
As you may have noticed, it’s a braided loaf. You don’t see this very often with loaves of bread, unless they are something like a milk bread or kolach.
I remember making this loaf for the first time at college, I didn’t even know how to plait the bread properly. Meanwhile, I was practicing how to do a basic three strand plait – which I finally got the hang of. You can do four, five six or more strand plaits but they get pretty complex, so I kept it simple.
Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?
Ingredients:
500g White bread flour.
8g Salt.
7g Dried yeast.
50g Butter.
15g Granulated sugar.
75g Egg.
200ml Water.
Method:
Before you get into the baking, you’ll want to do some prep. Start by weighing up the ingredients and preparing any equipment you may need in advance.
To start on the dough, place the water, egg, granulated sugar and dried yeast into a bowl and whisk together and allow to sit for about 10 minutes
Next get yourself a mixing bowl and place the flour and salt into it – give the two a quick whisk together until combined. Add the Butter!
Then you can add the wet mixture into the dry and mix on a low speed for around 5-7 minutes or until a clear dough has formed.
Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and give it a brief knead, once done, the dough should be smooth and elastic.
Go ahead and place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling film and leave somewhere warm. This is for the first proof, leave for around an hour or until it’s doubled in size.
While the dough is proofing, it’s the perfect time to get clean. Take the time to do the washing up and cleaning your work surface.
Once the dough has doubled in size, lightly flour your work surface and place the dough on top. It’s the perfect time to knock the dough back, this is the process of removing the gasses that built up in the dough during the first proof.
Scale the dough ball into 3 x 165g balls of dough, keeping covered with clingfilm and resting for 5 minutes.
After the 5 minutes is up, take your first ball of dough and roll it out. I didn’t use any measurements in particular, it’s one of those things that you know if right when you’re doing it. Roll it out into a long snake shape, ensuring the middle of it is slightly bigger than the rest of the snake. Repeat this for the remaining dough balls.
Next you’ll want to plait it and I went with a super simple 3 strand plait. To do that, take your three dough snakes and pinch all of the one end together.
Take the strand on the left and place it in the centre, then take the strand on the right and bring it into the centre. It’s always bringing the strand from the left into the centre followed by the right into the centre.
I know, that’s not the best explanation but watching the video will help.
Transfer the loaf onto a lined baking tray and cover it with some cling film and allow it to proof for a second time, until it puffs up well. I find around 45 minutes is the perfect time.
While it’s proofing, preheat your oven to 200˚c/390˚f.
Once the second proof is done, you can go ahead and give it a coating of egg wash.
Place the dough into you preheated oven and bake it for 20-25 minutes or until its fully baked.
Once baked, allow to cool fully and then enjoy!
That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my Instagram and Twitter. The YouTube video will be linked down below.
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