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Learning to Braid Bread Dough: Peter Reinhart’s Challah

June 29, 2009 by Nicole 51 Comments

Challah

Bread #6 for the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge is Challah.  This was my very first time making Challah and also the very first time braiding any type of bread dough!  Luckily, both the bread and the braid turned out pretty darn good.

Challah (listen to the pronunciaton) is a traditional Jewish bread that is eaten on the Sabbath and holidays.  The dough is enriched with eggs and lightly sweetened.  The bread itself is delicious, but the shaping is what makes it so spectacular.  The bread dough is divided, rolled into ropes and braided.  The braids can be really fancy, but I stuck to a standard three-strand braid since it was my first time.  After braiding, the loaf is brushed twice with an egg wash and sprinkled with seeds.  The resulting loaf is shiny, golden and absolutely beautiful!

Challah

The process for this bread is very straightforward.  First, you blend the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, salt and yeast.

Whisk together Flour, Salt, Sugar and Yeast

In a separate bowl, you whisk together the wet ingredients: eggs, egg yolks, water, and oil.

Whisk together Eggs, Water and Oil

Stir together the wet and dry ingredients either with a spoon or in a stand mixer and decide whether the dough needs more water or more flour.

Mix flour and liquids to form Challah dough

As you can see, mine was a pretty wet dough so I didn’t add any more water.  I switched to the dough hook and started kneading, adding little bits of flour until the dough reached the ‘tacky but not sticky’ point.

Challah dough before kneading

After kneading for 6 or 7 minutes in my stand mixer, I gave the dough the windowpane test.  Although it was hard to photograph, this was the best windowpane I’ve ever achieved!  Hooray for Challah!

Challah Dough Windowpane Test

According to the book, the dough temperature should be about 80 degrees after kneading.  I checked and it was about 3 degrees warmer.  Works for me!

Testing temperature of Challah dough

I lightly coated the ball of dough and let it ferment (rise) at room temperature for an hour.

Challah Dough Fully Kneaded

Mr. Reinhart says the dough should be at least 1 1/2 times it’s original size after an hour and it looked pretty close to me.

Challah dough after bulk fermentation

I dumped it out on my board and started kneading it to remove the bubbles.  The book says to knead it for a couple of minutes to degas.  But as I started kneading, I realized that my dough was really really stiff.

Kneading out the bubbles

It was almost impossible to knead it for two minutes.  The dough started tearing as I tried to wrestle the bubbles out of it.  I really started to wonder what I had done wrong.  This is how it looked after kneading (I gave up after about a minute and a half).  So much for my smooth and supple dough…

After kneading out the bubbles

But I returned it to the bowl and greased it up again for it’s second fermentation.

Ready for second rise

After another hour, the dough had risen nicely again.

After Second Rise

Now it was time to divide it into three pieces.  Luckily the dough had loosened up a bit and was much easier to deal with.  I measured out three equal pieces using my trusty digital scale.

Dividing the Challah Dough

I then formed the three pieces into nice smooth boules and let them rest for ten minutes.

Three Equal Pieces

It’s important to let the dough rest before shaping, because the gluten will relax and the dough will be much easier to work with.  Even after ten minutes, it was a little difficult to roll the balls out into long ropes.  If you find that the dough keeps springing back while you’re trying to form the ropes, just let it sit for a few minutes and then try again.  It will eventually work.

I made three ropes of equal length, making sure to leave them thicker in the middle and slightly tapered at the ends per Mr. Reinhart’s instructions.

Three Ropes

Next, I started the braid.  The only thing that was slightly confusing about the braiding process was that the book told me to start in the middle.  But it was easy enough to figure out.

Starting the Challah Braid

Starting from the middle, I braided down one side.  It really is just like braiding hair!

Braiding Challah

And then I finished the other side.  The ends were just pinched together and tucked under slightly.  Behold a succesfully braided loaf!

Braided Challah

I transferred the loaf to a silpat-lined baking sheet (parchment paper would be fine, too) and brushed it with an egg wash.

Brushing with Egg Wash

Next it was covered with plastic wrap and allowed to proof for another hour or so.

Ready for Final Proof

It really grew!

Challah after final proof

After proofing, it got brushed down with the egg wash once more and then I sprinkled it with poppy seeds.  Sesame seeds may also be used.

Challah with Poppyseeds

The challah was put into a preheated 350 degree oven and baked for about 40 minutes.  It had lots of oven spring and turned into a big and beautiful loaf!

Challah hot out of the oven

I thought the bottom of the bread was almost as pretty as the top, so I had to photograph it, too.

The Underside of Challah

And of course, you have to see the crumb.

Challah Crumb

I really enjoyed the challah toasted with butter and raspberry jam for breakfast this morning.  And tomorrow, I’m going to make some french toast.  But this is definitely not the type of bread to be hoarded and eaten alone (like I did with the Casatiello) so  I will be taking a large portion of the loaf to my sister and brother-in-law today.

I’m now six loaves into the BBA Challenge, and I’ve enjoyed every single bread I’ve made.  I would definitely call this another success and am proud that I finally braided a loaf of bread.  Since I have never made Challah before, I can’t compare this to other recipes, but I thought the flavor and texture of this bread was really nice and I would definitely make it again.

The Next Bread

This week we will be making Ciabatta.  This is another one I’m excited about, because I love to eat it, but have never made it at home before.  The ingredients are very simple: bread flour, yeast, salt and water, but this bread requires two days to make.  The bread instructions begin on page 135 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  There are five different versions of Ciabatta in the book and you can choose any version you would like.  You can try as many as you like, but you’ll only need to make one of them for the purposes of this challenge.  Good luck and happy baking!

Want to Bake Along With Us?

There are several ways for you to join in the fun!  First of all, you need a copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  Read the first section of the book carefully, as this will prepare you for the bread recipes in the second section of the book.  Then just jump in and bake some Anadama Bread! But first, please visit The BBA Challenge Page for more details on how to participate in the group!

If you haven’t already, you might want to bookmark the BBA Challenge Page.  From there you can see which breads are coming up soon, find answers to Frequently Asked Questions, visit and/or add yourself to our World Map, see the BBA Challenge Blogroll, and check out the continually updated slideshow of BBA Bread photos from our ever-expanding group of bakers!

For those of you who are participating in The BBA Challenge, here are some questions:  How did you like the Challah?  Did you make one large braid or two smaller ones?  What type of braid did you choose?  Did you learn anything new while using this formula?

And remember, if you wrote a blog post about Challah, or have photos available online, please leave a comment and share your link!

Challah from other BBA Challenge members:

  • Challah from Tiramisu’
  • Challah from Confessions of a Penguin Chef
  • Challah from Claudine on Flickr
  • Challah from Something Shiny
  • Challah from In Good Taste
  • Challah from The Missing Piece
  • Challah from My Hawaiian Home
  • Challah from Round the Table
  • Challah from Second Dinner
  • Challah from Susie’s Home and Hobbies
  • Challah from Of Cabbages and King Cakes
  • Challah from That Certain Age
  • Challah from A Tiger in the Kitchen
  • Challah from Crispy Waffle
  • Challah from Way More Homemade
  • Challah from Italian Food Forever

Filed Under: BBA Challenge Tagged With: BBA, BBA Challenge, bread, Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge, challah, peter reinhart

Previous Post: « Strawberry-Blueberry Buttermilk Cake
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. pam says

    June 30, 2009 at 7:11 am

    Beautiful challah! Really stellar!
    Reply
  2. ATigerintheKitchen says

    June 30, 2009 at 7:26 am

    What a beautiful braid! The underside looked lovely, too. Congratulations...and thanks for linking to my challah post! My windowpane was nowhere near as perfect as yours ... I still haven't been able to get that part quite right in all the breads I've made. Someday ...
    Reply
  3. Wendy says

    June 30, 2009 at 7:38 am

    Your challah looks perfect. Great job!
    Reply
  4. cheffresco says

    June 30, 2009 at 7:41 am

    I've never tried challah either - yours looks beautiful! I'm looking forward to seeing the ciabatta too. I may have to take on this challenge sometime this week :)
    Reply
  5. Paula - bell'alimento says

    June 30, 2009 at 8:16 am

    As always, your bread looks perfetto! I REALLY loved this bread. I opted for 2 smaller loaves & did the single braid. I will def be making this one again. Here is the link to my post: http://www.bellalimento.com/2009/06/19/ah-challah
    Reply
  6. Rebeca says

    June 30, 2009 at 8:55 am

    Your bread looks great! Here's the link to mine:http://carriedonthewind.blogspot.com/2009/06/bba-challenge-6-challah-bread.html
    Reply
  7. Katie says

    June 30, 2009 at 10:21 am

    Wow - yours is so much more beautiful than mine! I loved the braiding, too. My post about it is here: http://urbanpeasantry.blogspot.com/2009/06/dinnertime-distractions-and-challah.html
    Reply
  8. Daniel says

    June 30, 2009 at 12:07 pm

    Absolutely beautiful! I made the mistake of making the ropes too long. Here are mine: http://bit.ly/ITAuK
    Reply
  9. justine says

    June 30, 2009 at 8:57 pm

    what a beautiful, well made (and delicious looking!) challah justine
    Reply
  10. SallyBR says

    July 1, 2009 at 9:12 am

    Loved this post! Your Challah turned out absolutely perfect!
    Reply
  11. Cindy says

    July 1, 2009 at 10:29 am

    Hi Nicole, Beautiful challah. It's so funny that you photographed the underside. i just sent a reply to Daniel in Germany (http://bit.ly/ITAuK) after reading his post and seeing that he shoots the undersides too. I also always shoot the bottom but never actually put the photos in my post because I figured who wants to see the bottom. But now there are three of us who find the bottom of a loaf interesting. Hmm, maybe there are moie of us out there! Although I didn't love the BBA challah as much as others I have made, I still learned so much from the book, especially braiding techniques.
    Reply
  12. nico says

    July 2, 2009 at 7:54 am

    very nice challah, mine was really good too.
    Reply
  13. JanH says

    July 2, 2009 at 8:54 pm

    Here is an alternate shaping technique that is really much easier than the finished loaf looks like it should be. Scroll past the recipe to the shaping instructions at the end. http://www.tasteofchallah.com/sub_page.asp?cat=3&sub_cat=8 It is similar to a braid, but makes a lovely round woven loaf.
    Reply
  14. Avanika (Yumsilicious Bakes) says

    July 3, 2009 at 1:50 am

    Your challah looks great!! Amazing job!
    Reply
  15. Jon T. says

    July 6, 2009 at 7:12 pm

    Nice work on your challah, but here's a tip from someone who's made lots of challah in his past: do you notice how your braids toward the center of your load look "torn"? What causes that is that your braids are too tight. The dough doesn't have enough room to expand when proofing and during oven spring. The strands, having nowhere to expand, tear away from each other. Looking at the picture of your braid confirms this for me. When braiding any bread, braid loosely. I love following your blog and look forward to your later adventures. Peter's recipe for cinnamon buns is one of my favorites!
    Reply
  16. Nicole says

    July 6, 2009 at 7:16 pm

    Jon: Thanks for the tip! I was wondering about why the braid had that torn appearance towards the middle. Totally makes sense now that I think about it. I'll definitely loosen up the next time :-)
    Reply
  17. Kathie says

    July 6, 2009 at 7:56 pm

    @Jon. Thanks from a newbie to this challenge. My challah, while tasty, had the same issue. I also knit too tightly. :)
    Reply
  18. Barbara says

    July 6, 2009 at 7:58 pm

    Jon: that's a great tip. I was wondering why that happened.
    Reply
  19. Jon T. says

    July 7, 2009 at 2:53 pm

    Hi Katie: as a matter of fact, when you braid bread, you should simply lay the strands over the others and not pull them very much at all. Don't worry about slight gaps left between the braided stands, you actually want some to allow space to proof. The dough strands will grow together as you proof. OK--now a confession: I baked professionally for several years, baking 40-50 challah loves a day. I still love to bake bread at home and love to help beginners! Go for it!
    Reply
  20. Kathie says

    July 7, 2009 at 6:54 pm

    @Jon- it is so nice to be in this connected world with people like yourself who are willing to share your knowledge. Thanks for that and your words of support!
    Reply
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