Pandemic Challah
A number of you have asked for our challah recipe since you are home and cooking now (and since this may be the last one before Passover). There’s a lot of fine challah recipes out there, but here's how we make ours:
2 cups water
1 tablespoon (package) of active dry yeast
1/2 to 1 cup of honey
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 to 6 eggs
1 tablespoon salt
8ish cups Kind Arthur Bread Flour or All Purpose flour.
(General PSA. If you are baking in the USA, please do not use any other flour except King Arthur. Any other flour is generally ghetto and I've experienced with all types (at FCI and others, they teach using King Arthur for a reason). The "bread flour" has more protein and will carry a nicer rise and taste. Their all purpose one is also great, but you should consider adding vital wheat gluten to improve the protein (note, the "bread flour" is called Sir Lancelot if ordering larger commercial amounts). Trust a brotha here. It's night vs day and the flour you use makes a significant difference)
In a large bowl, heat the water to 100 degrees. Add the honey and stir vigorously until the honey is pretty loosened and starting to dissolve to the best it can (note, challah is a "honey bread" so feel free to be generous here. You can make it too sweet, however, so experiment with what your family likes). Add the yeast and stir it until it starts to dissolve. Let it sit for a few minutes.
Note that a good yeast activation shows up in the rise. People who struggle to get a good rise (1) use dead yeast (2) don't activate the yeast well (3) kill the yeast or (4) try to rise the dough in too cold an environment. Below 70 degrees yeast will not rise. Above 140 you will kill it. Not enough sugar with water and it will not activate. Anyway, give it a few minutes and you will see a good foam / lots of bubbles.
(If activating yeast scares you (it shouldn’t) and if you want to skip all of this, use "bakers yeast" which is sold by Red Star at most Whole Foods or specialty stores. Just throw it in with the flour. I like bakers yeast better, but it expires -- so if you aren't baking a lot, active dry is fine (note, I prefer the Red Star yeast over the Fleishmanns', both of which are the leading ones available at most stores).
Once yeast is going, add 5 of the eggs (we are saving one for the wash later), and the oil. Mix well until pretty smooth (I like to use small whisk, but careful not to foam it up).
Get out your mix master and use the hook. If you don't have one, a wooden spoon and a big bowl is fine.
On low speed (or with some muscle) add the flour one cup at a time. Normally it takes 7 to 9 cups until the dough gets pretty firm. Do not over flour. You want a nice elastic but STICKY dough. One of the biggest mistakes in challah baking is “over flouring”. Get your hands dirty -- if you are going to make breads, you better get comfortable getting in there and feeling the dough. Get messy. It shouldn't come apart in your hands, but it shouldn't be too flakey. Sticky but holding together. This takes practice (but again, challah is a forgiving bread so don't stress over this).
Once you think it's at a good place, dump the bad boy out onto a very clean surface with some flour on it. Knead for a few more minutes until it’s well put together and still sticky. Coat a large bowl with some (vegetable) oil, put the dough into it — you are ready for your first rise which should go about 3 hours.
Some tricks on rising for the home baker wrt rising that have worked well for me:
> put a moist towel on top of the bowl you are rising in
> rise in the oven on 90 to 100 degrees (if your oven has that setting)
After about 3 hours, punch it down, turn it out onto a floured surface. Then knead slightly adding flour until it's not as sticky and more workable. Divide into 200 gram sections (I use a bakers scale. If you don't have one, just cut in half, and then cut each half into thirds (or 4ths if you plan on being a braiding machine).
Knead and form into balls, place on a bakers sheet. Dot each ball with some flour. Cover with plastic wrap. This boarding is a healthy practice as form and shape is heavily dependent on consistent snakes. Let them hang/rest for about 30 mins. Take each ball and form into snakes. Braid. Let it raise for an hour or 2 again.
(some of the best videos i’ve seen in this respect are from Jamie Geller. She rocks. I really like this one about how to form really nice snakes and board the challah for shaping)
Preheat oven to 375.
Beat the remaining egg and brush a generous amount over each braid. Sprinkle with poppy or sesame as desired.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes. Bread should have a hollow like sound when you thump. Cool on a rack for at least an hour
Here's some other best practices that people often struggle with:
DO NOT bake on a baking sheet. Bake on a silicon baking pad or on parchment paper. It will burn on the bottom if you do not
Cover with a tin foil tent while baking and remove for the last few minutes. Many ovens burn challah regardless of the temp. Tent. Trust.
Learn a 4 braided challah. 3 is too few and anything more than 4 takes perfect snakes. Jamie Geller has a great video here. They go quickly in the video, but generally good practices in this series as well. If you don’t know how to braid, it’s not that hard. Just practice. I've also practiced with shoe laces and a safety pin (I’m a balding 42 year old Jew so it’s not like I was braiding my girlfriends hair at Surprise Lake camp before canteen).
I like to make the dough and first rise on Thursday and then stick in the fridge over night. Rise stops and more flavors this way. Take it out in the morning on Fri and let it hit room temperature before dividing, boarding, and second rise. You can also freeze it for another day once braided and before second rise. Then you just take it out, defrost, let it rise, and bake.
don't stress about shape before you put it in. Even if your challah looks mad ghetto going in, it's normally nice coming out. This takes practice, but the bread is pretty resilient
For the egg wash, use only the yolk and a little bit of whole milk. Also, don’t use one of those silicon brushes that eff up your masterpiece — invest in a legit pastry brush. They are almost always smoother.
if you get really good (which you will) make some rainbow challah for the kids. Jamie (my challah baking Jewess spirit animal) again shows the tactics for adding the food coloring and braiding it here and it's pretty easy and the little people will def lose their shit (note, this is a different recipe, but focus on how she blends and creates the colors).
Good luck. :-)