Challah bread

Challah bread (pronounced holla, as in holla back girl) is a traditional Jewish bread.  The braiding of the bread has always intimidated me but after receiving The Baker's Manual as a gift (shout out to Marty) and seeing the step by step diagrams for braiding techniques I figured it was time to conquer my fear.

When attempting a new bread recipe I try to follow the recipe as closely as possible the first time, and to be as exacting as possible when measuring flour it is better to weigh the flour instead of measuring it with a cup.

The ingredients for challah are pretty standard except for the addition of eggs in to the dough.  You can see in the dough ball below that the bread has a yellow tint to it from the egg yolk.

I decided to attempt a four strand bread so I divided the ball in to four equal pieces and shaped each one in to a tube.

I rolled out each piece as long as I could to make the braiding process easier.

The technique I followed in the manual is pictured below.

The last step seemed a little bit like magic but it was just repeating the initial steps until the dough ran out.  When I attempt this braiding again I think I will follow the technique suggested in this video instead because it looks like it creates a more even loaf.

Before placing the loaf in the oven it is important to brush it with an egg wash (just one egg beat with a little water).  The egg wash helps the crust develop a deeper color.

I was quite happy with the finished loaf for my first attempt.  The braid in the middle puffed up quite a bit during baking and made the loaf look uneven but I'm sure with some improvement in my braiding technique I can solve this problem

Because of the egg in the dough, challah is the perfect bread for french toast.  You do need to let the bread soak a little longer in the batter because it is more dense but you are rewarded with an almost custard like finished product.  We had ours with a little homemade raspberry jam and apple cider syrup.