Challah Bread

Warning:This is a long post- but there are pictures!

The Sept./Oct. 2002 issue of Saveur magazine ran an article on Challah bread and included a diagram showing how to make a six-braid loaf. The article ran right around the time I was becoming interested in baking bread and so, being that I love a challenge I tried making their version of Challah Bread. The result was 2 golden loaves of crusty bread, awkwardly braided ( 6 braids is not easy) but quite tasty with butter and apricot preserves. I brought one of the loaves to work where it was devoured in less than 30 minutes (to date: the Chocolate Bread holds the record of being eaten in the least amount of time by the locusts umm...my co-workers - 15 minutes). More important than making the bread look pretty or pleasing my co-workers was what I learned- baking was something I was really beginning to enjoy, and something I wanted to pursue further.

I recently purchased a used copy of the 1973 book Beard On Bread written by (go on, take a guess...) James Beard. I was sitting at the table flipping through the book this morning and it occurred to me that I had been silly for thinking that the book was intimidating. Beard presents the information in very easy to understand terms, he takes care with his explanations and it's quite clear bread baking was a subject he had studied extensively.

Looking at Beard's version of Challah it struck me as very odd that he was asking for THREE packages of active dry yeast, not that I'm any expert but I didn't remember using that much yeast with the Saveur version. I got out the issue of Saveur and compared the 2 recipes. Beard calls for 3 packages of yeast, and 5 and 1/2 cups of flour, Saveur calls for 2 TBS. of yeast and an amazing 9 and 1/4 cups of flour. I didn't think to measure the three packages into a measuring spoon but it just occurred to me that maybe 3 packages equals 2 tablespoons. Beard is quite clear about his preference for butter, but he is not so militant that he doesn't suggest the use of other fats in baking. The Saveur recipe uses vegetable oil. Intrigued by the differences in the 2 recipes and being that I was not about to go out of my house in 14 degree weather, I decided to make the Beard version of the Challah bread.

A couple of things to note here: I don't own a kitchen scale, we just don't have the room, so I use the "Scoop and Tap" method of measuring flour. Scoop flour into a measuring cup with a spoon and tap, letting it settle then, level off with a knife. Beard does not specify salted or unsalted butter but I concluded that unsalted would be best since most pastry and bread recipes I've come across call for unsalted.

Grease a large bowl with butter and set aside.

Beard wants you to proof the yeast in 1 and 1/3 cups of lukewarm water. He doesn't say for how long so I waited 5 minutes and then to the yeast mixture I added 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of salt, 3 tablespoons of softened butter, 3 eggs, and the flour, (1 cup at a time for a total of 5 and 1/2 cups). Mix until you get a stiff dough.

Saveur wants you to proof the yeast in 2 and 1/4 cups of water, with a teaspoon of sugar for 10 minutes. Saveur calls for 4 eggs to be beaten in a separate bowl, to that, add 1 tablespoon of salt, the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of oil, add the yeast mixture- mix well, gradually adding the 9 and 1/2 cups of flour until the dough is stiff.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic for approx. 10 minutes. Put the dough into the large buttered bowl turning to coat the outside evenly and cover placing in a warm draft free spot about 2 hours or until doubled in bulk. Butter and set aside 2 large cookie sheets.

From this point on the recipes are pretty much the same, only slight differences that I don't think need to be mentioned.

After 2 hours punch down the dough (I let it rest for 5 minutes, something I learned from other recipes but neither Beard or Saveur required) then divide into 12, equal-ish pieces. ( maybe one day in my ballroom sized dream kitchen I will have a scale). Roll each portion of dough into a rope about 8 inches long and attach the ends to one another. Ok, this is where I ran into problems and had to get Tom and our friend GH to help, even with the great diagram provided in Saveur it still got pretty confusing. I'm not even going to try to explain how to make a 6 braid loaf (sorry). We did manage to eventually braid it-and it didn't look that bad. That's the better looking one in the picture. Place the loaves diagonally on the buttered cookie sheets, cover-let rise in a draft free place until doubled in bulk (about 1 hour). Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees, beat 1 egg yolk with 1 teaspoon of cold water and brush over the loaf, you can add seeds at this point (we didn't have any) place in the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes or until golden brown.

To be fair-I should have made the Saveur bread recipe again so that we could compare the 2 loaves side by side. I do remember the Saveur loaf being a little richer and HUGE, they were Gigantaur loaves. My thoughts on the Beard version: next time I'd add a bit more salt, neither loaf was sweet and from what I understand traditional Challahs aren't sweet. Both loaves had a lovely golden crust that was crunchy, the inner crumb was soft and the combination of soft and crusty was terrific.

Written by Deb on January 18, 2003 11:11 PM