My Family’s Challah

Challah was something I grew up eating and loving, as half of my family is Jewish. But it wasn’t something I grew up making, as my mother, who did most of our family cooking and teaching and is truly a wonderful cook, is a) not Jewish, and b) not a bread maker. While I was never able to meet my Jewish grandparents or many of my Jewish ancestors from their generation, as they passed away before I was born, I inherited several recipes and culinary traditions from them. To hear my father and aunts and uncles tell it, my grandmother and namesake loved cake for breakfast, something I incorporate with gusto into my life at every opportunity. At family holidays, we use their texts, tell their stories and try to honor them as much as we can, knowing my parents’ generation is the last with significant memories of them. I’m not sure if somewhere in our family history there ever was a challah recipe, but if it existed, I’ve never found it. But as my own young child grows up, I want him to stay connected to the Jewish roots I cherish, and to know the joys of cooking alongside his family. This is the recipe I developed for my own young family, and that I cook with them. In developing it, I drew on initial inspiration from recipes by Joan Nathan and Deb Perelman, with gratitude.

Recipe

Challah

Yield: 2 large loaves

Ingredients

150g granulated sugar

110g sunflower or canola oil (approx ½ cup) + 1 tbsp for coating bowl

390g water (lukewarm)

4 eggs plus 2 egg yolks

14g salt

11g instant yeast (not dry active or rapid rise)

1100g all purpose flour plus more for kneading the dough (at least 50-100g)

1 egg, beaten with 2 tsp of water (for egg wash)

Directions

Make the dough. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, water, eggs, egg yolks, and salt. Add flour and instant yeast, and mix in with a spatula until a rough dough comes together. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead, incorporating additional flour, until the dough is smooth and elastic. This will probably take multiple rounds of flour incorporation and 15-20 minutes. The dough has developed sufficient gluten when it passes the windowpane test: pull a small piece of dough off and stretch it between your thumbs and index fingers. If the dough stretches thin enough to see light through without tearing, it has been kneaded enough.

Proof the dough. Wipe any remaining dough pieces out of the bowl, then add 1 tablespoon of oil and swirl to coat. Add the dough back to the bowl, cover and proof until slightly more than doubled in size. 

Punch the dough down slightly, then proof again. Repeat for a third proof.

When the dough has completed its final proof, turn it out onto an unfloured workbench and divide it in half by weight. If you flour the surface, it will make it hard to roll and shape the dough.

Divide each half into six equal pieces by weight.

Next, roll each of the six dough pieces into a long strand approximately 15 inches long. Try to taper the strands slightly at the edges and keep the diameter the same for all strands. 

Braid the loaves. Lay all the strands vertically on the workbench, and pinch them together at the top.

Take the strand on the left and the strand on the right and lay them out horizontally, so there’s a straight horizontal line across the top and four strands vertical in the middle. 

Separate the four vertical strands so there’s a clear v-shape in the middle: two strands to the right and two to the left.

Take the horizontal strand on the right and bring it down into the middle. Then take the far left vertical strand and cross it over to make it horizontal, replacing the one you just brought down. Reset the middle.

Then take the horizontal strand on the left and bring it down into the middle, and take the far right vertical strand and bring it up to the left to make it horizontal. Reset the middle. The more you can maintain the midline of the loaf, the neater the braid will look.

Repeat this process until the entire strand is braided, then pinch the bottom end. Make sure both the top and bottom of the loaf is pinched (tuck under slightly if needed).

Repeat with the other loaf. Place each loaf on a separate parchment-lined baking sheet.

Make the egg wash by beating one whole egg with two teaspoons of water. 

Brush the loaves with the egg wash, making sure to get the egg wash into the crevices. Save the remaining egg wash.

Final proof. Let the loaves proof until slightly more than doubled in size. When they are close to done, preheat the oven to 375F. 

Bake. Before baking, egg wash both loaves again. 

If your oven can accommodate both baking sheets, you can bake both simultaneously. Otherwise, place one loaf in the fridge while the other bakes. 

Bake each loaf for 25 minutes or until the internal temperature is 185F.

Remove the loaf from the oven, and transfer immediately to a cooling rack. Bake the other loaf if needed.

Wait to slice the loaves until they are completely cool. You can store the bread in the freezer, sliced or unsliced, for up to 1 month.

Notes:

Proofing: you can proof the dough at slightly warmer than room temp, or complete any or all of the proofs in the refrigerator, but they will take substantially longer in the refrigerator.
Braiding: this video is also helpful for learning the braiding technique.