I felt like making something different. Colonial House makes excellent challah so I thought that I would give that a try. Besides, Jesus probably ate challah, if it had been invented by then and admittedly unlikely on the day after his birth. The recipe, from The Joy of Cooking (directions edited for brevity):
Combine in large bowl or stand mixer fitted with the dough paddle attachment:
1/2 cup (120g) warm water
1/2 cup (65g) bread flour
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
3 Tbl (40g) vegetable oil
3 Tbl (35g) sugar
2 1/2 tsp (1 packet) active dry yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt (no grams?)
Mix until thoroughly blended. Gradually stir in
2 1/2 cups (330g) bread flour
Mix until dough just comes together. Cover and let the dough rest for at least 15 and up to 30 minutes.
Knead dough until smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes.
Transfer dough to oiled bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled, 1 to 1.5 hours.
Knead the dough briefly and return to bowl. Refrigerate covered until it has nearly doubled in bulk, 2 to 12 hours.
Divide dough into 3 pieces. On an unfloured surface, roll into balls. Let rest, loosely covered, for 10 minutes.
Roll each ball into a 14-inch long rope, about 1.5 inches thick. Braid them.
Egg wash it and cover with plastic.
Let rise until not quite doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375. Egg wash again.
If desired, sprinkle with 1 Tbl poppy or sesame seeds.
Bake until golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes.
When I asked The Laird if he wanted poppy or sesame seeds, he asked if we had any of the Everything seasoning left. We did. Syllogism of the day: Everything Bagels are good, Challah is also Jewish, therefore Everything Challah will be good.
The syllogism may be horribly flawed, but the result is correct: Everything Challah is good.
The dough rose much faster than the expected times; it had easily doubled in size after about 2 hours in the refrigerator. It’s kind-of hard to tell how tall that loaf is in the photo, but it got amazing oven spring – and I never get oven spring. (No steam attempts in the oven.)
It was really good bread.
The only thing I’ll do differently next time is the rolling out of the strands. The directions say to taper at the ends, which makes sense from a braiding and sticking it all together perspective, but it results in a loaf that’s much taller in the center. I’m going to try same-diameter strands, instead, so the ends are taller/thicker.
By the way, the lack of a Learning 2 Bake number is not a mistake. Bread doesn’t get Learning 2 Bake entries.
Marked Up 