Challah has been on my to-bake list for a while now and I have only gotten around to making it now. I’ve always been intrigued about this type of bread because of it’s egg base. Egg makes bread have a richer texture and at first I didn’t think it would make too much of a difference but gosh was I wrong! At first I thought the loaf would turn out dense because of the way the dough felt but it actually turned out to be quite light in texture. The Challah was fluffy and in a way it felt richer in flavor than any bread I’ve tried before. I can’t quite put words to it but perhaps that means you’ll have to try it for yourself to understand what I mean. (:
Recipe
Ingredients (1 loaf):
1 cup warm water
2 eggs
1 1/2 tablespoon oil
3 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoon yeast
3/4 cup dried fruit
Bake away:
1. Place the yeast, 1 teaspoon sugar and warm water in a measuring cup and set aside to let it foam. While the yeast is foaming, combine 1 cup of flour, the remaining sugar and salt in a large bowl.
2. Beat in the egg and oil then stir everything together until combined. Fold in the dried fruits. Add the remaining 2 cups of flour until the dough no longer feels sticky and comes away from the bowl. Cover the dough with a tea towel and let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
3. When the dough is done rising, split it into 3 equal dough balls and roll them out into logs. Weave the logs together to form a braid.
4. Transfer the loaf into a loaf pan making sure to tuck the ends under the braid. If you don’t want it in a loaf form you can just put it directly onto your baking sheet.
5. Bake at 400F for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.
6. Munch!
Challah dough is typically baked as is without any additions but I thought it would be too plain for lil’ bun and brother deer that way so I added a few handfuls of dried fruit inside. Of course if you want a more traditional loaf you can always leave those out. I opted to bake mine in a loaf pan so I would have thicker slices but baking it directly on a baking sheet works just as well.