How to Make An Easy-Braid Challah - How To Cook Delicious Meal

Some bread recipes have a long history baked right in, like challah. It's revered not only for its religious importance, but also for its flavor, its texture, the beautiful braids and twists. Now, Lan's here, and she's going to tell us all about her journey to craft a loaf of challah that was respectful of history but approachable enough for the home cook.

I learned how to make challah by testing a couple recipes on my own, but also by going to the experts. Made a trip to Rosenfeld's Bagels in Newton and there I met Mike Lombardo. He's the owner of the bakery and he and his crew make hundreds of loaves a day. And what I learned was you need a dough that bakes up nice and tender and plush, but it needs to be firm enough that you can work with it while it's raw.  

you have enough balance there It is. But we have a couple of tricks that we learned here in the test kitchen that we're gone apply. And it starts with these ingredients. I've got three tablespoons of bread flour here and I'm gone add half a cup of water, whisk them together. 

And then I'm gone cook this mixture in the microwave until it becomes a thick paste. By cooking this mixture, I'm gone stash that water in the flour. It'll be there to keep our bread nice and moist when it bakes up.

But the dough is gone be firm and really malleable. Okay. This technique is called tang Zhong. So, I'm gone cook this mixture until it becomes thick and pudding like, that takes 40 to 80 seconds. I'll stop every 20 to give it a quick whisk so it cooks evenly. So, nice and thick. Clings to the whisk. I'm going to transfer it to the bowl of our stand mixer. Since this is hot, I need to cool it down.

Okay.  And I'm gone do it with some of our remaining ingredients. I've got one whole egg, and this is a large egg, two large egg yolks, quarter cup of water, two tablespoons of vegetable oil. And I'm just gone whisk everything together. Now, this does two things, it cools that tang Zhong down so that it won't kill our yeast when we get it in, but it also loosens it up, which makes incorporating it into the rest of the ingredients a lot easier.

Otherwise, you might have a little dumpling inside your bread. Yeah, that would be no good.  Exactly.  So, last couple of ingredients. I've got some bread flour here. This is two and three quarters cups. One and a quarter teaspoon of instant yeast. You could also use rapid rise here.  Okay.  Just pop this onto our stand mixer.

This usually takes maybe three or four minutes. I'm mixing on low and all I'm going for here is a nicely incorporated mixture. As long as all the flour is moistened, I don't have any dry spots or wet spots. We're good. I'm just gone turn this off. We'll let this rest for 20 minutes. This rest, this autolyze will give the flour time to hydrate. 

It's been 20 minutes, time to get the last two ingredients in. I've got a quarter cup of granulated sugar here and one teaspoon of table salt. Now, I'm going to turn this on and we'll need at medium speed until the glutens fully developed. That usually takes nine minutes.  Okay.  That looks great. It's nice and elastic. It looks really smooth.

I'm just gone pull it off and we'll have a quick check. Gonne give this a quick spray because I'm gone let the dough rise in this bowl. No need to dirty anything else.  Nice.  I'm just gone give this a quick knead to bring it together so it's nice and smooth.

And you can see that you don't need any flour. It's not sticking to anything. Right in the bowl. I really want to make sure that the surface doesn't dry out. So, I'm gone give it a quick spritz and cover with plastic. It's gone rise until it's about doubled in size. It's about one and a half hours depending on how warm your kitchen is and it's just gone do its thing.  Okay.  Bridget, it has been an hour and a half.

This dough has doubled in size. It's time to braid. All right. First thing, I'm gone divide it into four equal pieces and I'm gone do that by pressing it first into an eight-inch square. And while I'm doing this, I'm keeping an eye out for air bubbles. Something like that will quadruple in size.

And you'll end up with a hole in your challah which we do not want.  No one wants a hole in their challah.  Nope. I am looking for an eight-inch square. Great. So, now we're gone divide this first in half and then in half again to get four strips.

Okay.  I am making a four-strand braid. I'm going to roll this into sixteen-inch-long ropes. And once I get it to sixteen inches, I'm gone extend it by another two, tapering the ends. I'm using this portion of my hands to just extend the ends a tiny bit until I get to 18.  Okay.  And the ends are nicely tapered, and this will get me a nicely shaped finished loaf.  

Okay.  So, I'm gone repeat that with the rest of my dough. Now, we get to the braid. All right.  We're gone actually make a plus sign with our strands and we're gone let the tips overlap by about half an inch. Now, I think of this as kind of a clock. I'm gone press this down so that that portion stays put and doesn't move around as we braid.

You're gone want to take the twelve o'clock strand down to five. This six o'clock strand goes up to twelve. Nine to four. And three to eight. And that is our first set of braids. And you end up with an octopus.  Almost. I will go ahead and neaten these so that they are perpendicular and parallel to me again. So, again, it's twelve to five, six to twelve, nine to four, and three to eight. Straighten.

And one more time, down, up, over, over. And I'm gone bring that down, tuck all of these ends together and give them a nice pinch.  Look how cute that is.  Tuck our ends underneath. And here's our challah.  Oh, my goodness.  How great is that?  That was kind of unbelievable.  It's so simple. And it makes you feel like a pro because that's a complicated looking braid.

It really is.  We'll just put this onto a sheet of parchment that is on two rimmed baking sheets. The bottom of this loaf tends to brown a little bit too fast. By stacking my baking sheets, I'm creating a tiny gap of air that acts as an insulator. It slows down the browning of the bottom just enough.

Last thing, I want to cover it while it rises. That's going to help it rise more evenly. If I didn't cover it, the exterior would dry out and then you'd get some cracking. It wouldn't be very attractive. This is gone double in size. And so you wanna make sure the plastic wrap is draped really loosely over the top so that it doesn't hold the dough in place or mush it into weird shapes.

Okay. But that's it. We're gone let this hang for about three hours. Bridget, it's been three hours and you can see this has expanded quite a lot.

It's about doubled in size.  Exactly. That is beautiful before it goes into the oven.  Yes, but it's gone be even better when it comes out.

I'm gone do a quick test to make sure that it is fully proofed and ready to go in, gone go in and gently press with my knuckle. And what I want to see is that it springs back a little bit, but not all the way.  But not all the way.  I've got one egg here. I'm gone add a pinch of salt, and just beat that together. And I really want to take my time doing this to get into all the little nooks and crannies.

The egg wash portions are really glossy and beautiful, and the un egg washed portions are a little bit matte. Yeah. That's one of the hallmarks of a good challah, is it's that beautiful, lacquered appearance. Yeah. It's just so appealing.

But you could also use this egg wash as a glue and sprinkle, say, a tablespoon of poppy seeds or sesame seeds right on top. If that's your jam. I think this looks pretty great.  You have done very well.  I'm gone bake this in a 350 degree oven on the middle rack until it is deeply brown.

That takes 35 to 40 minutes. Oh wow. Right? Gorgeous. Wow! Look at that. It is so beautiful.  It's got a beautiful deep golden-brown color. Only took maybe 35 minutes to get there. Just to be sure, I'm gone take the temperature of this bread.

I'm looking for it to be anywhere above 195 degrees. Bridget nailed it! So, I'm gone let this rest for about 20 minutes on this rack. It'll be just cool enough to handle. Then, I'll transfer it to the wire rack where it will cool the rest of the way. That takes about two hours. It's finally cooled. Let's dig in. Oh, look at that crumb inside. I mean, it is so plush.

It's pillowy and tender. Oh, it smells so good too. Just a hint of sweetness. There's beautiful development in here though. The gluten and the structure. If you had used all-purpose flour, you would've had a flat loaf.  Yeah. This will hold up to some custard, whether you're in a French toast or bread pudding, but it's not tough.

And it looks like you have a little different braid going on there. Yeah. I couldn't stop with the braids and there's actually a really simple method to create a round loaf.  You can get instructions for that on our website. Thanks Lan. I am definitely going to make this at home.  I can't wait to see yours.

So, if you want to make this beautiful loaf of challah at home, cook a little water and flour together to make a paste, use our unconventional braiding method for a taller loaf, and bake the bread on two stacked baking sheets.

So, from America's test kitchen an incredibly approachable yet velvety, tender, plush, easy braid challah. And delicious. Thank you for visiting and see you next recipes