Bread Baking Challenge #6- CHALLAH, jewish bread

 
  

My very one kind a  round breaded CHALLAH,: SOFT AND CRUNCHY IN THE SAME TIME!

A chunk of bread, a good, creamy, aged cheese and red wine.... divine!

CHALLAH, the braided bread of Judaism, is a Celebration bread of God Goodness and wealth.
The bread is separated into 12 parts that is celebration of 12 tribes of Israel.

There are many way to Brade a Challah, simple, double, (Celebration Challah) but I am going this time to try, round Challah, that looks AMAZING. The way to do it is here.

I read the recipe and it is a standard bread recipe , a little sweet bread recipe. So I decided to use my bread machine for mixing the dough and first rise.

I started mixing together, flour, salt, yest and honey, in the bread machine pan.

I beat 2 eggs and 2 yolks with vegetable oil and I added to flour mixer, to bread machine pan

I added 3/4 + 2 tbs warm water. The recipe ask for may be more, but I used this amount of water.

I set up the bread machine to dough feature and after 2h, the dough was smooth and raised.

The dough was a little too sticky, I incorporate a little more flour, and I left it to rise again, for one more hour.

After 2 rise, I divided the dough in 4 pieces and I start to make long ropes:

As the model show in the "the Jewish woman" to make a round rope I started to braid the 4 long ropes:

Brade first on the left side, braid on the right side and then put it together to form a ball. I put on a parchment paper and on a cookie sheet, to rise, about 1 hour

NOTE: utube  video how to do it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj8tuQ1RojM

Once was raised, I brushed with 2 egg whites ( the 2 yolks I used for the dough) and sprinkle with poppies seeds generously (I love white bread and poppies seeds!)

Bake 45 minutes at 350F, and the round CHALLAH bread is perfect: the wonderful aroma in the house, the shiny top and the black seeds make all the difference!