How to Make Challah

Hi, I'm going to show you how to make the most delicious sweet eggy challah

Start by mixing all of your ingredients. That's the bread flour, sugar, honey, oil, egg yolks, and the yeast

To that you add warm water. If you're using active dry yeast, you'll need to activate that first with the warm water and a little bit of the sugar

Then just knead all the ingredients for approximately three to five minutes

You want to bring all the ingredients together, let it knead really well so that it forms a nice dough

You can see here that as the dough kneads, it will continue to grab flour from the sides and the bottom of the bowl

Once the dough is cleaning the sides and bottom of the bowl as it kneads, just continue to let it knead so that the dough forms a nice soft form

Reduce the speed of the mixer and slowly add in the salt to incorporate it fully into the dough

When working with yeast, it is generally a good idea to add the salt in after the yeast has been fully incorporated into the dough

because salt can sometimes inhibit the yeast formation when it directly touches the yeast

Let the dough continue to knead for another 3-5 minutes. It may be necessary to scrape down the sides of the bowl

If your dough is not cleaning the bowl and it really sticking to the bottoms and sides of it you may need to add just a little bit more flour I would add only half a tablespoon and knead that in and see if that does the trick

You know the dough is done kneading if it passes the windowpane test

The windowpane test is taking a small piece of dough like this and stretching it thinly so that it is translucent

If you can get it to this point without it ripping, it passes the windowpane test and you are done kneading

Sometimes I like to let it go just a little bit more just to make sure the gluten is fully developed

Once you stop the mixer, gather the dough and shape it into a ball

Cover it with plastic wrap and allow it to rise for approximately three hours

This dough takes a long time to rise because it has so much richness from the yolks and the honey

After three hours, it should have more than doubled in size. If you wet your finger and slightly indent the dough, the dough should come back to shape within approximately 10 seconds

That's how you know the dough has fully risen. Then push the dough down and fold it over on itself, just basically to combine the dough and allow the temperature to get more even throughout the dough

I like to give it several kneads to do this. Then divide the dough out into whatever portions you're doing

If you making two challahs I first divide them in half and then I divide each half into the number of strands that I going to need whether I doing a three and braid or a four and braid To shape the strands it wise to first divide the dough and shape them into balls

Then take each ball and flatten it out into an oval and roll it over onto itself

This starts the shaping of the strand. Pinch the edges together and use your palm against the countertop to roll out the strands

The strands might start to push back because we've really activated the gluten by doing this, and that's totally okay

Just put it to the side and go to the next one. Let this rest and then come back to it later

I like to have tapered ends in my strands

so that the middle part of the strand is fatter so I push down more on the ends

to flatten the ends of the strands out If the strands are really resisting when you try to roll them out, just allow it to sit

for 5 to 10 minutes music If the dough feels sticky just rub a little bit of flour on the strands

This will help maintain their shape once they're braided. Here I'm doing a four-strand braid

Once it's fully shaped, cover it and let it rise for approximately an hour and a half

It should get nice and puffy. apply an egg wash. I like to just use an egg yolk for a darker look on the challah

But if you like a lighter look, you can certainly use a whole egg or even add a

teaspoon of water to a whole egg or add a teaspoon of water just to the yolk

When applying the egg wash, make sure your challah does not get what we call a baker's tan

Be sure to get just underneath the very edge of the challah so that the entire top will

be browned. Once it's baked, allow it to cool completely before diving into it