Challah

Starter

• 54 g all-purpose flour
• 26 mL water
• ⅛ tsp yeast

Dough

• All of the starter
• 424 g all-purpose flour
• 118 mL water (30% just water, 55% with eggs, 67% with eggs and honey)
• 2½ tsp instant yeast
• 1½ tsp salt
• 120 g egg (about 3 eggs, use any leftover for the glaze)
• 60 g honey (about 3 tbsp)
• 60 g butter (≈4.23 tbsp, melted)

Glaze

• Remaining egg (33 g)
• ¾ tsp water

Recipe

1. Mix the starter in a small bowl and allow it to rise overnight.

2. Measure the water into the bowl of a stand mixer, then tear the starter into pieces and place them in the water. Mix gently, but not enough to really incorporate the water into the starter.

3. Separately mix the wet and the dry ingredients, then work them all together until well-incorporated.

4. Knead until the dough passes the window-pane test (about 5 min).

5. Put the dough in a greased bowl, then cover and let rise for 2h.

6. Punch down the dough, fold it into thirds, then let rise for 1h.

7. Gently flatten the dough. At this point, the dough can optionally be refrigerated overnight to get improved flavor development.

8. Divide the dough into 3-6 pieces depending on how you plan to braid it. For each piece:

   • Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough until it's about ¼" thick. The shape doesn't really matter. Dust some flour on your work surface, but use as little as possible. Too much will make it very difficult to form cohesive strands.

   • Use your hands to tightly roll the dough into a log. You don't want to get any air pockets into the dough.

   • Roll the log back and forth with your hands to create a strand that's about 1" thick in the middle. While rolling, angle your hands and gently apply pressure to create tapers on both ends.

   • Further taper the strand by picking up each end and rolling it between your hands for a bit.

9. Tightly braid the strands into a loaf, then cover with plastic wrap and proof for 1h.

10. Put a baking stone on the bottom rack in the oven, then preheat to 325°F for at least 45 min.

11. Brush the loaf with egg glaze, then place on the baking stone and bake for 20 min.

12. Remove the loaf from the oven and add more glaze to the parts that became exposed as it rose. Flip the loaf around, put it back in the oven, and bake it for another 15-20 minutes. Put a foil tent over the loaf after 30 min of baking, or if the crust is becoming too brown. It's done when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean, or when the center reaches 180°F.

13. Cool on a wire rack.

Notes

• It was pretty hard to transfer the loaf onto the baking stone in the oven from the baking sheet I was proofing it on. Next time I might want to consider baking it directly on the baking sheet.

• I was a little disappointed with how the braid seems to collapse/pull apart in the center. I looked online for some advice on how to deal with this, and found these suggestions:

  This is a very common problem with challah (and any braided bread). As mentioned in comments, it seems likely that the splitting happened in the oven because the bread continued to expand too much after the crust had set. But the braids also complicate the reasons why this may have happened.

  Here are a few common things to try:

  1. Be sure not to braid too tightly. The gluten can only stretch so far, and if the braid is too tight, the yeast expansion in the oven will have nowhere to go. When you braid, start with the strands spread apart a bit, and don't stretch and pull excessively to make the braid tight.

  2. Be sure not to braid too loosely. This seems less likely to be your particular problem from the photo, but sometimes if the strands have big gaps between them during the rise, they won't properly join together. When they are put in the oven, they can pull back apart. (Generally, this only is a major issue when there's some other problem on this list.)

  3. Be sure dough is fully proofed. If a large loaf has not risen enough before you place in the oven, the interior will continue to expand for quite a few minutes. If the crust sets before that expansion has slowed, it can result in bursting. Also, don't depend on time to determine when rising is complete. Changes in humidity and kitchen temperature can easily double the necessary rising time on occasion.

  4. Try increasing the humidity in the rising conditions. When a braided loaf's surface dries out, it can develop a dry "skin" before going in the oven. Sometimes this can prevent proper expansion in the oven, and the strands don't bake together properly, leading to bursting. If your kitchen is very dry, you might try to find an enclosed space (or even make one out of a random box), and place the dough in it along with a cup of very hot water. Replace the water with fresh hot water periodically if the rise takes a long time; this will keep the surface moist.

  5. Use egg wash right after braiding. This is related to point (4). Egg wash can help maintain a wetter, softer crust and avoid the "skin" formation I mentioned. You might try applying it both immediately after braiding and then again before putting in the oven (to avoid light gaps of color that are too big). That said, being overly aggressive with egg wash can sometimes lead to the strands becoming too melded together, which leads to a final product with less distinction.

  6. Be sure oven is not too hot. Many ovens have inaccurate thermometers. With a very hot oven, you can often increase oven spring. But it can also cause the crust to set more quickly. For large braided loaves, the interior rise can continue too long after the crust has set. This may also be a particular problem if you tend to refrigerate braided bread to rest it before baking, which means the interior lags even further behind the crust in the oven.

  7. Don't be aggressive in stretching strands. I've read about this being a problem for some folks, though I'm not quite sure whether this is a real problem that could lead to bursting. Basically, if your strands are springing back excessively while rolling, you might have a tendency to try to "force" them and thus tear the gluten. Some people say this can lead to weird things happening on the edges of the strands and thus separation in the oven. In any case, tearing the gluten isn't a good thing in general, so if you are sensing a lot of resistance, let the strand rest for a couple minutes and let the gluten relax before stretching it further.

  8. If all else fails, try a different braiding pattern. In particular, there are some braids (like one six-strand variant) that are quite flat and have more "joints" between strands on the top. When you only have a couple places for the bread to break apart in the oven, it puts a lot of stress on them. With more strands and a flatter braid, the stress can be relieved in more places, making it less likely to get big separation in any particular place.

  https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/51759/challah-rolls-open-up-when-baking-in-the-oven

References

• http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2006/03/my_new_favorite_traditional_ch.html#.WTLRMmdLuh8

  • This is the basic recipe I'm following. Judging by the photos of slices included with most of the recipes I looked at, this one had the crumb most like what I image challah should be. Other things I like about this recipe:

  • It calls for all-purpose flour. I imagine challah being light, so I was kinda suspicious of recipes that called for bread flour. I also don't always have bread flour lying around.

  • It calls for honey rather than sugar. Most challah recipes seem to call for sugar, but I want to use honey and the conversion may not be trivial becaue I'd have to account for the liquid content of honey.

  • It doesn't use more egg white than egg yolk. Some recipes use as many as 8-10 egg yolks and no egg whites. Since I don't have a way to use left-over egg whites, that was too wasteful for me.

  • This recipe does include an "old stiff starter". A stiff starter is ⅔ flour, ⅓ water.

• http://toriavey.com/how-to/2010/08/challah-bread-part-1-the-blessing-and-the-dough/

  • After the loaf has baked for 20 min, take it out and add more glaze to the parts of that became exposed as the braid expanded. Then rotate the tray and put the loaf back in the oven for the remaining time.

• http://www.finecooking.com/article/crafting-a-loaf-of-challah

  • Use a rolling pin while making the strands. This should help create a fine crumb by breaking any large bubbles into smaller ones.

• http://toriavey.com/how-to/2010/08/challah-bread-part-2-how-to-braid-challah/

  • This page has a really good description of how to make the strands, and it agrees with the rolling pin advice from above.