Course: Yeast Bread
Challah
There is WAY too much flour listed in this recipe. Start with 3 ¼ cups.
I brush with the egg yolk and add the poppy seeds after shaping and before the last rise, because the loaf might fall after.
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Source
The Art of Jewish Cooking, Grossinger, Jenny, 1958
Steps
- To shape, cut the dough into five equal parts. The fifth can be a bit smaller, the other four have to be roughly the same.
- Roll the four same-size pieces into snakes about 12-13" long. Try to make them as similar as you can.
- Grease the baking sheet generously, place the four snakes parallel and pinch the far end together.
- Braiding four is not intuitive. Pick the leftmost one and pass it under then over and lay it down beside the rightmost one. Repeat until the whole length of snakes are done. If you make a mistake you MAY be able to un-braid.
- Pinch the near end of the braid together and tuck both ends underneath.
- Cut the 5th piece of dough into three, make snakes, braid them and lay them on top.
Shaping
