![]() It’s the best challah I’ve ever made, and light years away from what you’ll find in a store.Ĭhallah gets its gorgeous brown lacquer from an egg wash–preferably one with some yolk in it. When you pull it apart, the edges fray into delicate filaments. The next day, braid the chilled dough–I’ve never mastered the spectacular six-strand, so I just do a simple three-strand plait–and let it rest again for 2-3 hours at room temperature. The result of this slow, lazy process is a bread with rich yeasty flavor and a gorgeously pillowy texture. ![]() When you’ve folded the dough five times, transfer it to the fridge and let it rise overnight. Basically, just keep folding until the dough is smooth, elastic, and no longer sticking to your fingers. You could do one fold after 15 minutes, then another after 45. But this is not the kind of recipe that demands precision and hovering. The recipe recommends five folds, spread out over about 2 1/2 hours I do mine about every 30 minutes, working or puttering or watching TV in between. Instead, you let the dough sit quietly at room temperature, folding it over on itself every so often. Rather than kneading by hand and letting the dough rise at room temperature, this version slows things waaaaay dooooown. But homemade challah blows them all away, and this recipe is my current favorite. Where I live, you can buy decent challah from bakeries and some grocery stores. And if it lasts long enough to go stale, it makes the world’s greatest French toast. It’s made for pulling apart, the seams of the braid acting as a guide. Made from a wet dough enriched with oil, eggs, and honey, it’s golden and shiny on the outside, fluffy and slightly sweet on the inside. ![]() But even if you didn’t grow up eating challah on Friday nights and holidays, it’s easy to fall in love with this showoff of a loaf. Okay, as an American Jew, I may be slightly biased. Fact: challah is one of the greatest breads in the world.
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