by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Baker: Lauren Groveman
This was an easy and fun bread to make!
Challah is normally eaten on the Sabbath and other Jewish holidays; however, this recipe is not Kosher, for it contains both milk and butter.
This recipe makes two large loaves. From what I hear it freezes well - this I don't know for I sent the second loaf home with our daughter; which she made some delicious looking French toast with hers.
This bread can be made and completed in one (full) day. There are three rising periods and I was wanting natural light for taking of the photos, and being it is late fall, it gets dark early, so I refrigerated the completed braids overnight. I brought the loaves to room temperature and allowed them to rise till they were puffy and just about doubled in size, before placing them in the oven.
The recipe calls for adding a topping of sesame, poppy, and/or caraway seeds if desired. I chose not to use any. This is a sweeter bread, and seeds of any kind just did not sound appetizing to me.
I enjoyed this best, toasted and buttered. I have yet to make the French toast.
When you reach the end of your braid, pinch the ends together and tuck under.
The braid gets an egg wash just before going into the oven. This gives it its beautiful golden color.
The beautiful & delicious looking French toast our daughter made.
The recipe can be found on page 93 of Baking with Julia or by clicking here.
To see the results of the other talented bakers of our group, click here for their links.
Your bread is absolutely gorgeous. Good tip about braiding from the middle - very few recipes tell people that oh so important shaping advice.
ReplyDeleteYour loaf looks gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful challah!
ReplyDeletelove your pictures and blog! Above you had commented "this recipe is not Kosher, for it contains both milk and butter," just wanted to take a moment to clarify that both milk and butter are absolutely kosher ingredients (bearing a kosher certification on both products) :) The confusing part may be that most often Challah is made from dairy-free ingredients solely because it is being consumed during a meal in which meat is served. The Jewish point of view is that milk and meat may not be consumed together. Hope that helps!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the clarification!
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