- Today we're making challah.

I chose this recipe because not only is it a delicious bread, but it actually is the first bread that I ever made myself.

And honestly, truth be told, I ate the entire loaf.

I had never tasted something so delicious as homemade challah.

What we are going to learn today is a little bit about yeast, different types of flour, and we are also going to learn how to make these wonderful, iconic challah braids.

So if you're up for the challenge, grab a cup of coffee and let's get started.

(cheerful guitar music) (lively guitar music) The first thing we're gonna do is get our yeast activated, and I'm measuring everything today on my little kitchen scale.

So we're gonna need 12 ounces of warm water.

(lively music) There we go.

And the thing about yeast is you want the water or the liquid to be warm, but you don't want it too warm.

So I just wanna check and make sure I'm not gonna kill my yeast.

And we're okay, we're at about 110 or so degrees there.

So to that, I am now going to add my yeast and I need one tablespoon or 12 grams of active dry yeast.

And just because our yeast likes to have a little something sweet with it, I'm just gonna add about a tablespoon of sugar.

And now just kinda mix that all together.

So now let's let yeast do its thing.

It's gonna take about five minutes or so for it to get nice and bubbly.

And while that is happening, let's talk a few minutes about yeast.

What I have here is active dry yeast, which is what we're using in today's challah recipe.

And active dry yeast, it's grinded to a pretty fine grind, but what the benefit is of this yeast is it gives you a longer-acting time period in your dough.

It consistently releases, but you do need to proof your active dry yeast.

Another type of yeast that you've probably seen in the grocery store or maybe you've used is instant yeast.

It might be hard to tell the difference just from looking, but this instant yeast is more finely grinded.

And the benefit of this yeast is you don't have to proof it, and in your dough itself, it gives you more of a quick rise or quick-acting sort of process with the yeast.

And then there's a third yeast out there that is a fresh yeast, it's also called cake yeast.

It is really what the bakeries use and it gives your baked goods a really yeasty, almost a little sweet flavor.

But heads up, if you do wanna use it, number one, you have to do twice as much of your cake yeast than a recipe calls for.

And also think ahead because you're gonna probably have to get it online.

Look at our yeast!

This is exactly what you want to see with your yeast being alive.

It's alive!

So to our yeast, we are going to add 120 grams of vegetable oil.

Let's get that whisked in.

(lively music) And then we're adding four eggs, one at a time.

(lively music) All right, next up, we've gotta put our sugar in.

And we're using two different types of sugars, we're going to use granulated sugar and we're also gonna add some honey for a little complexity of flavors.

So again, I'm gonna weigh my sugar.

I need 67 grams, which is about a third of a cup of sugar.

I'm also going to add the honey, which I need 63 grams of honey, which is about three tablespoons.

We are going to put our liquid goodness onto our stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.

And what we have here, I already measured out our flour.

I also added to the flour, though, my one tablespoon of salt.

And so I'm just gonna whisk that all together.

And the reason why I added the salt to my flour versus just adding it in to our liquid mixture is because salt does not get along with yeast.

And so I don't wanna do anything, I don't wanna put them together and have them get in a little bit of argument and make our yeast not work as well as it should.

We are just going to gradually add our flour into our liquid mixture.

I'm gonna have the dough hook going on slow to get it in, but then after we get it all in, we're just gonna let the machine do its thing and knead the dough for about 10 minutes.

Okay, we are gonna let this go so it gets all smooth and lovely, but I just had to add one thing to let you guys know.

While this is kneading, once the dough gets all together right into a nice ball and you'll hear the dough hit up against the sides of the bowl, do not walk too far away from your mixer, because truth be told, I've lost a mixer in the process because I turned my back and it jumped right off of the counter.

So fair morning to everyone that stay aware of where your mixer is on your counter.

We're gonna let it go until everything gets nice and smooth.

Okay, we are looking pretty good.

You can see how the dough is really nice and smooth.

And there is one way that you can always check to see if you've gotten it to the point where it's kneaded enough, and that's called the window pane test.

So basically you grab a piece of dough and put it up to the light, and if you can stretch the dough and yet still see like a little window of light there without it coming totally apart and breaking, then you are golden.

I'm just gonna transfer our dough into our greased bowl.

It's a sticky dough, which is what you want, but it sure makes a challenge to get it out of the bowl.

Then just take the dough and get some of that oil on all sides.

Cover with plastic wrap and set this in a warm spot in your kitchen, which if you don't have a warm spot in your kitchen and you wanna just stick it in the oven with the oven light on, that works too.

But we're gonna let this go until it doubles in size, which probably will be about an hour and a half to two hours.

So all right, off to rest.

(lively music) So while our bread is rising, let's talk a few minutes about bread and the different types of bread.

We have on the platter here four different types.

This bread is brioche and brioche is made milk and eggs and a lot of butter.

In fact, it's a little bit different from challah, but similar kind of in flavor somewhat, except challah is made with oil and brioche is made with butter.

But overall, brioche is higher in fat and protein because of all of those lovely ingredients.

And then next up, here's our sourdough.

You all know all about sourdough.

I'm sure you've tasted it, had it in various places, maybe make it yourself.

Sourdough has that naturally kind of sour flavor.

And the difference with sourdough is it's made with a sourdough starter versus just using either our active or our instant yeast.

Next up here we have whole wheat bread and whole wheat bread is made with wheat kernels and that's what gives you that little extra oomph of nutrition and fiber and texture.

And then last but not least, we have rye bread over here.

Rye bread is made with rye grain and it has a really great texture, but also high in fiber and makes it just really, really tasty.

So there you have it, four different types of bread all made with different types of flour and different varying ingredients which give you not only a wonderful variety, but also different health benefits.

So next time you're at the store or next time you wanna make that sandwich, choose wisely.

So here is our bread dough that has been rising for about two hours.

All we're gonna do now is punch it down and let it have a second rise.

So here we go, we're just punching it down.

And we do this so that it gives our challah an extra oomph of flavor, texture, and just overall quality of our bread.

Cover it back up and then we're gonna set it aside.

And this rise will be for about a half an hour.

(lively guitar music) So here is our second rise.

Let's get our dough out and we are going to measure out our dough and roll some strands.

So remember, this recipe makes two loaves.

So you could actually make a really huge challah, but it's probably better that we separate it into two.

So here this one that we're not gonna be working with right now, we're gonna put it back in the bowl and cover it up just so that it doesn't dry out.

Now with this half, we're gonna do the four-strand challah loaf.

Each strand needs to weigh 200 and approximately 30 grams.

So all right.

So let's half our loaf again and then half it again.

See where we are.

209.

And then I'm just gonna take enough dough to get to about 230.

If I get kind of close, I'm just gonna leave it.

So here I've got 228.

So now this one's 227.

227.

All right, so there we have our four sections.

I'm gonna put two of these guys just, again, under some plastic wrap so they don't dry out.

Now, here we have our ball and we're gonna just start rolling.

I have a little flour here just in case it gets too sticky, but honestly, this dough is really easy to work with and you shouldn't really need any flour at all, but it's always there just in case.

And then we just start to roll.

So we want these to be about 15 inches in length.

And what I learned over time is don't be gentle, right?

I was like, for a while they would be like, oh, I just wanna gently roll this out, and it would get nowhere.

So really put some effort into it and start to roll, starting your hands in the center and then going outward.

You wanna try and keep it as even as possible.

And these little tails here have to go in.

But if you notice, what's happening is I'm rolling, but my dough is like coming back on itself, and that's because the yeast is still thinking, ah, ah, I've gotta have control over this bread dough.

And what we're gonna do is we're gonna roll it a little bit more, but then we're gonna let it rest.

So if we let the dough rest a few minutes, then it gives that yeast enough time to figure out, oh, okay, I'm all right, I'm kind of relaxed now and we'll let you do your thing.

Look at the difference.

So the dough that had rested just a little bit once we separated it all out, look at how that has rolled out longer than these other two squatty guys.

But we'll fix 'em, no worries.

There we go.

So let's cover these up.

I'm gonna go ahead and roll out some additional strands for our second loaf.

When we come back, then I will show you how to make a four-strand braided loaf.

(lively guitar music) So we have all four of our strands ready for the four-strand challah loaf shape.

And you know what?

Three strands, if that's what you're comfortable with, then by all means go ahead and do it, but I just think this is kind of a traditional look for the challah and it's really not that hard.

Let me show you how.

So we're gonna take our strands and pinch them together up at the top here.

And don't worry, we'll kinda make it a little prettier when we get the loaf all together.

So starting with whichever side you're most comfortable with.

So for me, this is my left side here.

You're gonna take the outer strand, you're going to lift up this middle or third strand here, and you're gonna take that outer one and you're gonna put it off to the side like that.

You've got three in front of you and you've got this guy out to the side.

So now we're gonna take this outer strand again and we're lifting up the third over and putting him all the way over.

Kind of readjust, 'cause I know for me that helps me to keep track.

So again, you have this one guy over here, you have your three.

Taking the outer strand, lifting up the third.

We're bringing it up and over and over that outer strand.

(lively guitar music) And we're pretty much to the end, and so we are going to just kind of bring all of our ends together here, fold it under so that you get a nice kind of edge on the end.

And the same here where we kind of just group them and clump them together, pinch them together.

We're just gonna put it under and kind of give it a nice little push.

And isn't that pretty, you guys?

Here's your four-strand challah braid.

And we're just gonna put that over onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.

We're gonna cover this up for now just so that we can go and do our second loaf, but then after we do our second loaf, we give it an egg wash and it's gotta do a little more rising time.

All right, everyone, are you ready for a challenge?

We're gonna do an eight-strand round challah.

And to me, it seems easy to me only in that it reminds me of, I don't know if you guys, I know when I was a kid, I used to make little braided pot holders, right, for camp projects or whatever.

That's what this reminds me of, at least the initial set.

So we've got our eight strands and we're gonna group them in twos.

They're all about 15 inches or so in length.

We've got two strands here, two strands there, and we're gonna take our other two strands and we're gonna start our braid by lifting up our two and placing those two underneath.

And then we're gonna take our other two and do the opposite.

So now we want under this first set and over the second set.

So we're gonna go in a circular fashion and remember that we're always doing like the opposite.

So here we're over, we're gonna go next to us and go under.

Here's we're over.

We're gonna go to the next one and go under.

This is over.

We're going under.

Over.

We're going under.

And then we repeat the process again.

This is under, so now we're gonna go over.

This is under, and now we're gonna go over.

This one's under, we're gonna go over.

(lively guitar music) Now we're just going to take those little bits and tuck 'em underneath.

And pull to kind of make it into a little bit more of a circle if you have to.

But there you have it.

So let's transfer this guy to our parchment-lined baking sheet.

And we're gonna pull in, remember, our previous four-strand loaf.

We're just gonna give it a little egg wash before we set it aside to do its last rise.

And the egg wash is really important because what this does is it gives your loaf just that beautiful, brown, shiny exterior when it gets baked.

And try and get into the little nooks and crannies a bit, but don't worry if you miss a spot or two because we're going to do one more egg wash before it goes actually into the oven.

So there we have it, there's our first egg wash.

Let's cover these up, set 'em aside.

And after they do a little bit of rising and resting, we're gonna give it the second egg wash and get 'em in the oven.

(lively guitar music) While our bread's baking, we're gonna make some compounded butter.

You can make all sorts of different flavors with your compound butter, but today we are making this orange blossom floral butter, and it's really easy to do.

It'll taste delicious with our challah, so let me show you how.

All right, so to a stick of butter here that is softened because I didn't feel like dragging out the mixer for this, I am going to add about a teaspoon and a half of honey.

You can tell since I'm not measuring, we're just kind of eyeballing it.

It's not critical for our proportions.

And I am also adding orange blossom water, it gives a nice little flavor to our butter.

So I'm just gonna add about a half, maybe even a quarter or half a teaspoon, half a teaspoon at the most.

You don't wanna overdo this.

And then I have here some finely chopped-up orange rind that has been sugared, it gives a nice little sweetness.

And then I'm also going to, just for a little bit of freshness... Now, I know we're calling it orange blossom butter.

I don't have any oranges, but I do have some tangerines, so I'm just going to use a little bit of the tangerine skin and just grate it into our butter here.

It'll give it a nice little citrusy flavor and a little freshness.

And one last thing here is I have some sea salt and just some dried flowers.

There's some like cornflower, there's a little bit of dried rose in here, a little bit of dried citrus.

You can get it online, you can add it, you can leave it out, whatever your heart desires, but I just think it looks pretty and it adds a little texture.

So, all right.

And then that's it.

We're just gonna get this all incorporated, and once it gets nicely mixed in, we're gonna take this and wrap it up in some Saran Wrap into a cylinder as I have here, and just put it in the refrigerator and let it sit overnight.

The flavors will get nicely incorporated and kind of meld together.

And then when you're ready to use it, just pop it out of your plastic wrap and slice yourself some butter pieces and you have a delicious compound butter.

Here they are.

Oh my gosh, they smell wonderful.

They look fabulous.

Let me show you a few ways to possibly plate it and serve it, totally up to you, but here are just some little fancier ways that you might wanna present it to your family or friends.

So we're gonna take our round challah and just place it here on this little round wooden board that I have.

And because I am serving it, if you recall, with the little orange blossom butter, I think it might be kind of fun if we take a few of those dried little floral pieces and just kinda spread them just a little bit along the surface there.

Doesn't that kind of up it a little bit?

I think that's kind of cute.

And then for our loaf, I think it would look perfect just kind of on the pedestal there itself, just at a little angle.

This recipe makes two loaves.

And so with one loaf, certainly you can make your beautiful challah, but with the other loaf, you've got some options.

And one of the things that I did, I made a chocolate babka with the second loaf.

It really is as easy as making some chocolate filling and then spreading it up.

It really isn't that much different from making a cinnamon bread.

Isn't that pretty?

And I will put the filling recipe, we'll get that online for you so you'll have it.

But you could certainly serve that then on a little pedestal.

I cut off a couple slices that you could have just kind of to the side.

And then just for the effect of knowing that this is chocolate, right, you could just throw a few little chocolate chips along the pedestal.

And there you have it.

Challah three ways.

I really had a lot of fun today showing you how to braid challah with eight strands and with four strands.

And I hope you had a lot of fun watching.

I know I can't wait to just dig in.

So thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you soon on another episode of Stephanie's Recipe Journal.

(lively guitar music)