Challah ~ Six Strand Braided Bread

I have been seeing Challah bread in the blogosphere quite often these days, with the holidays on. That reminded me, I had still not given it another try after my failure with the six strand braiding. After multiple failures, braiding it with 6 strands, I unbraided it and finally went ahead with the normal 3 braids and baked it. I don't know what went wrong, whether it was me playing around with the dough for some time or the cold weather or may be just that particular day(sometimes I feel things turn out bad just because of a particular day as one is not in a mood to cook but still went ahead trying something new) - the bread was not airy and uncooked in the center but hard like rock on its outside. In short, it was a disaster.

I never gave it a try again. But these days when I saw Challah bread frequently in my blog feed, I pushed myself to make it again and I am happy I did. It smelled so good, tasted good, either with or even without butter/jam and it made up for a yummy french toast for the next day breakfast.

After I was done half way braiding, I grinned ear to ear and got so excited that I messed up towards the end(you can see it in the picture). But I consoled myself saying "Look at the best part (the first half of the bread) looks good." and went ahead baking it as it is, because I feared that if I unbraid and try it again, who knows if I get it right again. Why am I so obsessed about the 6 braids ? Lets just say I just wanted to learn it. I don't have enough hair to try it out there and hence the bread got to be the victim :). I would be making it often, is what I have decided but with 3 or 6 braids is still undecided :). Here is the recipe for the Challah. 

Ingredients

1. 1 tbsp of dry active yeast
2. 1 tbsp of sugar
3. 3/4 cup of warm water(not very hot)
4. 1/4 cup of olive oil
5. 2 eggs
6. 1/4 cup of sugar
7. 1 tbsp of salt
8. 4 cups of flour
9. 1 egg for egg wash

Method

• In a large bowl, add the yeast, 1 tbsp of sugar(Ingredient 2) and warm water and mix it and leave it for about 10 minutes for the yeast to rise.
• Then add olive oil, eggs, sugar and salt. Mix it well.
• Then gradually add the flour. Mix it together.
• When the dough starts to hold together , its time for kneading. So, remove the dough on to a floured kitchen countertop and knead it well until its smooth and elastic. 
• Then remove the dough on to the bowl and cover it and leave it to rise for about an hour or two as required. When it rises, punch down the dough and let it rise again and then again punch the dough and let it rise again. In total the rising of the dough happens thrice.
• Now form a log of the dough and cut it into n(the number of strands like 3 or 6) number of equal portions  that you are gonna braid with. Now take each portion of dough and roll it into strands of equal length and thickness. 
• Align all the strands parallel to each other and pinch in just one end of all strands together. Braid it towards its other end and tuck it altogether.
• Beat the egg for the egg wash and brush it all on top of the dough. let it rise for another hour.
• Preheat the oven to 375 F. 
• After the dough has risen, give it another coating of the egg wash and pop it into the oven.
• Bake it for 30-40 minutes until they are golden brown on top and cooked on its inside. 
• Remove it from the oven and let it cool. 
• Serve it with omelets, make French Toast out of it, spread some butter and have it...the choice is yours. Either ways it is gonna taste great.

Tips

1. Do not use hot water for the yeast to rise. The water should be warm enough to let the yeast rise in it.
2. Braid the dough gently. Trying to braid it very tight might lead the bread to remain uncooked in the center. 
3. While you egg wash it, make sure you cover all the bends and curves on the bread evenly, to give a nice finish to the bread.
4. There are many videos on youtube that you could look for braiding of breads. If you would like to try braiding it with 6 strands, this link could be helpful.