Walking back into my apartment 3 days after baking, I flashed an image of a perfume ad: “Overwhelm Me,” a new scent from the House of Challah.
After a few years of abstaining, I decided to make challah again, and it was everything I wanted it to be— it pulled apart nicely, had a nice soft interior and the dough was pleasantly sweet, not to mention the intoxicating aroma.
Bread baking is a daunting challenge to someone who does it as infrequently as I do. I originally made a six-braided challah, a round loaf, and a mini loaf. All three preparations lost their braid shape on the second rising and I wasn’t too pleased about that. What was happening? Had I used too much yeast?
When I baked the round loaf, traditional for the new year as it symbolizes a complete annual cycle, it was heavenly delicious, despite its aesthetic shortcomings. Although I wanted to make the next two loaves with raisins, not having them on hand I resorted to a packet of TJ’s Bing cherries, which worked out perfectly. These Bing cherries were very bodda bing. I think next time I’ll stick to raisins as these big guys kept wanting to peek through the dough during braiding.
I also decided to try and make the two remaining loaves look the way challah is supposed to. The next day, I reshaped them. This time instead of letting them proof again for thirty minutes, I only left them out for ten minutes before placing them in the oven. Because the loaves were smaller, the cooking time needed to be reduced. This time they looked beautiful but I think they were a tad dry. I suspect that I let them bake too long at thirty minutes; try 20–25 minutes if you have four smaller loaves. All is not lost, of course; days old challah wants to be French toast.
I almost didn’t post about this challah recipe, as I really want to bring you the best versions of recipes and this gave me all sorts of difficulties. Let’s just say I have a great deal to learn about bread making!
rosh hashana raisin challah
yields 2 large loaves
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp of sugar
1 oz. of active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (at 110°)
3 tsps kosher salt
4 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup of grapeseed (or other neutral) oil
1 3/4 cup warm water
6-7 cups of all purpose flour
2 egg yolks plus 1 tsp of water for the egg wash
1 cups of raisins (depending on the number of loaves you’re making)
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in 1/2 cup of warm water until frothy, about 5-8 minutes. Add in the salt, eggs, oil, water, and 3 cups of the flour. If not using a machine, stir with a wooden spoon until this all gets incoporated. Now add 1/2 cup of flour at a time, stirring after each addition. The dough should start coming together and pulling away from the bowl. Add enough (I used 6 1/2 cups total) to keep the dough moist without it being too dry or sticky.
On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for 10 minutes. If you poke your finger and it stays indented, you’ve kneaded the dough for long enough. If the hole springs back, keep kneading. Put the dough into a large greased bowl (you can use butter or oil) and cover with saran wrap. Let it rise until it has doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours, though the length of time will ultimately depend on the temperature in your kitchen.
Once the dough has risen to twice its size, on a lightly floured surface punch it down to degas it. At this point, you can divide the challah into any number of pieces to make the braids. If you’re going to incorporate raisins or other dried fruit into the challah, soak the dried fruit in warm water and drain them. This will help ensure that the raisins stay moist in the dough and ensure they don’t pull out extra moisture from the bread which it needs to bake properly. Roll out each braided section into a long flat piece, putting the dried fruit along the braid. Roll up the dough onto itelf, twisting it, so that the fruit is hidden and incorporated into the dough. Once you have the number of pieces you want, 3 or 4, I suggest braiding the challah from the center out, as it will create a more uniform look. As you don’t want to keep lifting and moving the dough around, I suggest braiding the challah in the greased pan you’ll be baking it in.
Let the challah rise once more in the pan, (1/2 hour) covering it with wet paper towels or a linen towel (don’t use saran wrap at this stage as the saran will cling to the dough and prevent it from rising properly).
Brush the challah with the beaten yolk. I also like to take my loaf out midway and quickly brush it again to make the loaf a bit more golden.
Preheat the oven to 350° and place the loaf(s) to bake for 30-40 minutes. If you’re making 4 smaller loaves, you’ll want to reduce the cooking time by 10–15 minutes.
