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| The crumb on the finished challah |
Following my success with the casatiello in my previous post, I was somewhat trepidatious about trying challah. I've never done a braided loaf before, and I hadn't so much as braided hair since my sister was little. Nevertheless, this bake came out a smashing success! I'm thrilled with the taste of this bread, and I'm happy with its look, even if it's not absolutely perfect. I definitely want to try a braided loaf again. I've even been thinking about trying a more complicated structure than a simple three-stand braid. That's not to say that everything went perfectly, as I'll explain, but the process went smoothly enough that I was really pleased with how it came out.
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| The mixed and kneaded dough, awaiting its first proof |
Like the casatiello and the brioche before it, challah is an enriched dough. However, unlike those prior assays, challah is enriched with egg yolks rather than butter. This lends the challah dough a beautiful, rich, yellow-orange color. You can see the deep color of the final mix in the picture at right. The egg yolks also give the finished bread a more complex flavor than the brioche. The trade-off for that deeper flavor is that the challah isn't quite as tender or flakey as brioche, but in my opinion, it's well worth the swap. The inclusion of eggs rather than butter also makes the dough significantly easier to work with. With the brioche, the butter had to be kneaded methodically into the dough a little bit at a time. For the challah, the egg yolks simply go into the dough along with the other liquid ingredients. The kneading process is therefore much faster and less messy.
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| The proofed dough prior to shaping |
The first and second proves on the challah were unremarkable. Unlike the dense, buttery dough of a brioche, the challah dough did not need an especially long time to rise fully. That means that challah doesn't need a long, overnight fermentation like some of the breads I've previously attempted. In fact, the entire process took less than 8 hours. In my kitchen—slightly warm at the moment due to the hot-water heating system installed in my apartment building—the challah only needed about 40 minutes complete each of the first and second proves. In fact, that was not noticeably longer than a standard white loaf would have needed. It was only the shaping stage that deviated from the bread-baking norm.
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| Completed braid prior to second proof |
Challah bread is traditionally formed into a braided loaf. This was my first time trying any sort of braided dough, so I opted for a very simple three-strand braid. While the actual braiding went without difficulty, I didn't quite manage to get the initial shaping of the strands right. A properly shaped challah should be fatter in the middle than at the ends, so
The Bread Baker's Apprentice recommends making the individual strands fatter in the middle and thinner at the ends. I didn't manage to get that shaping correct, and instead I ended up with strands that were fatter on the ends than in the middle. The result of that error led to a braid that looks neat enough, but it lacks the classic roundness you see in a really perfect challah, as you can see in the picture at right.
I imagine that this is a circumstance where practice will make perfect. I definitely plan to try a braided loaf again, perhaps even with a more complicated braid. I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll manage a better shape next time.
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The finished loaf. Note the glossy sheen caused by the egg wash.
Even without a perfectly rounded middle, the finished loaf came out looking fairly nice. The oven spring on this bread took me by surprise. It plumped up noticeably compared to how it looked prior to going into the oven. The recipe called for an egg wash after the second rise and immediately before baking. This is also my first time trying an egg wash, and the glossy sheen it produced on the bread surprised me as well. I'm thoroughly pleased with the taste on this bread, and I like the way it looks, even if it's not a perfect example of the style.
The next stop on my bread odyssey is ciabatta. I've actually tried ciabatta before, and I can get decent by not great results. The thing I struggle with most is getting the characteristic shape correct, and that's one thing I'll be focusing on next time. The Bread Baker's Apprentice actually has a couple of different variants on ciabatta. I'm going to attempt the regular version first and then a recipe that includes some tasty fillings. Wish me luck!
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