How to Make The Best Braided Bread: Challah

so imagine you take Rapunzel and a loafof bread and you put them together whatdo you get well you get this now despitedropping my camera and breaking a $1,200lens we still got this video finishednow holla is a specialty braided Jewishbread that I feel like this game quite abit of popularity amongst the masses ofthe food and cooking community it’s it’sjust it’s that good I’ll give you tworeasons why you should make it hey itlooks really cool B it’s super easy tomakeand it’s delicious oh also it makesprobably the best french toast of alltime to start this off you’re gonna mixtwo teaspoons or six grams of instantyeast with a third a cup plus 2tablespoons or 102 grams of water at 95degrees Fahrenheit just give that alittle mix until it’s dissolved and letit sit for about 5 to 8 minutes then ina small mixing bowl you’re gonna mixtogether four and a quarter cup or 515grams of blood blood flourof bread flour with 1 tablespoon or 16grams of fine sea salt now I know thatseems like a lot you can totally lowerit a little bit to 3/4 of a tablespoonor 10 gramsI like this loaf a little saltier but Iknow a lot of people don’t so you canalways drop that salt a little bit ifyou want and just transfer that flourmixture to a stand mixer fitted with adough hook attachment and don’t forgetto make this as inconvenient as possiblefor yourself by pouring it into the bowlwhile it’s attached to the stand mixer Idon’t I don’t know why I do this withyour mixer running on low add your yeastwater mixture to the flour mixture alongwith 3.5 tablespoons or 78 grams ofhoney now I mix the honey in with thewater right before I added it but youdon’t have to do this then just go aheadand toss in the remainder of youringredients – the toppings of coursewhich will be 2 whole eggs about ahundred grams four egg yolks about 67grams I know it’s a lot of egg yolksI’ll talk about in a second and aquarter cup or 60 grams of vegetable oilI opted for sunflower oilthen just mix that on medium-low speedscraping on the sides is necessary nowif it’s got some dry flour in the bottomdon’t worry don’t panic just add tinylittle droplets of water just until itcomes togetheryou shouldn’t have to add much water ifany at all I know this has a lot ofyolks in it compared to most challah butI actually like it with more yolks itgives it that nice rich golden yellowcolor and I just personally think thetextures better with it anyway so you’regonna continue mixing this in your standmixer at medium low speed for about fourto six minutes or until the doughbecomes super smooth and it’s no longersticking to the walls if it detachesfrom the walls but it looks like itneeds a little more kneading then youcan just lightly flour a work surface topull it out and then just lightly kneadit until it’s nice and smooth itshouldn’t take very long at allnow once that dough is looking nice andsmooth lightly grease a medium sizedbowl and shape your dough into a ball bygently tucking the bottom into itselfthen placing it on your work surface andpush and roll it on the surface so itpulls the dough into itself just untilit forms a lightly top ball don’t go toohard there then place in your greasybowl cover with plastic wrap or a damptowel and let it sit at about 76 degreesFahrenheit or 24 Celsius for one hournow I use my fermentation station ofcourse which will be linked below nowanother way to get this attempt would beto put it in the oven turned off withonly the light on now for warning theoven will go above 76 with that methodso keep an eye on the temp if you’redoing that then after that hour is upperform some light stretching folds bygrabbing one edge of the dough andfolding it over to the middle thenrepeat that all along the edge of thedough then pick it up out of the bowlflip it over and place it seem side downso you get the smooth surface facing upagain cover it again and let it rest forone more hour at the same temperaturemaking in a two hour warm rise time nowwhen you look at your dough whatever youdo do not panic now it’s not gonna haverisen a whole lot at all it’ll maybehave risen about 25-30 percent do notworry this is normal so now you’re justgonna separate your dough into howevermany equally sized pieces you want thisis gonna be dependent on what number ofstrands you’re gonna want in your finalloaf I’ve found that a four strand loafseems to kind of be the lucky number forboth an aesthetic loaf with a niceupward rise without too much finickynacinda braiding those six strand loavescan getyou know a little hectic to say theleast now this means that you’re gonnaneed to divide your dough into fourpieces weighing about 232 grams each ifyou have a scale now if you’re one ofthose folks who likes to stray away fromthe recipe because you’re a rebel and Irespect that then the total dough weightis 928 grams you can divide that by asmany or as little strands as you wantyou want to do a single strand braidedloaf probably probably don’t want to dothat but you get the point now take eachpiece and shape it into a roughrectangle shape that’s relatively eventhen fold the top part of the rectangleto the middle then repeat with thebottom overlapping the top now gentlyseal it and lightly conform to an eventube shape repeat that with all of yourpieces of dough and allow them to restfor about 15 minutes cover with a dampcloth or plastic wrap before rolling nowyou know damp cloth for the eco-friendlyversion once those have rested lightlydust a work surface with flour andgently roll them into 13 to 14 inchstrands by starting from the middle andslowly working your way out to the edgeswhile rolling at the same time again itshouldn’t take too much pressuredon’t don’t don’t smash these no no Hulkmode here you do want to lightlyincrease pressure as you reach the edgesthough to create sort of a taperedappearance if your dough resists you andwon’t get long enough then don’t fightit just let it rest for 10 minutes itwill win that fight don’t try and fightit if it’s been a stubborn dough then itdeserves a timeout so let it rest andthen continue rolling with all yourstrands and make sure that all thesestrands are is even in length aspossible it’ll just make the braidingprocess a whole lot easier and now comesthe most bittersweet part of this entirerecipe the braiding now since mycamera’s facing the other way man Ireally wish I had thought about thiswhile I was filmingI’ll have the rig directions a for thebraiding down in the description to helpout here obviously the left and rightwill be a little flip-flop to where thecameras facing you know and I’ll alsohave another method for braidingdifferent kinds of strands if you wishto go that route so to start your fourbraids you’re gonna take your strandsand sort of meet them all at one pointfrom the end facing farthest away fromyou and then display them out like yousee here now at the point where they allmeet from the farthest point away fromyou you’re just gonna conjoin all thoselittle strands together that way theyhave a little starting point where theyall are beginning the braid essentiallyI know some people like to put a coffeemug or somethingto hold them all down I don’t thinkthat’s really necessary but it’s up toyou so you’re gonna label these byletter a B C and D starting from left toright left being a and then far rightbeing D obviously when you are facing itit’s gonna be a little flip-flopped onthis version start by moving a to thecenter of this thing then C to the farleft then D to the Center B to the farright then move C in between a and D anda to the far left then move be inbetween C and D and D to the far rightall right now take a little breatherwe’re back where we started ok ABCD it’sall it’s all back now we’re gonna take 8in between C and B and then C over tothe far left and then just kind of bringeverything in tied together and you’redone just make sure to pinch all thoseedges together so that it’s nice andgood form and then kind of and then kindof push that edge underneath the loaf sothat it doesn’t come undone or anythingjust lightly you don’t need to bend theloaf and that’s it that’s braiding asyou can see I’m very excited here I knowit’s a little confusing all the writtendirections down in the description ifthere’s any confusion you can alwaysjust go ahead and read that now to setup our baking sheet I like to spray alittle bit of cooking oil down and thenI’ll place the parchment paper this isthat the parchment paper doesn’t slidearound it ends up adhering and it’s nicethen place your braided loaf onto thatparchment paper brush it with egg washand the egg wash is just going to be oneegg that’s been whisked together withabout a tablespoon of waternow once you’ve brushed the entire thingnicely place it in an oven that’s turnedoff with just the light turned on sothat it creates a little bit of warmthand let it rise for two hours and duringthat two hour time frame you’re gonnabrush it about every 40 minutes there’snot gonna be any plastic wrap on top ofthis you don’t need to cover it therepeated brushings of egg wash it’swhat’s going to hydrate the skin so thatit doesn’t dry out that’s why it’simportant that it is in a draught freeenvironment now we’re not looking forrise as much as we’re looking forsomething called the finger dentist sojust dip your finger in that egg washand then lightly poke the loaf and if itsprings back a little bit but not allthe way then it’s ready if it doesn’tspring back at all and it is not proofedenough yet now once it’s ready to go inthe oven make sure you set your oven topreheat at 375 degrees Fahrenheit giveit one last brushing of egg wash andthen sprinkle it withseeds optionally of course you can alsodo poppy seeds also make sure to takeyour loaf out of the oven where yourproofing it when you turn your oven onto preheat now once your ovens preheatedtoss the loaf in and immediately reducethe temperature to 325 bake for 45 to 50minutes or until nice and golden brownon top now if the top starts to brown alittle too quickly then you could alwaysjust tent it with foilwhenever need be and that’s it challahyou know the drillbake it cool it yeah but I think we’remissing one essential piece thesecondary[Music]alright guys and that is it challahbread I think the hardest part out ofthis entire thing is easily the braidingbecause everything else is pretty simplemaking the dough is simple it’s just alot of like mostly just waiting for itto rise so if you guys end up makingthese holidays be sure to send them tome and DM them to me on Instagram orTwitter or whatever what have you and ifyou don’t know where to find me at thelink is below in the description clickit but with all that said if you enjoyedthis video where you learn somethingleave a like subscribe and I will seeyou next week[Music]