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Challah bread recipe

Challah bread recipe

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This traditional and straightforward to make bread is the perfect addition to a Chanukah celebration. Slightly sweet and aesthetically pleasing, it's great toasted and spread with butter, torn off in chunks fresh out of the oven or used to make French toast. See method

  • Serves 8
  • 10 mins to prepare, 2 hrs to prove and 60 mins to cook
  • 511 calories / serving
  • Freezable
  • Healthy

Ingredients

  • 1kg bread flour
  • 1½tsp instant active yeast
  • 250ml lukewarm water
  • 2 medium eggs
  • 2 medium egg yolks
  • 30ml olive oil
  • 3tbsp runny honey
  • 1tsp salt

For the garnish

  • 1 medium egg white
  • small handful sesame seeds

Each serving contains

  • Energy

    2165kj
    511kcal     26%

  • Fat

    8g 11%

  • Saturates

    2g 8%

  • Sugars

    6g 6%

  • Salt

    0.5g 8%

of the reference intake
Carbohydrate 101.1g Protein 15g Fibre 5.3g

Method

  1. Combine the water, eggs, egg yolks, olive oil and honey in a large mixing bowl. Whisk until well combined, then add 500g of the bread flour, the yeast and salt. Mix together until smooth and combined. Leave to prove for 15 minutes. Add the remaining flour in 4 even batches of 125g and combine until you have a dough.
  2. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until you have a soft, elastic dough, using a little extra flour if the dough is too sticky. Once smooth and elastic, lightly oil a large bowl and place, the dough in it.

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  3. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and allow the dough to rise until doubled in size; roughly 60 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl after proving and cut into three.

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  4. Roll out into even shaped sausages. Connect the three pieces of sausage-shaped dough at one end. Braid the dough by bringing the right side across the middle piece of dough so that it now sits in the middle. Next, bring the left piece of dough across the middle piece so that it sits in the middle.
  5. Continue in this fashion until you have to pinch the ends of the dough together and tuck them neatly under. Carefully lift onto a lined baking tray. Preheat the oven to 200°C. 
  6. Whisk the egg whites until frothy then brush the bread all over with it. Cover the braided dough again and allow it to prove for another hour or until doubled in size. Remove the cover then brush again with the egg white, sprinkle the sesame seeds on top and bake for 20 minutes.
  7. Turn the bread around, reduce the oven to 180°C, and bake for a further 20 minutes until golden brown in colour all over. Remove and allow to cool a little before serving.

See more Baking recipes

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