Sourdough Challah

This is the next bread in line for the Bread Baker’s Apprntice Challenge.

I haven’t had challah before, nor have I ever seen it. I knew that it was a Jewish traditional bread and a favourite of some Jewish friends, and I knew it was usually braided. And that’s the extent of my knowledge about it.

Was I looking forward to making challah? Sure, why not? Life’s an experiment, after all. And it would be an interesting experiment with me braiding bread dough. I suck at braiding my own hair, so how well can a dough braid turn out?

As it turns out, better than I expected.

As usual, I substituted the yeast with my wild yeast starter (sourdough starter that isn’t sour, Houdini by name) and reduced the flour and water amounts appropriately. I also converted the recipe to grams and halved it. Here’s the resulting ingredients list:

Ingredients:

• 80 grams sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 215 grams (9 ounces) unbleached bread flour + 55 grams flour added during kneading = 270 grams flour total
• 14 grams (1 tablespoon or 1/2 ounce) granulated sugar
• 3.5 grams (1/2 teaspoon or 0.25 ounce) salt
• 28 grams (1 tablespoon or 0.5 ounce) vegetable oil
• 1 large (47 grams or 1.65 ounces) eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 large (0.625 ounces) egg yolk, slightly beaten
• 60 – 88 grams (3 1/2 – 4 1/2 ounces) water, at room temperature
• 1 egg whites, whisked until frothy, for egg wash
• Sesame or poppy seeds for garnish

And then I followed the directions from there. Of course, my wild yeast starter was refreshed before using and was happily active and bubbling.

The end result was a braided bread that looked far better than I had ever expected, given how bad I am at braiding my own hair. The bread itself was soft, only slightly chewy, and had a fantastic texture. Solid enough for sandwich or bun bread, but not at all heavy.

Fahim loved it, too. This is now one of our top three breads.

In fact, this will likely be the bread dough recipe I use to make things like, oh, sub buns, hoagie buns, hamburger buns, and so on. It’s perfect!

I’m also submitting this post to Yeastspotting, a weekly showcase of truly drool-worthy breads. In addition to this being part of Sourdough Saturday here on my blog.

[pg-image src="http://pics.laurieashton.com/tn/20090619-00.jpg" link="http://album.laurieashton.com/v/SriLanka/kitchen/20090619-00.jpg.html" caption="challah bread dough, after mixing" alt=""] [pg-image src="http://pics.laurieashton.com/tn/20090619-01.jpg" link="http://album.laurieashton.com/v/SriLanka/kitchen/20090619-01.jpg.html" caption="challah bread dough, after mixing, side view" alt=""] [pg-image src="http://pics.laurieashton.com/tn/20090619-02.jpg" link="http://album.laurieashton.com/v/SriLanka/kitchen/20090619-02.jpg.html" caption="challah bread dough, after first rise" alt=""] [pg-image src="http://pics.laurieashton.com/tn/20090619-03.jpg" link="http://album.laurieashton.com/v/SriLanka/kitchen/20090619-03.jpg.html" caption="challah bread dough, after first rise, side view" alt=""] [pg-image src="http://pics.laurieashton.com/tn/20090619-04.jpg" link="http://album.laurieashton.com/v/SriLanka/kitchen/20090619-04.jpg.html" caption="challah bread dough, after second rise, side view" alt=""] [pg-image src="http://pics.laurieashton.com/tn/20090619-05.jpg" link="http://album.laurieashton.com/v/SriLanka/kitchen/20090619-05.jpg.html" caption="challah bread dough, after second rise, top view" alt=""] [pg-image src="http://pics.laurieashton.com/tn/20090619-06.jpg" link="http://album.laurieashton.com/v/SriLanka/kitchen/20090619-06.jpg.html" caption="challah bread dough, after braiding" alt=""] [pg-image src="http://pics.laurieashton.com/tn/20090619-11.jpg" link="http://album.laurieashton.com/v/SriLanka/kitchen/20090619-11.jpg.html" caption="challah bread dough, after third rise" alt=""] [pg-image src="http://pics.laurieashton.com/tn/20090619-12.jpg" link="http://album.laurieashton.com/v/SriLanka/kitchen/20090619-12.jpg.html" caption="challah bread dough, after applying egg wash and sprinkling sesame seeds on top" alt=""] [pg-image src="http://pics.laurieashton.com/tn/20090619-14.jpg" link="http://album.laurieashton.com/v/SriLanka/kitchen/20090619-14.jpg.html" caption="challah bread dough, fresh out of the oven" alt=""]

Tagged as: baking, BBAC, Bread