Double Braid Challah Bread With Sesame Seeds Recipes

BRAIDED EGG BREAD (CHALLAH)

Steps:

• 1. In a large bowl, combine sugar, salt, yeast and 1 cup flour.
• 2. In a 1 quart saucepan over low heat, heat milk and butter until milk is warm and butter is melted.
• 3. If milk is too hot, bring temp down to around 120 degrees.
• 4. With mixer at low speed, beat milk mixture into dry ingredients, just until blended. Beat at medium speed two minutes more.
• 5. Reserve 1 egg yolk. Add remaining egg white and 2 eggs, and 3/4 cups flour. Beat 2 minutes. Stir in 1 1/4 cups flour to make a soft dough.
• 6. Turn dough onto floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic about 10 minutes working in more flour while kneading. (Work through the pain!!!)
• 7. Shape dough into a ball and place in a greased bowl, turning dough over to grease top. Cover with a damp towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk. (about an hour)
• 8. Punch down dough, turn onto floured surface. Cover with bowl and let rise 15 minutes. Grease large cookie sheet.
• 9. Cut 2/3 dough into 3 equal pieces. On floured surface, with wet hands, roll each piece into a 13-inch rope. Place ropes side by side and loosely braid.
• 10. For top part of loaf, cut remaining piece of dough into 3 equal pieces and roll into a 14 inch long rope. Braid as before, but smaller than the last.
• 11. Place smaller braid on top of first one, stretching if necessary.
• 12. Seal ends and place on greased cookie sheet.
• 13. Cover with damp cloth again and let rise until doubled. (about 45 minutes)
• 14. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• 15. in a small bowl, beat egg yolk and 2 Tbsp. water. Brush the loaf with egg yolk and sprinkle generously with sesame seeds.
• 16. Bake 30 minutes or until loaf is golden.
• 17. Cool on wire rack.

CHALLAH BREAD RECIPE

Steps:

• Place 6 cups of flour, salt, and yeast into a large mixing bowl. Give it a quick whisk.
• Add honey, oil, water, and 3 eggs into the bowl.
• Using a spatula (or a wooden spoon), mix until they are incorporated.
• Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured kitchen counter and knead for 10-15 minutes.
• Grease a clean bowl with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Place the dough seam side down into the greased bowl. Turn the dough a few times to make sure it is coated with oil.
• Cover it with a clean kitchen towel and let it rest in a warmer part of your house for one and a half hours until it doubles in size.
• Punch down the dough to get all the air bubbles out. Cover it with a kitchen towel and let it rise again for 45-minutes to an hour.
• Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. I used a kitchen scale to weigh the dough and then to cut it into equal pieces. However, you can also eyeball it.
• Roll each piece into a small ball and set them aside. Cover with a towel to make sure they won't dry out while you are working on the braiding.
• To roll, take each piece, gently push it into a small rectangular (using the heel of your palm) and roll it out by starting in the middle and toward the edges. Gently pinch the seam and continue to roll out. If at any point it becomes difficult to roll out just let it rest for 5 minutes and roll it again. In the end, we want our strands to be around 12 to 13 inches long.
• Lay the strands lengthwise on the counter, pinch them together at the top.
• Start from the strand that is on the very left and bring over to the very right.
• Then take the one next to it and bring it to the very left.
• Next, bring the one that is at the very right in between the four strands that are at the bottom.
• Move the second one from the left to the very right and then bring the on the very left into the between the strands at the bottom.
• Continue with repeating the same steps until you are no longer able to move strands.
• When you reach the end, bring them in, tie together underneath and pinch to make sure that they won't come undone.
• Transfer the braided Challah onto a parchement lined baking sheet.
• Repeat the same process for the second set of strands (for the second Challah loaf)
• Mix an egg with a tablespoon of water to make egg wash.
• Brush each loaf with the egg wash and let it rise in the warmer part of your house for an hour.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Right before baking, brush it with the egg wash one last time and sprinkle it with sesame or poppy seeds, if using.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the top turns to golden brown. Remove it from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack for 30-45 minutes before slicing.
• Serve.

SESAME SEED CHALLAH (EGYPTIAN HOLIDAY BREAD)

Steps:

• Combine yeast with water and pinch of sugar and set aside.
• Combine flour, remaining sugar, salt and 2 eggs in large mixing bowl.
• Add yeast mixture and mix well.
• Dough will be moist and sticky.
• Knead until dough is smooth, about 10 minutes, adding flour or water as needed.
• Dough should still be moist.
• Return to bowl, sprinkle dough with flour, cover with towel and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
• Divide dough in half, place each half on lightly floured board and lightly knead into round loaves.
• Place on greased baking sheet, leaving space between loaves, as they will rise and expand when baking.
• Beat remaining egg.
• Brush loaves with beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
• Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown and completely baked inside, 20 to 30 minutes.

DOUBLE-BRAID CHALLAH BREAD WITH SESAME SEEDS

Steps:

• Mix all ingredients except milk and sesame seeds in a large bowl. The dough will be quite sticky at this point.
• Turn out onto a liberally floured board and have additional flour close at hand. Knead, adding flour as it is absorbed, until the dough is no longer sticky and is smooth and elastic, 5-10 minutes.
• Oil a large bowl and place dough inside, turning to coat dough on all sides. Allow to rise 1-2 hours, or until at least doubled in size.
• Divide dough into three sections. Take a third of each of the original three sections and reserve (there will be two braids; a large one for the bottom, and a smaller one for the top).
• Grease a cookie sheet.
• Roll and stretch the three larger sections of dough into ropes a little shorter than the sheet. Cross the tops of the ropes over one another and braid. Tuck braid ends under.
• Repeat step 6 will smaller dough sections, except braid the ropes on top of the first, larger braid.
• Grease double-braid liberally and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise 1-2 hours, or until at least doubled in size.
• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• In a small bowl, combine milk and sesame seeds. Uncover double-braid. Use a pastry brush to brush mixture, or your hands to rub mixture, over double-braid.
• Bake bread 20-30 minutes, or until deep golden brown.