My friend Suzanne is basically Martha Stewart. She hosts gorgeous dinner parties in her lovely fig- and plumeria tree lined courtyard, evenings filled with the sweetness of climbing vines and the whisper of a small fountain. The woman owns both an ice cream machine and a sous vide machine. Need I say more? I think not.
Suzanne and I love to bake bread together—challah, in particular. Neither of us had made many loaves of challah before, but we were up to the challenge. And after our first round went down with middling success, we decided to up the ante by trying a 6-braid loaf. It kind of sounds easy, doesn’t it? Braids! They’re just braids!
Keep telling yourself that—you’ll need the boost in confidence once you try to get this thing dialed in. I cannot tell you how many times we go back, over and over again, to rewind the video (link below) and retrace our steps. Suzanne described the process as, “like having a slow stroke.” It can be deeply unnerving, even for two highly intelligent Martha Stewart wannabes. Don’t let the braids fool you. (Or maybe you’ll be a fast master at it and we actually were having a slow stroke.)
When all was said and done, we learned three things:
1) Fresh challah is incredibly good, particularly with fresh apple butter.
2) YouTube is a miracle wizard for baking demos, like this one.
3) If a friendship can survive the perils of six-braid challah making, it is a true one.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
Challah (adapted from Arthur Wenner)
- ½ cup plus 2/3 cup warm water 105° to 115°
- 2 tablespoons dry yeast
- 1 tablespoons plus ¾ cup sugar
- 5 large eggs
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 7 1/2 cups (abouall-purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp . fennel seeds
Egg wash
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon water
Spiced Apple Butter
- 4 cups apple sauce store bought or fresh made by processing apples in a blender or food processor
- 1 tsp . cinnamon
- ½ tsp . nutmeg
- ¼ tsp . ground clove
- 3 Tbsp . maple syrup more to taste
- ¼ tsp . sea salt
Instructions
- Mix ½ cup warm water, 1 Tbsp. sugar, and yeast in a small bowl. Let sit about 10 minutes at room temperature, until it becomes foamy.
- Beat 5 eggs in a large bowl, then ad oil, ¾ cup sugar, and salt. Beat until lighter in color and thickened, about 4 minutes. Continue beating and add 2/3 cup warm water plus the yeast mixture. Beat till well blended.
- Add flour a cup at a time, enveloping it into the wet ingredients each time until it becomes homogenous and forms a smooth dough. Once it’s fully incorporated (about 5 minutes), transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough 2 minutes, adding a bit of flour if it’s sticky.
- Oil a large bowl and add the dough, turning it to coat with oil. Cover it with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel. Leave to rise in a warm, draft-free area of your kitchen for about an hour.
- When it’s doubled in size, punch down, cover again with plastic and bowl and leave to rise another 30 minutes.
- Butter or oil 2 large baking sheets. Preheat oven to 400°.
- Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and divide into 2 equal portions.
- Now turn on this video and get to braiding!
- Whisk yolk and Tbsp. of water; brush dough with egg mixture and sprinkle both generously with fennel seeds (as many as you’d like).
- Bake 10 minutes, then reduce oven to 350°. Bake till bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on bottom, 25-30 minutes. Let loaves cool on a rack if you have the discipline. Otherwise just break off a hunk of bread and smear it with butter and put it in your mouth. I mean, let’s be real.
- Spiced Apple Butter
- Place all ingredients in a sauce pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Stir occasionally, and let simmer on low heat for 50 minutes to an hour, or until the liquid is largely reduced and the sauce has thickened and turned a rich chestnut color. Don’t increase the maple syrup until the end of cooking, because the flavor will evolve and deepen over its course of cooking.
- When finished, let cool and serve with challah and butter.
