My culinary friend said it looked like the dry ingredients could have used more mixing (based on how the bread looked or something) does this seem okay? I halved a recipe for Challa bread and it tastes amazing, but being 16 I wasn’t sure if it looked wrong. Any suggestions on what I can do better? Here’s the recipe I used: https://bellyfull.net/challah-bread/
by _The_Usual_Suspect_
9 Comments
It looks delicious 🤤
I think it looks pretty spot on
Your local internet Jewish mom chiming in….
This looks great! I’d be proud for have this grace my Shabbat table any Friday.
A few things that you might want to think about for next time, though. If you do a double egg wash (wash braids before the rise and then again just before the oven), you’ll get a deeper and lire golden color.
This is just a pet peeve of mine (and you’re following the recipe, so I’m not mad), but it’s just CHALLAH. Not challah bread.
Toppings – you gotta try some next time. Poppy seed, everything bagel, sesame, etc are all delicious. I am quite partial to handfuls of golden raisins, though the best is chocolate chip. I make chocolate chip challah exactly once a year to be made into French toast casserole on New Year’s Day. Super decadent and works with plain or any sweeter filled challah.
Happy baking, bubbeleh!
Your friend doesn’t know from challah, that’s exactly how the crumb should look.
Not sure what your culinary friend is talking about. Maybe they don’t work with enriched doughs? That is how challah will look if you tear it rather than slice it. Looks great!!
It looks delicious. We’ll done.
The shaping and crumb structure looks great. I prefer a darker bake on my bread, but that’s just a preference thing.
Not sure what they might have meant by needing to mix the dry ingredients more. The dries are usually either all mixed together before going in, or added in a specific order. The crumb doesn’t show any signs of under mixing 👍
It looks amazing for anyone’s challah, much less someone just starting out. If you want something to improve on, when you do the braiding, don’t braid it as tight, and you can avoid the little pockets of dough next to the braids where the dough is paler and it looks like it’s been stretched. If you braid it looser, it will still rise up and keep the braid, and it’ll look even better.
Just as a general bread tip…invest in a scale and look for recipes that give you gram measurements. It will make your bakes so much more consistent and easier in the long run. You don’t need to spend a ton on one. The [Escali Primo](https://www.google.com/search?q=escali+primo+scale&sa=X&sca_esv=598740777&bih=599&biw=1366&rlz=1C1ONGR_enUS952US952&hl=en-US&tbm=shop&ei=vkCmZdy8KsvdptQPuv6W0Ag&ved=0ahUKEwjck7eLweGDAxXLrokEHTq_BYoQ4dUDCAg&uact=5&oq=escali+primo+scale&gs_lp=Egtwcm9kdWN0cy1jYyISZXNjYWxpIHByaW1vIHNjYWxlMgUQABiABDIGEAAYFhgeMgYQABgWGB4yBhAAGBYYHjIGEAAYFhgeSJAYUN0KWKwXcAF4AJABAJgBT6AB_QWqAQIxMrgBA8gBAPgBAcICCBAAGIAEGLADwgIJEAAYBxgeGLADwgIJEAAYCBgeGLADiAYBkAYK&sclient=products-cc) is great, I’ve had mine for years and thousands of uses and it’s still going strong. If you want to upgrade a bit, OXO makes really good ones.
Another local Jewish mom chiming in here 🥰
Looks like you did a wonderful job baking Challah!
I always bake my Challah to an internal temp of 185 – it’s always perfect at this temp – so highly recommend continuing to bake Challah and using this as a trick of the trade 🙂 and as the other local Jewish mom posted, play around with toppings!!
It looks perfect!
ETA: as others mentioned, that’s how it looks when it’s torn and it looks delish!!