Basic Challah Bread for #BreadBakers

It's time for this month's Bread Bakers and our theme for this month is Braided Breads and is hosted by our lovely and talented Gayathri Kumar of Gayathri's Cook Spot. I knew June and July would be hectic with our impending move, but I didn't want to miss out on participating in Bread bakers -- so I baked this Basic Challah bread few weeks back, but I couldn't find time to type up the post until last night.I picked a very simple 3-strand braided Challah bread because it is very very easy to make. This recipe is from King Arthur flour site -- Molly's Challah Bread. It is a basic challah bread recipe and the only changes I made was to add some wholewheat flour and use egg replacer powder instead of eggs in the dough.I like my breads with beautiful golden crusts and most of my vegan options have not given me the same results that an egg wash would. So this time I followed the recipe and used an egg yolk to brush the bread. But I recently learnt that coconut milk would give similar results -- I'm going to give that a try next time.This challah bread has a beautiful crumb. It is soft and stays that way for a few days at room temperature. We ate it lightly toasted with some butter and jam. It also makes an amazing French toast or bread pudding.Here is the collection of all the beautiful braided breads from our team.

• Artisan Herb Bread Braid by Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Basic Challah Bread by Cook's Hideout
• Braided Bread with Candied Papaya Chunks by Sara's Tasty Buds
• Braided Garlic Bread by Sizzling Tastebuds
• Braided Herbed Breadsticks by Ambrosia
• Braided Rum & Raisin Buns by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Challah Bread by Mayuri's Jikoni
• Cherry Cheese Braid by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Chicken Cheese Braided Bread by Sneha’s Recipe
• Nutella Braided Bread by Veena’s Vegnation
• Orange Saffron Braided Brioche by Food Lust People Love
• Scali Bread by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Spice and Herb French Braid by The Schizo Chef
• Two-Seed Potato Challah by What Smells So Good?
• Whole Wheat Challah Bread by Spill the Spices
• Whole Wheat Pizza Braid by Herbivore Cucina
• Whole Wheat Zopf Bread by I camp in my Kitchen
• Winston Knot Bread by Gayathri's Cook Spot
• Zucchini Yeast Bread by Baking Sense

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to [email protected]

Basic Challah Bread

This Basic Challah bread has a beautiful crumb. It is soft and stays that way for a few days at room temperature. We ate it lightly toasted with some butter and jam. It also makes an amazing French toast or bread pudding.

Author: Pavani

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Prep Time: 25 mins

Cook Time: 30 mins

Total Time: 2 hrs 55 mins

Course: breads

Cuisine: American

Servings: 1 loaf

Ingredients

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For the Dough:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• ¾~1 cup Wholewheat flour
• 2¼ tsp Instant Yeast
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• ¾ cup Warm Water
• 2 tbsp Egg replacer powder whisked in 6tbsp water (or use 2 large eggs)
• ⅓ cup Oil

For Topping:

• 1 Large Egg Yolk
• ¼ tsp Flaked Sea salt

Instructions

• In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of the stand mixer, combine all the ingredients for the dough. Mix and knead until a smooth and sticky dough forms -- this takes about 10~12 minutes or 7~10 minutes in the machine.
• Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, cover and set aside to rise until doubled in size, 1½~2 hours.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pat the dough into a long 3"x12" rectangle. Then cut the dough into 3 long smaller rectangles, roll them out into 3 long logs.
• Pinch the 3 logs together at one end and then braid the logs, pinching them together at the other end. Transfer the loaf t the baking sheet, cover loosely and let it rise, at room temperature for 30 minutes, until slightly puffy.
• Preheat the oven to 375°F. Brush the loaf lightly with egg wash and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake until the loaf is golden brown and the internal temperature reads 190°F -- this takes about 28~30 minutes.
• Remove the loaf from the oven and cool on a rack before slicing. Leftovers can be stored at room temperature for 3~4 days or frozen for longer storage.

Tried this recipe?Mention @cooks_hideout or tag #cookshideout!