Challah Bread

Every time I make bread at home, I instantly proclaim that it’s so good I should really do this more often. And then it’s usually a few months before I actually get around to making bread again.

If you have never made bread at home, this Challah bread would be a good thing to start with. The dough was very forgiving and easy to work with. A coworker of mine came over to make this bread with me on Sunday. We were having a French toast party at work and decided that homemade Challah would be much better than store-bought.

My coworker had never made bread before, but like I said, this dough was very easy to work with. Like most breads, this does require some time with all the rising and waiting. But that’s ok, we enjoyed watching some cheesey chick flick while our bread was doing it’s thing.

Everyone at work was impressed that we made the bread from scratch. And of course, it made some great French toast!

One Year Ago: Strawberry and Spinach Salad
Three Years Ago: Goat Cheese and Spinach Turkey Burgers

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Challah Bread

Yield: 2 loaves

Ingredients:

1 1/2 packages active dry yeast (1 1/2 Tbsp)
1 Tbsp plus 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil, plus more for greasing the bowl
5 eggs
1 Tbsp salt
8 to 8 1/2 cups flour

Directions:

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in 1 3/4 cups lukewarm water.

Whisk oil into yeast, then beat in 4 eggs, one at a time, with remaining sugar and salt. Gradually add flour. When dough holds together, it is ready for kneading. (You can also use a mixer with a dough hook for both mixing and kneading, but be careful if using a standard size KitchenAid–it’s a bit much for it, though it can be done.)

Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Clean out bowl and grease it, then return dough to bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, until almost doubled in size. Dough may also rise in an oven that has been warmed to 150 degrees then turned off. Punch down dough, cover and let rise again in a warm place for another half-hour.

At this point, you can knead the raisins into the challah, if you’re using them, before forming the loaves. To make a 6-braid challah, either straight or circular, take half the dough and form it into 6 balls. With your hands, roll each ball into a strand about 12 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. Place the 6 in a row, parallel to one another. Pinch the tops of the strands together. Move the outside right strand over 2 strands. Then take the second strand from the left and move it to the far right. Take the outside left strand and move it over 2. Move second strand from the right over to the far left. Start over with the outside right strand. Continue this until all strands are braided. For a straight loaf, tuck ends underneath. For a circular loaf, twist into a circle, pinching ends together. Make a second loaf the same way. Place braided loaves on a greased cookie sheet with at least 2 inches in between.

Beat remaining egg and brush it on loaves. Either freeze breads or let rise another hour.

If baking immediately, preheat oven to 375 degrees and brush loaves again. Sprinkle bread with seeds, if using. If freezing, remove from freezer 5 hours before baking.

Bake in middle of oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden. (If you have an instant read thermometer, you can take it out when it hits an internal temperature of 190 degrees.) Cool loaves on a rack.

Recipe as seen on Smitten Kitchen

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12 Responses to “Monkey Bread”

  1. #
    1
    jCam — July 23, 2009 at 1:02 pm

    Mmm I love monkey bread!

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    2
    Jessica Segarra — July 23, 2009 at 5:05 pm

    That looks so good! I am going to have to try this soon!

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    3
    Memória — July 23, 2009 at 5:42 pm

    This looks yummy! I love making monkey bread with homemade dough. To make it even richer, you could use leftover brioche dough. I have tried using the Artisan Bread in Five minutes recipes to make it quicker and easier. YUM!!!

    Lovely photos.

  4. #
    4
    Amy Kingman — July 23, 2009 at 5:45 pm

    looks delicious! Mmmmm!

  5. #
    5
    madebymel — July 23, 2009 at 11:18 pm

    I LOVE monkey bread! I can only make it for company or I will seriously eat the entire pan!

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    6
    oneparticularkitchen — July 24, 2009 at 2:19 am

    You are killing me with those pictures! That looks amazing.

  7. #
    7
    newlyweds — July 24, 2009 at 1:39 pm

    I just posted about monkey bread also. Love the stuff, here is my link if your interested.

    http://newlyweds.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/monkey-bread/

  8. #
    8
    Jennifer — July 24, 2009 at 11:49 pm

    I LOVE monkey bread, yours looks great!!

  9. #
    9
    Ingrid — July 26, 2009 at 1:10 am

    We L-O-V-E monkey bread! I’ve been making it for my children for several years now. I’ve also made monkey bread muffins which is the same thing but baked in muffins tins.
    ~ingrid

  10. #
    10
    Lee — July 26, 2009 at 10:32 pm

    My family used to make monkey bread when we were growing up too! YUM!

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    11
    Mermaid Sweets — July 27, 2009 at 5:06 am

    I have yet to make this, but this looks amazing. Love the new blog look.

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    12
    alexandjess — October 6, 2009 at 3:29 am

    I know I’m about 3 months behind, but I saw this recipe in your “Blog Recap – Big Hitters” post and added it to my list of things to try. It only took me a month and a half to get to it ;).

    Like you, I made it on a Sunday morning as a suprise for my husband and he loved it!

    I blogged it here, if you want to check it out:

    http://alexandjess.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/monkeys-for-breakfast/

    Thanks for sharing your fun recipe!

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