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
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
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Looks like these turned out great! I’m surprised they didn’t call for brushing some egg on top of the biscuits before cooking, that might get that top a little crispier…I totally want to make some of these Saturday morning.
These look very good to me. I have a favorite biscuit recipe, but want to give these a try because of the buttermilk.
Have been following your blog for a while. Nice blog!
I agree Steph. Or maybe just melted butter to give it the color.
If you want to compare even more recipes from many of the popular sites, take a look at RecipeComparison.com. Just search for “buttermilk biscuits” and you’ll see all the ingredients nicely laid out in a table with a link to jump directly to each recipe.
I worked at a KFC in the mid-90s. I had privy to the ingredients lists and methods. The biscuits came frozen and had egg in the dough. We brushed the tops after baking with butter-flavored oil that is commonly used in the restaurant industry. I remember thinking that the egg was unusual; I hadn’t seen many biscuit recipes calling for egg, and I have been baking since I was 8.
kfc.com does not list eggs in their food allergy listing for the biscuits, just an fyi
I, too, worked at a KFC when I was a teenager. The biscuits were not frozen. It was a bag mix and we mixed it with a large tub of shortening. Then mixed, rolled, cut and baked. We topped with a “liquid butter” substance fresh from the oven. They may make them frozen now, but they didn’t in the early 90’s.
Oh, and there are NO eggs in the mix. Otherwise, it would be a cake, not a biscuit. That is common baking “science”.