Sea Salt Challah
The beautiful thing about experiencing a culture is learning their food during the holidays. If you are ever invited into someone’s home for a meal during a cultural celebration, you should give an emphatic yes and ask what you can bring. If Anthony Bourdain taught us anything, it’s how much beauty and education there is to honor and deep-dive into at a dinner table.
A major part of my culture and my background is rooted in Jewish holidays, and that informs a lot of my baking experience. The first time I ever made bread was in 2010, it was a challah. It was not pretty, and it was very dried out. But I felt incredibly connected to my heritage, and I vowed to improve my skills.
I’ve attempted many challah recipes in the last decade since my first go, none of which have held a candle to the challah from my favorite now-shuttered bakery back home — until now! All of my mistakes, the over-proofing, the too-long bake time, the too-hot oven temperature. They’ve all led me to this challah. And it’s a thing of glory. It’s sturdy, holding its shape beautifully, without burning on the bottom. It’s a dichotomy of pillowy bread that is both light and fluffy within the individual crumb, but has the perfect doughy texture from the eggs that you can really sink your teeth into with each satisfying bite.
Since we are fast approaching the high holidays, I made a round challah, with instruction for an 8-braid! Because it’s 2020 and we’ve all read Untamed and we can do hard things!
Shana tova, y’all.
Sea Salt Challah
Ingredients
1 packet active dry yeast (about 1/4 ounce if you have a container of it)
9 tablespoons warm water
3 tablespoons + 1 tablespoon honey, separated
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon olive oil, separated
2 large eggs, plus one more for egg wash
1 tablespoon sea salt, plus more for sprinkling on top
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Directions
Set oven to proofing. If your oven doesn’t have this setting, that’s perfectly fine! I use the microwave as storage for proofing when I need to reserve precious counter and oven space for preparing the rest of my meal.
In a large mixing bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together yeast, warm water (not hotter than 125F or it will kill the yeast) and 1 tablespoon of honey. Let set for 10 minutes.
While the yeast is activating, in a separate bowl, whisk flour and teaspoon of sea salt. In another separate bowl, whisk together eggs, remaining honey and 1/3 cup olive oil.
Once 10 minutes is up and yeast is bubbling and active, use paddle attachment to stir in egg mixture until well combined. Slowly add in about 1 cup of the flour mixture with the mixer on low. Switch to dough hook attachment and turn on medium speed. Begin adding more flour, 1/2 to 1 cup at a time, until dough becomes a homogenous, shiny ball, no longer sticking to the bowl. Let knead on low for about 3-5 minutes to work the dough, being careful not to overwork and create a tough dough. If you’re nervous about this process (or just really like working with your hands!), knead by hand for 5-7 minutes on a lightly floured surface.
In a clean bowl that will fit the dough ball if it doubled in size, brush the inside with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Once coated, place dough ball inside and cover bowl with moist kitchen towel, making sure its not touching the dough. Proof for at least one hour, but no more than 80 minutes.
Punch down dough and work onto a clean, flat surface and separate into 8 equal parts (mine was roughly 3.75 ounces each). Roll into 8 long, skinny bars and follow THESE instructions for the most beautiful 8-braid, round challah! It was easy to follow, and I watched it as I went and it was mostly smooth sailing. One day, I’ll post a tutorial for how to knead, roll and shape the challah correctly, but I was distracted by having a toddler at my ankles asking for a snack and I overworked the dough a bit. You’ll see I wasn’t able to roll my dough out long enough and so there’s a break on the left where it split open while it baked.
Note: If your dough is pulling back once you stretch it, instead of working it harder, let it rest for a few minutes. This will let the dough settle and you’ll be able to roll it out more. If the dough is tough (overworked), this might not be possible! That’s ok, just try a 4-braid instead using this method. It will still turn out, and you can try your hand at it again soon!
Gently transfer to a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and gingerly cover with kitchen towel again, directly over the challah. Let sit for 45 minutes. While the challah is proofing, preheat oven to 350F.
While challah proofs and oven preheats, make egg wash, combine one egg and one tablespoon of water. Whisk thoroughly, until mixture looks milky and pales in color. After the challah goes through its second proof, lightly brush egg wash over challah and top with a generous sprinkle of your flakiest sea salt.
Bake in oven at 350F for 25-35 minutes, or until center of challah registers 180-185F. Let cool, cut and serve with your delicious Rosh Hashanah feast! I prefer to serve mine with whipped honey. And if you’re smart, you’ll make french toast with it the following morning using the same method here.