My Favorite Challah

Your illustration shows light bands of crust between the golden dark patches of crust. This comes from the rising in the oven revealing surfaces that had no egg wash. If you want that uniform brown crust, remove the loaf after 15 Minutes in the oven and reapply eggwash to the light areas that have appeared.

This is a beautiful challah recipe. The only problem is that the braiding instructions for the six-braid challah are incorrectly written. My father and I were baking it together and couldn't get the instructions to work (because it unbraids itself as it's written). I suggest an edit to the recipe with instructions more in line with this six-strand challah tutorial, http://toriavey.com/how-to/2010/08/challah-bread-part-2-how-to-braid-cha....

Baking with a scale is a game changer. Could you please give weight measures of each of the ingredients?

Recipe Quantities by Mass 3-1/2 tsp. active dry yeast = 9.9g 1 tbsp. sugar = 12.6g 1/2 cup sugar = 100g 1/2 cup vegetable oil = 120g 1 tbsp. salt = 17.07g 8 c. to 8-1/2 c. AP flour = 960g to 1020g

This is a lovely recipe! I do add one extra step which gives an even more brioche-like flavor and texture. I start by making a sponge; by using all the liquid ingredients, the yeast and only half the flour. I stir this mixture which is then a loose dough,almost a batter, and give it a first rise until doubled in volume. I then add the rest of the flour and the recipe proceeds as written. I do this with most of my breads and although it takes extra time, I find it improves flavor and texture.

Great challah recipe. I recommend using 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp. honey instead of sugar. I also dissolve a pinch of saffron in 1 tbsp. boiling water, let it cool, and add it with the liquids; the saffron heightens the yellow color of the dough and adds a very faint but intriguing flavor. I use a mixer (large KitchenAid with dough hook) to make the dough but knead by hand. Recommend 2 slow rises before forming the loaves, to develop the flavor. The 2 egg washes are brilliant; the crust is gorgeous.

I've made this several times, but my one gripe is that it really needs measurements by weight. More and more people are baking with a scale- which really makes it turn out amazing everytime! Sometimes mine turns out okay and sometimes not with this recipe because there aren't accurate measurements. Also the dough is soooo sticky. Can really be a bear to knead. But the flavor is amazing! Please NY times start adding measurements by weight to all your recipes especially the baking ones!

Best challah ever. We took some of the suggestions from the Cooking notes. Made half the recipe for 1 loaf. Half AP, half bread flour - 2 cups each. Half honey, half sugar - 1/4 cup each. One package of yeast. Kneaded with the dough hook on our mixer. First rise in a 100 degree oven, second overnight in the refrigerator. 6 strand braid as in the web site in Stacey's note. Beautiful and great flavor. Loved the firm texture. I'll make one every week for Friday night family dinner.

Easy six strand braiding

Pinch strands at top. Always start with braid furthest to the right, and chant to yourself:

Over two, under one, over two.

Repeat until you reach the end. I usually turn 180 degrees and rebraid the beginning to neaten it up.

For those halving the recipe. 1 3/4 cup of water is: 3/4c +2TSP (~207ml) 1 1/2 TSP yeast is: 2 tsp and 1/4 tsp (11.25ml) Did 1/2 AP 1/2 Bread flour Did a 6 strand single loaf each strand = ~5oz (~140g) Followed @stacey's rec on Tori avery's pg. which essentially says after rolling out the long strands connect them at the top, starting from the right most side go 2 over 1 under 2 over. Will invest in a silicone mat so the bottom doesn't cook as fast and use 1/2 honey 1/2 sugar next time. YUM!

This is great-- with a very regular medium/fine crumb. It turned out beautifully, and I'm going to make it again. But I'm picturing a challah with a little more "shaggy" tear when you break off a piece. A couple of cups of bread flour to substitute for some of the all-purpose flour? Would it give the crumb a little more chew?

I have made this a few times and have received a lot of great reviews. In the beginning my challah would burn at the bottom, so I now put tin foil with the shiny part facing away from the challah at the bottom of the pan. I have a thermofan oven and I find the oven to be a bit too hot in general, so I put it on 345 degrees fahrenheit and put a loose sheet of tin foil with the shiny part facing to the top on top of the challah during the last 15 minutes of baking.

Wow! so good. My whole family is freaking out about how great this is. I only have medium eggs so I used 6, otherwise followed recipe exactly until baking time, when I baked at 355 F. No burning problems at all, I just kept an eye on it. My only problem is the "one hour" cooking time at the top. What is one hour? one hour of labor total? I wish I hadn't been such a dumbkopf and actually believed that "one hour"! It's a lot of hours from start to finish.

Here's my trick for making what looks like a 6-braid challah, only much easier. Use 2/3 of the dough to make a large 3-braid loaf, and the remaining 1/3 to make a smaller one. Brush them both with your egg wash and then place the smaller one atop the larger.

Have made this 3 Times now. The 3rd was the best. I braided the dough, then froze it overnight. I also used 3/4 cup plus one tablespoon sugar, not just 1/2 cup plus one tablespoon. The next day, I let them come to room temp, about 5 hours on the tray, covered and then baked them. My husband has been eating challah for 47 years, he said it was the best he ever had.