Pop Culture Care Package, Pt. 3 Again
Challah at ya girl, now with CORRECT ingredient measurements!
Dames Nation! You know what today is? It’s a great day to bake!
Only the best-quality puns here at the Dames Aerie
***UPDATE: I discovered, to my absolute horrified mortification during the #challahalong, that the recipe I sent out this morning includes wrong amounts for most of the ingredients, because of how I brought it over from an ancient Facebook Note (remember those?). I’ve corrected the measurements, adjusted the instructions to make them easier to follow, am deleting the previous version, and am sending this updated version of the issue to reduce the likelihood of you baking from the incorrect recipe. If I ruined your dough with my partially doubled measurements, I apologize from the bottom of my heart.***
I love to bake. I’m no good at all at cake or cookie decorating, but even I can make this challah look good, and better still, it tastes absolutely delicious every time, a total crowd-pleaser. It’s also a core part of Dames lore — Dame Margaret & I became friends via the Pop Culture Happy Hour Page (back when Pages were more like Groups), she saw I’d baked some & remarked that it looked great, and I sent her a tiny loaf, et voila! Here we are!
Baking is also super soothing and restorative for me. I love the process, I love the chemistry of it, and I love the result being something nourishing that I can share with people I love. This challah keeps well and is great to have in the freezer for a rainy day (or a sunny one — it makes great sandwich slices).
I meant to bake it on Saturday but am going to do so today instead. If you want to join me in a little bakealong, I’ll be starting at 12pm ET / 9am PT and will track the process using #challahalong on Twitter. Without further ado, here’s the recipe!
Sarah Weiner’s Challah
This is my great-grandmother’s challah recipe, first recorded by my Mom’s cousin at least 40 years ago. Members of my family have been baking these delicious loaves for the last century (and probably more, though we have no records from before they came to the US), and it makes me so happy to share the recipe with friends.
As I review the instructions, I notice that this recipe calls for three rises, but it’s so flexible and forgiving that you can do two and it’ll still turn out very tasty. You can even make it before bed, pop the dough in the fridge to rise super-slowly overnight and bake it up the next morning.
Ingredients for 4 standard loaves (or two really big ones, if you prefer. You can also halve all amounts for two loaf-sized loaves):
***I’ll use my kitchen scale to track dry ingredient quantities by mass and will add them to the web version of this issue***
10 cups all-purpose flour, measured using the dip & sweep method, then sifted (I use King Arthur flour)
2 packages instant dry yeast
1/2 c granulated sugar
2 3/4 c lukewarm water
3 tsp table salt (if you use kosher salt, here’s salt-type conversion info)
4 large eggs + 1 yolk, beaten
7/8 c canola oil (I sometimes like to use 1/2 olive, 1/2 canola oil)
cooking spray to grease your pans
1 egg white to brush tops of loaves with
Instructions:
Measure out the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast & then sift them into a large mixing bowl.
Make a well in the flour mixture & add all of the wet ingredients.
Mix the dough together with a large fork (or the dough hook of your stand mixer) until the flour is incorporated. Let the mixer do its work for 3-5 minutes, then turn it out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth, elastic & free of lumps. Put into a large, lightly greased bowl, cover & let rise until doubled in size, about an hour.
Turn the dough out onto your floured surface, kneading to get out all the large bubbles, turning the dough as you knead. Return the dough to the greased bowl, cover & let rise to double volume once more.
Grease all pans well w/cooking spray (or Crisco, if you prefer).
Preheat oven to 350F
Turn the risen dough out onto your floured surface, punch down & cut into four pieces.
Divide each of your pieces into thirds. If you have a kitchen scale, use it! Squish the pieces into long, fat snakes, braid & put into the pans. Cover the pans & let the dough rise to the top of the pan. Brush the tops w/egg white and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds (optional, but lovely). Bake around 30 mins at 350 F (rotating pans at 15 minute mark), or until golden on top & 190F inside.
(If you’re making two big loaves, you might want to do a four-strand braid for a lovely round loaf. This is the video I use to refresh my memory about how to do that.)
In the event that you have leftovers, this challah makes great French toast, bread pudding, and turkey stuffing, too. Happy baking, friends.
Hello, gorgeous!