Challah Comparison

As I've mentioned before, I really enjoy making Challah. Luckily, my husband really enjoys eating Challah, so I've got plenty of opportunities for baking it. It's such a "hands on" dough that, as a baker, you really feel involved in the outcome. Every time I've made Challah, I've braided the dough; though you can put the dough into loaf pans, or twist it into a "turban" style loaf, I just love how beautiful the braid is once it's baked to a rich, golden brown. Working the three portions of the dough, seeing your hard-won braid awaiting baking, and finally taking the flaky finished product out of the oven, all just gives you such a sense of accomplishment. The first time I made a loaf, I did a dance when I took it out of the oven and saw how perfect it looked. I even sent pictures to all of my family and friends to show off my hard work!

Until recently, I've always worked from the same basic recipe from the always-popular Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook. You know, that red plaid cookbook that your mom has had forever? It's been a steady go-to on my shelf of cookbooks, often overshadowing the others. I love this cookbook because of it's classic recipes. It seems like everything that this book turns out, ends up just like Mom used to make it. Maybe because the book's been around so long! Either way, this is where I got my first Challah recipe.

My second Challah recipe came from a newly acquired cookbook, The Bread Bible. Upon deciding to start a blog, I felt the need to step up my repertoire a bit; so, I consulted Beth Hensperger and her award-winning recipes. When I saw that she, too, had a Challah recipe, I decided to do a comparison bake.

Starting with the basic ingredients of the recipes, the differences are noticeable, but not drastic:

Better Homes & Gardens

• 4 3/4 - 5 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 3 tbsp non-dairy margarine
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• Egg Glaze (water, yolk)
• poppy seeds

The Bread Bible

• 7 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups warm water
• 2 tbsp active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temp.
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp salt
• Egg Glaze (milk, yolk)
• poppy seeds

What struck me as interesting about The Bread Bible's Challah recipe, was that it called for proofing of the yeast with warm water. This activates the yeast and allows the resulting bread to rise higher. Better Homes & Gardens only required the yeast to be added to th

e dry ingredients. As a result, the dough produced by The Bread Bible's recipe rose considerably higher than BH&G's.

Following the instructions exactly, I found The Bread Bible's description of how to braid the Challah slightly lacking. Hensperger suggests working the braid from the middle out to the ends. It was too late to save the loaf by the time I realized how awfully I'd messed up the braid. The bread came out beautifully (and tastes great!) but it's not much to look at. Thus, I vastly prefer the instructions included in the BH&G book. Every time I've made Challah following their lead, the braid has come out wonderfully. Here are pictures of each, see if you can figure out which braid came from which book ;)

I ended up making this recipe again and this time used the ingredients from The Bread Bible and the braiding technique from BH&G. Here is the result:

It's a thing of beauty, eh? :)

Sources:

Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook. 14th ed. Vol. 1. Des Moines, Iowa: Meredith Books, 2006. Print.

Hensperger, Beth. The Bread Bible: 300 Favorite Recipes. San Fransisco: Chronicle Books, 1999.