May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads. Anyone who’s been reading around these parts for any length of time knows the perils I have faced while attempting to bake bread. Although I have had one wonderful success as well!
This month I can chalk up another WIN! I attempted and succeeded at making challah. When I logged onto the Daring Bakers forum to check out the May challenge, I immediately broke out into a cold sweat at the mere idea of tackling yeasted bread once again. Not only that, but one of the requirements of the challenge was that the bread MUST be braided. Another thing you know about me if you’ve been reading for a bit is that I am not a fan of working with dough at all. A baker, who hates working with dough. Sounds like an oxy moron, huh? It’s true though.
That being said, I was incredibly intimidated by the idea of attempting to braid dough into a beautiful loaf because surely this would result in disaster. But… surprise! It was not a disaster. In fact, it was gorgeous! I couldn’t believe my own eyes.
Then I baked that perfectly braided loaf up and it transformed into a deeply golden loaf of bread. I honestly couldn’t have been more proud. I always assume when there’s yeast involved that surely I will fail.
When we cut into the challah, it had a wonderfully crusty exterior. Inside the challah was soft and airy. I shared that bread with my family and my in-laws. It became the perfect accompaniment to our dinner that evening. It was incredibly easy to make and nearly impossible to screw up. In fact, the more I make bread these days the more I truly start to enjoy it. Perhaps I’ll be changing my tune about my loathing towards dough. Bread dough, that is. I still despise working with pie dough though! Who knows, perhaps that will change one day also.
Is there something that you work with in the kitchen that always gives you a challenge?
Enjoy!
~K
I changed nothing from the original recipe. You can find it HERE.
FoodBabbles 
Congratulations, what a beautiful loaf, I have been wanting to try my hand at Challah. You inspired me!
Thank you so very much! I’m so glad you are feeling inspired. You should definitely try it. It was really so very easy to make!
Not only did it look great, it tasted wonderful !
Aww, thanks!! 🙂
Wow. I mean WOW…looks gorgeous and love the idea of honey in challah…which I have yet to make myself for what it’s worth. I might just change that today; this recipe sounds perfect to me.
Thank you, Barb! You should definitely give it a try. I have had so many mishaps with bread in the past. This is so very easy to make and incredibly tasty!
This is GORGEOUS! Seriously – looks and sounds perfect. I love love challah and adding honey just sounds divine. My biggest baking challenge is making a decent crust – I usually wimp out and by Trader Joe’s frozen crust.
Thank you so very much, Deanna!! And I’m with you on the challenges of crusts. I mention often, my love of premade refrigerated pie crusts. Best thing ever!!!
Yeasted bread can definitely be tricky but this looks great and I know it tasted great, too 🙂 Good luck in your future bread baking adventures 😉
Thanks! Slowly but surely, I’m getting better at it
Your challah looks very scrumptious – well done! I added poppy seed to mine and that worked well too. I loved this challenge.
Thank you so much, Kristin! I can’t wait to see yours. Poppy seeds sound like such a nice addition.
You would never, ever know you ever had trouble with yeast and dough. Your challah looks like a Bubbie made it! I saw it on the photo sites this weekend, and it really stood out! I love how long you made your braid, and a perfect braid at that. BTW, did I ever tell you how much I love the name of this blog? I wish I had thought of it, as all I do is babble on my blog – about everything lol
Wow! Thank you so much Lisa. That was such a nice comment. And I’m so glad my pictures stood out amongst the photo sites since there are so many talented people whose pictures are featured. As for the name, thank you!! My husband actually came up with it. I had my Twitter name first, since I definitely tend to babble and then he spun off of that when I started the blog. Glad you like it!! I actually didn’t at first but it definitely has grown on me.
Is it weird for someone you have nevr met to be realy proud of you? Your challah looks beautiful, and the inside texture is perfect. This is totally a bread baking win for you! Thank you for braving it and baking with me this month!
Not weird at all! Thank you so much for being proud of me!! That means so very much to me.
This is PERFECTION! I’ll have to try this soon!
Thank you SO much Anna! It was so easy to make and seriously, it was just wonderful.