Challah Bread— haa-luh

Pronounced as haa-luh, this bread is of Eastern European origin and is very much special to the Jewish community. As Challah is kosher, its recipe is often without milk and butter unlike milk buns recipes. In fact, Challah is pretty much similar with Brioche — the only difference is Brioche uses butter while Challah uses vegetable oil.

I love how this recipe is has the right amount of sweetness from the honey, has a good level of flavor and is stringy when pulled apart. The texture is definitely not as light & airy as soft milk buns because it isn’t meant to be that way — it’s really perfect as a toast, or to be accompanied with savory condiments/spreads and even toasted for soups.

My Challah recipe have been converted to suit my AF oven and also usual household consumption volume. Source here from King Arthur’s site

Tin Size: 2 x 8inch flat square pan
Yield: 2 braided loaves
Recipe for: Air Fryer Oven

INGREDIENTS BELOW:
230g Bread Flour + 70g AP Flour
3.5g Instant Yeast
20g Fine Sugar
25g Honey
3.5g Fine Salt
135ml Water (I replaced with milk for a little more flavor)
1 Egg
40g Vegetable Oil — I am using Organic Blue Ribbon Camellia Seed Oil

DOUGH PREP METHOD BELOW — similar to how we do all other bread:
1) Sieve bread flour into mixing bowl. Add in yeast, sugar then whisk it to incorporate the dry ingredients evenly. Add in honey, water (or milk), egg, oil & salt

STAND MIXER METHOD BELOW (using dough hook) — no hand mixer method as I have not tested this using hand mixer and it’s too tacky to do so:
1) Use Speed 1 to bring together all the ingredients for 2mins while lightly scrapping the sides to the middle using spatula so the dry ingredients come together

2) At 2mins you will see the dough coming together then shift to Speed 2 for 3 mins to knead the dough

3) Stop the mixer and scrape down the dough from the hook and let it rest for 3 minutes. Once 3 minutes is up, continue to knead the dough at Speed 2 for 1min then progress to Speed 4 for 4mins. Let dough rest for another 3 minutes

**This dough will look tacky but don’t worry about it, this is how challah dough texture is like**

4) After resting the dough, knead the dough at Speed 4 for 5 minutes. Test your dough by stretching it to see if it stretches well without breaking immediately & if it passes the “window pane test”. You can start your 1st proofing once this is done.

**When you test for window pane, you will realise that the stretch is a little tighter than soft milk buns, don’t worry, this is how it is like. Just put it to proof once you see some form of a window pane**

5) Smoothen up & lightly tighten the dough then place them into a bowl. No need to dust flour as the dough is with oil so it will pretty much be easy to remove from the bowl later. Cover with a cling wrap or towel. Proof it for 1hr or till double in size

**For Standmixer user, you can refer to my video guide here under “Standmixer 101” section**

SHAPING METHOD :
1) After 1hr, remove the dough from mixing bowl. This recipe yields around 540g of dough

2) Portion the dough out into 2 (270g each half) and gently shape it. Let it rest on the surface for 15mins under cling wrap/cloth

3) Press down each dough with a rolling pin to remove any air bubbles from the dough. Roll the dough into a rectangular shape using a rolling pin — this will determine the length of your challah bread so you can choose if you want a long or short challah shape. Also this method is easier to get equal size for the braid strips. I rolled it to about a 20cm in length. Divide the dough into 4 equal strips and rolled each strip to unflatten it

4) Start to do a 4-strip braid (you can do a 3 strip braid as well). You can google on YouTube for the various braiding design. Repeat for the other half of the dough.

**Do not braid too tight as it might result in a bread tear in the middle of all your braids during bake**

5) Place each dough onto your lined flat square pan

6) Cover them with cling wrap/cloth & proof it for another 45–50mins or until dough doubles in size. Depending on the temperature in your home, some cooler condition require a little longer proofing

7) If your oven can only take one bake at a time, place one half into the fridge to slow down the proofing

8) Egg wash the first half and sprinkle sesame seeds over it and put to bake. Remove the other half from the fridge once your first bake is left with a remaining bake time of 5 mins and start to egg wash it as well

AIR FRYER BAKING METHOD BELOW:
1) Pre-heat AF @ 150degrees for 5mins

2) Bake @ 150degrees for 17mins (do not open the Air Fryer) Do test your temperature and adjust accordingly. High temperature will have your dough rise too fast & cause air holes

3) Remove your Challah from the AF to be cooled on rack without the baking paper

4) Let your Challah cool for at least 2 hours before you slice them. This is to allow the loaf structure to settle otherwise, you may risk causing a small dense layer at the bottom due to the pressure of pressing the loaf while slicing. I prefer to cool mine overnight as it is easier for slicing (for overnight cool down, I would usually put it on a cooling rack in my oven before I head to bed OR just on a cooling rack outside, covered with a cotton cloth)

Hope this recipe helps all AF bakers out there. Do try to batch test for the right temperature and bake timing since Air Fryers may vary due to different circumstances (usage frequency, size and model)

MORE RECIPES HERE :)