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Challah Buns and Braids

Posted by jenny on 04/15/2010
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Challah Buns and Braids

Do you want to get really good at something? You have to practice. Malcolm Gladwell said it takes something like 10000 hours of doing the same thing to master it, but maybe that's if you're trying to win the Tour de France or fly a plane. You start developing muscle memory - the unconscious movement used to perform a task - much earlier than that, probably under 200 hours. Of course, I'm no scientist or Malcolm Gladwell, sadly - but I can tell you a little something about my experience with muscle memory and bread baking.

A few months ago I wrote about my love of broa, a Portuguese cornmeal bread that Emma and I baked tons of while we worked at Tango and La Tienda Cadiz. But broad wasn't the only bread Bennie had us baking. We baked challah buns daily for Cadiz, used in sandwiches for the cafe. Even though we didn't bake as much of it as we had broa, it's clear that I'd developed the muscle memory after just a hundred or so buns. The buns I baked this week looked exactly as good as they had the last time I baked them, probably 7 years ago. Put the dough in my hands, they just knew what to do. Challah burger buns

Challah is a forgiving bread, full of honey and yeast and fat, and it's been my luck that no matter what shape I put into the oven, it always comes our fat and glossy and wrinkle-free. I made two different challah shapes this week - buns and a braid - because it stores well in the freezer and we can always use buns for sandwiches. In fact, we used the buns for homemade veggie burgers that night and together it was perfect.

This is an easy bread, very elastic and you don't need to dust the counter to knead or form the loaves.


Challah (adapted from Baking with Julia)
2 T butter, melted
1+1/2 T yeast
1/2 c tepid water
1/3 c sugar
1 stick butter
1 c whole milk
1 T honey
2+1/2 tsp salt
4 wggs
6+1/2 c bread, high-gluten, or AP flour

  1. Brush a mixing bowl with melted butter and set aside.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk the yeast into the water and add a pinch of sugar. Set aside to bloom.
  3. In a small saucepan, warm the milk with the butter until the butter is completely melted and the milk warmed throughout. Don't allow the milk to scorch.
  4. Pour the milk into a large mixing bowl and add the remaining sugar, honey, and salt and stir well to dissolve. Rest the mixture until it cools to 110F or lower.
  5. Add the yeast mixture to the milk mixture.
  6. Add the eggs to the mixture. If using a stand mixer, attach the kneading attachment and add about 5 c of flour and mix on low speed until combined.
  7. Continue adding flour until the dough is soft and cleans the sides of the bowl.
  8. Knead on medium low for 8 - 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth, elastic and passes the windowpane test.
  9. Roll the dough into a ball and place it in the buttered mixing bowl and brush with more melted butter. Cover and rise for 60 - 90 minutes, or until doubled in size.
  10. Deflate and rise again for 45 - 60 minutes or until doubled in size.
  11. Preheat the oven to 375F.
  12. Shape the dough into braids or buns and allow to rise on a parchment-paper lined sheet for around 40 minutes. 
  13. Brush the bread with an egg wash and bake for 20 - 40 minutes, depending on the size of the bread you're baking.

Tips and Tricks

  • I added a few pinches of saffron threads crushed with my fingers. This gives the dough an interesting color and feature. Add them to the milk.
  • If you don't have time to make the dough all at once, you can retard the dough overnight in the fridge before forming it. That will allow it to slow down and develop flavor.
  • My braids are topped with nigella seeds, just to change the look and taste of the bread, but you can add just about anything (or nothing) and it will look great as long as you use the egg wash before baking. Challah really benefits from a nice glossy sheen.
  • I cut the buns before freezing them so I can pop them out and use them quickly.
  • If you want to practice braiding, you can go to the hardware store and get a few lengths of nylon rope and band them together with a rubberband. That way you can braid and braid and braid and not waste dough, and you can practice on 3, 4, 5, and even 6 strands at once. Get nylon rope that's 3/4" thick or less to match how thick your dough ropes would be.