honey apple challah

I really love making bread. Although I was teased on facebook, I will say it again - there is something beautifully rhythmic and physical about kneading dough, and I love it. This was definitely a process to make - I think the whole process took me about 5 hours, but a lot of the time was spent letting it rise and bake. In terms of overall effort, it wasn't too much: initial mixing, kneading, mixing in the apples, and braiding were the active steps. And I promise, even though braiding bread sounds hard, it really isn't! If you get confused, check out SK's post for this and look at her step by step photos. I didn't have any trouble at all and have never made challah before.

My only comments about this recipe, which she does mention and I just didn't pay close attention ahead of time, are that I think the apples should have some cinnamon-sugar mixture on them first before mixing them into the bread and that this makes great french toast. I made it today for brunch for myself and sprinkled cinnamon-sugar on the eggy bread before I put it in the pan, and it tasted heavenly. So there's a good chance that the rest of my roll/loaf/whatever you call a whole challah will be eaten in that delicious form.

*If you measure your oil in your 1/3 cup measuring cup first, and then your honey, the honey will slide right out.

Makes 1 round woven challah

Bread
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 standard 1/4-ounce packet) active dry yeast
1/3 cup (79 ml) plus 1 teaspoon honey
1/3 cup (79 ml) neutral oil, plus more for the bowl
2 large eggs plus 1 large yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons (8 grams) table salt
4 1/4 cups all-purpose (530 grams) or bread flour (578 grams), plus more for your work surface

Apple filling
2 medium baking apples (I love baking with MacIntoshes), peeled, cored and in 1/2- to 3/4-inch chunks
Squeeze of lemon juice, to keep them from browning
[I recommend mixing some cinnamon-sugar on them]
[Also, I found that my chunks seemed rather large, so I would make them smaller even though I'm sure mine measured 1/2 - 3/4 inches]

Egg wash
1 large egg
Coarse or pearl sugar for sprinkling (optional)

[Total time for this: mix + knead, 1 hour rise, apples in, 30 min rise, braid, 45 min rise, 45 min baking = work time + 2h15m rising + 45 min baking = 3h45 min at the least]

Make your dough: 
Whisk yeast and 1 teaspoon honey into 2/3 cup warm water and let stand until foamy, a few minutes.

With a stand mixer: 
In the bowl of a stand mixture, whisk together yeast mixture, oil, remaining honey (1/3 cup), eggs and yolk. Switch to dough hook and add 4 1/4 cups flour and salt. Use dough hook on a moderate speed until it pulls all of the flour and wet ingredients together into a craggy mass. Lower the speed and let the dough hook knead the dough for 5 minutes, until smooth, elastic and a little sticky.

[I have a weird attachment for my mixer that I assume is for dough, so I used that, but after it got everything combined into a ball, I went ahead and kneaded it for 5 minutes on my counter instead of having it do that since it didn't seem quite as good. Perhaps if I had the correct dough hook instead of the loop that I have, it would have worked, but I don't know.]

By hand:
In a large bowl, whisk together yeast mixture, oil, remaining honey (1/3 cup), eggs and yolk. Add flour all at once and stir with a wooden spoon until you get a craggy mass of uneven dough. Turn dough out onto a floured counter and knead it into a smooth, elastic dough, about 5 to 8 minutes. Try to use as little flour as necessary when kneading the dough; you don’t want to toughen the bread. A bench scraper can make it really easy to remove it from the counter if it gets stuck in a spot. [More bread tips here.]

Both methods: 
Transfer dough to large oil-coated bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 1 hour, or until almost doubled in size.

Add apples to dough: 

• Turn dough out onto a floured counter and gently press it down into a flat, oblong shape. The shape does not matter so however it goes, it goes. 
• Spread 2/3 of apple chunks over 1/2 of the flattened dough. 
• Fold the other half over the apple chunks and press the dough down around them, flattening the now lumpy dough. 
• Spread the remaining 1/3 apple chunks over half the folded dough. 
• Fold the other half over the apples, pressing the dough down again. Your dough packet will likely be square-ish. 
• Fold the corners under with the sides of your hands and form the dough into a round. 
• Upend your empty bowl over and set it aside for another 30 minutes.

Weave your bread: 

• Divide dough into 4 pieces. 
• Roll and stretch each one as carefully as you can into a rope — don’t worry about getting it too long or thin, just 12 inches or so should do. 
• If any apple chunks fall out as you form the ropes or at any other time in the forming of the loaf or risings, just poke them back in with your finger.
• Arrange two strands in each direction, perpendicular to each other, like a plus sign. 
• Weave them so that one side is over, and the other is under, where they meet. So, now you’ve got an 8-legged woven-headed octopus. 
• Take the four legs that come from underneath the center and move them over the leg to their right, i.e. jumping it. 
• Take those legs that were on the right and again, jump each over the leg before, this time to the left. If you had extra length to your ropes, you can repeat these left-right jumps until you run out of rope. For me, this was enough. 
• Just as you had with the folded packet of apple dough above, tuck the corners/odd bumps under the dough with the sides of your hands to form a round.

Transfer the dough to a parchment-covered heavy baking sheet or baker’s peel (if you’ll be using a bread stone). Beat egg until smooth and brush over challah.

Let challah rise for another hour but 45 minutes into this rise, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Bake your loaf: 
Before baking, brush loaf one more time with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar if you’re using it. Bake in middle of oven for 40 to 45 minutes. It should be beautifully bronzed; if yours starts getting too dark too quickly, cover it with foil for the remainder of the baking time. The very best way to check for doneness in any bread but especially on like this where the wetness of the apples can slow down the baking time a bit, is with an instant read thermometer — the center of the loaf should be 195 degrees.