Braid Bread
three-braid whole-wheat, my first handmade bread
© 2011 by KV5R — Rev. Jan. 28, 2011.
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I would call this a challah, because it sorta looks like one, but it isn’t really, as I didn’t use eggs in it. I didn’t even use a recipe—it’s just regular whole-wheat bread (one-third whole wheat and two-thirds Better for Bread), honey, yeast, and water; lightly topped with olive oil, garlic powder, and oregano.
Procedure
This is the standard “1-2-3” recipe, slightly modified. The basic recipe is 3 cups flour, 2 teaspoons yeast, and 1¼ cup water (and honey).
I didn’t take any pictures during the mixing and kneading, because my hands were doughy. I more-or-less followed a challah-making video from Youtube, about like this:
- Put 4 Tbsp honey in a measuring cup, added warm water up to 1¼ cup; mixed; added 2 tsp rapid-rise yeast, ¼ cup of flour, and a dash of celery salt. Mixed well and let stand 10 minutes. Note that I didn’t use pre-ferment yeast, but did it that way anyhow, just to get it working faster.
- Poured that into a big SS mixing bowl, added 1 cup whole-wheat (WW) flour and 1 cup Better-for-Bread (B4B) and started mixing with one (clean) hand. Gradually added the 3rd cup of flour, and a bit more, and worked it by hand until the dough stopped being sticky.
- Put the glob on a lightly floured cutting board and kneaded for about 10 minutes. Then shaped it into a big ball.
- Washed and dried the big mixing bowl, then sprayed with olive oil. Put dough ball in it and covered with cling wrap and a cup-towel.
- Let it rise for an hour.
- Put it back on the cutting board and punched-down; kneaded a little, and then divided into 3 equal parts.
- Rolled each of the three into ropes, about 1 inch thick and 12 inches long.
- Sprayed a 9x13 cookie sheet and laid the three dough ropes on it. Braided them and pinched the ends together.
- Sprayed top with olive oil, sprinkled with garlic powder and oregano.
- Covered with towel; let rise again until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
- Preheated oven to about 375°F and baked uncovered for 35-40 minutes.
- When top was golden, removed and let cool for 30 minutes.
- Cut and enjoy!
Ain’t that purrrrrdy?
Not bad—for a beginner!
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