Apple Honey Challah

This bread smells amazing.

It was ten minutes into the baking time, and the house was thick with an eggy, rich aroma.

I've never made challah before, in part because I wasn't sure I'd get a result that was as satisfying as challah from the brookline bakery--a challah that you pulled apart with an eager tug, slightly chewy, rich but almost fluffy... this fit the bill.

The recipe is gently adapted from Smitten Kitchen. I formed the dough into two round braids, rather than one, and I found that Deb's recipe had too many apples for the dough to handle--when I tried it with two medium sized apples, chunks plopped out periodically during braiding.

Apple Honey Challah

from Smitten Kitchen

Bread

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

2/3 cup warm water

1/3 cup plus 1 tsp honey

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs plus 1 yolk

1 1/2 tsp salt

4 1/2 cups bread flour

2 small apples, peeled and chopped into 1/4 inch chunks.

1 large egg, whisked (egg wash)

Combine yeast, 1tsp honey and water. Allow to rest until the yeast gets foamy.

In the meantime, mix the rest of the honey, oil, salt and eggs and egg yolk in a large mixing bowl.

Add the yeast mixture to the other wet. Then add all of the flour. Mix until the dough starts to come together, and then turn it out on a floured surface and kneed unti you have a smooth, elastic dough. Turn it into an oiled bowl, and let it rise for an hour. (Be sure to chop the apples sometime before this hour is over.) After the hour, turn the dough out onto a flat surface and press it out into a oval.

Deposit 2/3 of the apples on one half of the oval. Fold the dough over, and press it down so the apple chunks are sealed into the dough. Repeat this again for the remainder of the apples, folding the dough in half a second time.Tuck the ends of the dough under it, and let rise for 30 minutes.

After the half hour, cut the dough in two. Cut each new dough ball into four sections, and carefully stretch the sections into logs (about 10 inches long).

Place the logs on the parchment where they will be baked, and braid the dough into a rounded loaf (see instructions here for weaving tips). Repeat for the second half, and coat both with the egg wash.

Allow for a third rise (yep. three rising periods in this one.) for about 50

minutes, and then toss it in a preheated oven at 375 degrees F for 35-40 minutes. If the loaf starts to brown too quickly, cover in foil for the rest of the baking time. It will be beautiful.