Sunday, July 22, 2012

Round Challah

Round challahs are perfect for Rosh Hashanah, but they can really be made whenever.

Step 1: Divide the dough into four equal balls.


Step 2: Roll out the balls into strands. The longer the strands the more braiding you will have to do.


Step 3: Arrange the strands like the photo below, using an over under pattern.


Step 4: Moving counterclockwise, cross 2 over 1, 8 over 7, 6 over 5, and 4 over 3.


Step 5: Reverse and go clockwise, bringing 1 over 4, 3 over 6, 5 over 8, and 7 over 2.


Step 6: Working counterclockwise again, bring 4 over 7, 2 over 5, 8 over 3, and 6 over 1.


Step 7: Back to clockwise, bring 7 over 6, 1 over 8, 3 over 2, and 5 over 4.


As you can probably tell, every step you do follows the under over pattern. If a strand went over one step it will have to go under the next step.

Because of the length of my strands I had to use 4 steps to braid my challah (steps 4-7). If your strands are very long you may need to use more than 4 steps to braid the challah. In this case just continue the pattern until there is not enough length in the strands to continue braiding. If your strands are small you may not need to use all four of the steps above, steps 4-7, but rather only steps 4-6 and skip step 7.

Step 8: Pinch the end of the strands together to create loops.


Step 9: Flip the challah over and pinch all the strands together underneath.


Step 10: Flip the challah back over and you are done!


Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. It may take longer depending on how big the challah is after braiding it. You want the internal temperature to be about 170 degrees, or until the center is no longer doughy. To prevent too much browning on the outside we covered the challah with foil in the oven.


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