Easy-Braid Challah (Cook’s Illustrated)

Our kids’ school offers a challah fundraiser, where they arrange to bring in loaves on Friday mornings, and the kids who participate get a fresh loaf to bring home. Since we’ve been staying at home the past two months, I’ve been making challah regularly. This past week, I tried something new that made the fluffiest, moistest challah ever.

The recipe is from the May 2019 issue of Cook’s Illustrated. It’s a very detailed, very thorough guide to making challah, for people with little experience making challah. The authors employ the tangzhong technique, where you heat a small bit of water and flour to make a “water roux”, a flour paste. This keeps the dough feeling dry (so it’s easier to handle and shape) while trapping water (so the baked loaf is moist).

I liked their 4-strand braiding guide, which uses a clock metaphor to identify the strands. And I also liked that the loaf was notably moister than my regular challahs. It baked up quite impressively. I’m looking forward to making this my regular challah, and will try their round challah shaping technique next week.