Conquering an Apple Honey Challah

Growing up my family always ate Shabbat dinner together. The Friday night meal was central to our celebration and observance of Shabbat, and included candle lighting kiddush, and motzi over challah. My memories of our Shabbat challah during my childhood are quite distinct. While an wonderful cook, my mom is a fearful baker and figured out a clever shortcut to producing home baked challah. Each week she purchased a Kinneret frozen challah dough, braided and packaged in a tiny blue box. All the baker had to do was pop it out onto a baking sheet, let it rise in the windowsill for an hours, cover it with an egg wash, and bake it. Presto - mom's version of homemade challah. Not to complain ... challah is challah, and the Kinneret frozen dough baked fresh was still better than the mass produced loaves we ate during oneg Shabbat at day school.

Years later my father decided to take over the challah preparations. Initially he tackled it by use of a bread maker, but has since abandoned the machine and does it all by his two hands. Typically I find any excuse to poke fun of my dad, and give him a hard time ... but not when it comes to baking challah. The man is a master. He can make just about any challah - varying numbers of braids, shapes, fillings, toppings, doughs. For years I was frozen in his shadow, not even daring to try and bake a challah on my own. About a year ago, however, I decided to conquer my fear and asked him for his recipe and insider tips. While my challot are just not as good as his, I was relieved to learn that I could do it!

With a year of practice under my belt, and a request from friends to bake challah for their sukkah dinner party, I decided to stretch myself and tackle a more complex recipe - a round Apple Honey Challah adapted from SmittenKitchen.com. The dough itself was fairly easy to make, and is hardly sticky (one of the more annoying aspects of many challah dough recipes). The filling is also rather easy to put together. My troubles began when it came time to roll the apple filled dough into ropes - OY! The recipe called for 2 peeled and chopped apples, but I recommend downsizing to 1 1/2 at most. There were just too many chunks for apples. You also have to read through the weaving procedure a couple of times to really take it in. It seemed confusing until I had the ropes in front of me and didn't have to pretend visualize.

That being stated, I was pretty darn impressed with how it came out for my first try, and definitely recommend the recipe!

APPLE HONEY CHALLAH

from www.smittenkitchen.com

Yields: 1 challah

Bread Ingredients:
2 ¼ tsp. (1 standard 1/4-ounce packet) active dry yeast
1/3 cup plus 1 tsp. honey
1/3 cup neutral oil, plus more for the bowl
2 large eggs plus 1 large yolk
1 ½ tsp. table salt
4 ¼ cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus more for your work surface

Apple Filling:
1 ½ medium baking apples (ex: MacIntosh), peeled, cored and in ½- to ¾-inch chunks
Squeeze of lemon juice, to keep them from browning

Egg Wash:
1 large egg
Coarse or pearl sugar

Instructions:

1. Whisk yeast and 1 teaspoon honey into 2/3 cup warm water and let stand until foamy, a few minutes.
2. 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 ¼ 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. OR, 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.
   
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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. Beat egg and sugar until smooth and brush over challah. Let challah rise for another hour but 45 minutes into this rise, preheat your oven to 375° F.
   
7. Bake your loaf: Before baking, brush loaf one more time with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds (optional). 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 ones like this where the wetness of the apples can slow down the baking time a bit, is with an instant read thermometer —center of the loaf should be 195° F.

SHE'ELAH: During the high holiday season it is tradition to eat challot with a round shape.  There are many interpretations for this practice.  One draws the meaning of the Hebrew word "shanah," most often translated as "year."  The root of the word "shanah" has two specific, conflicting meanings: 1) "repeat/cycle" 2) "change".  Each year our cycle repeats, but each year is also filled with great change.  As you look at the round challah give thought to these questions: In what significant way did my life change this past year?  What change do I want to pursue in the upcoming year?