Braided Round Challah

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Appears in Cook's Illustrated May/June 2019

Ritual and muscle memory have carried this soft, rich Jewish loaf through generations. A change in technique made the dough perfect for novice bread bakers.

SERVES Makes 1 Loaf

TIME 1¾ hours, plus 7 hours resting and cooling

Braided Round Challah

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

To make challah dough that was moist but malleable, we combined a short rest during kneading with a long fermentation; this built a sturdy but stretchy gluten network that made the dough easy to handle. We also employed a dough-mixing techn...

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