I love challah. There’s a bakery near us that makes wonderful challah and I’ve been known to buy three loaves at a time so I can freeze some. I have a challah recipe of my own from a friend, but it’s never quite as good as bakery challah.

I was excited to learn that this week’s Martha Monday was Apple Honey Challah, from Sept Martha Stewart Living. If you’re going to make this recipe, you need to plan to spend the day at home. This thing rises three separate times! It took me about 6 hours from start to finish.

It wasn’t hard to make – your basic bread ingredients mostly. The biggest challenge I encountered was the apples. The recipe says to use apples that are sliced 1/4 inch thick. Slices do not work! I spent a long time, kneading away, trying to keep the apple slices in the bread. They fell out, landed on the floor, or simply would not incorporate. Finally, I pulled as many out as I

could find and chopped them up. Then they easily mixed into the dough.

This recipe did what it was supposed to otherwise – rose when it was supposed to and rolled out nicely and fit in the pan well.

Before you put it in the oven, you brush it with honey and butter and then brush it again once it comes out. This definitely enhances the natural sweetness of the bread.

I baked mine about 10  minutes longer than the recipe says because it just

was not brown enough on the outside. I made this earlier in the day and ended up putting it back in the oven to warm it for dinner, so it had some extra baking time.

This was wonderful bread. The honey makes it very sweet. It’s tender and soft and smells heavenly. The apples were not very noticeable and if I made this again, I would just skip them since I didn’t feel it added much. I did have one problem – the center of my bread was not cooked! I had raw dough at the very center.

Everyone enjoyed this and all but the raw dough disappeared at dinner. I plan to heat the remains up in the oven and try to finish baking them. Other than that, this went very well and I was so proud of the way it looked! This was just as good as bakery challah!

I love challah. There’s a bakery near us that makes wonderful challah and I’ve been known to buy three loaves at a time so I can freeze some. I have a challah recipe of my own from a friend, but it’s never quite as good as bakery challah. I was excited to learn that this … Read more →