Ten years ago, it was a blessing of a Jewish New Year to enjoy a visit from my dear friend Sheryl, who was a fellow PhD student with me at the University of Virginia in the late 1990s. While this is not an observant household, the occasion was well-suited to my hopes of being a proper host for that all-too-rare company from California, with the challah culinary centerpiece taking a lovely braided round form, as befits the holiday. Now has passed a decade, much too quickly, and while Sheryl was not able to make it back last weekend, I still marked the occasion with a fresh loaf of braided round challah.
Around mid-day, I got going with the slow build of the yeasted dough, which achieved marvelous rise in two separate one-hour increments, as noted above. Then I divided it up and created long ropes of dough ready for braiding together, beginning with this pattern:
Then, I braided each of the extended portions of this great X:
Those braided extensions were then rolled under, placed into a springform pan, and given an initial egg wash:
Oh, it baked up to be rather gorgeous...and proved to be tasty enough that a sizable hunk was all that I needed for supper. Let's call it a great challah day.
Challah Recipe from Tori Avey, The Shiksa in the Kitchen [Updated 08 May 2023], which I first discovered thanks to the Bon Appétit website. [Published 04 September 2013]
Guidance for braiding the challah from "How to Braid Round Challah - Quick and Easy," from CookKosher.com on YouTube.
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