Challah!

Today’s post has some pictures of my latest baking adventure, where I dove into an area of baking I have not yet tried before: bread! More specifically, challah, the most delicious, light, and airy bread I know. Anyway, like before, I took a recipe from Smitten Kitchen, apple and honey challah. It took a lot of effort and time rising, but it was totally worth it.

I decided that, since I had enough materials to make two and there was a dinner party creeping up, that I would make two at once. Here’s a picture of the dough rising (it’s all the dough in a double recipe, FYI):

Some people don’t like kneading dough, but I think that ceramics has helped me, since I am not at all averse to it. So, I kneaded this sucker well. Anyway, a few hour of rising and baking later (including braiding the thing into a circle), I ended up with the following two loaves:

Mmm, and they’re just as delicious as they look. Next time I’ll try to focus more on making it a circle, but I think this is a good first try. Has anyone else made challah? Any advice on the next loaf I make, especially in the area of shaping?