Braided Cinnamon Bread (Cinnamon Challah)

Challah is a special Jewish braided bread eaten on Sabbath and Jewish holidays. Most traditional challah recipes use 2 eggs, fine white flour, water,sugar, yeast, and salt. They could also have more complicated braids. This recipe is for a simple "water challah", which are made without eggs. If you use 2 beaten eggs, reduce the total amount of water/milk by 1/2 cup.

If you like Semi Freddie's cinnamon twist bread, you might want to try this recipe.

This is courtesy of Ting Liu in preparation for her bread workshop.

Ingredients

Active dry yeast - 1 tsp
Water - 1/2 cup

Milk - 1/4 cup
Bread flour - 2 cups
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Unsalted butter - 2 TBSP, softened/melted

Ground cinnamon - 1/4 cup (~20g)

Cast sugar - 1/4 cup(~20g) (can use spice grinder to grind granulated sugar)

Yield: 1 Loaf

Steps

1. In a measuring cup, sprinkle yeast into lukewarm water, add 1 tsp of sugar, stir and leave it for 5 minutes until the surface is foamy.

2. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt together, make a well in the center and pour in the yeast solution.

3. Add melted butter, use a wooden spoon to mix all ingredients together.

4. Transfer the dough to a floured surface to knead. With the heel of your hands, knead the dough for 10 minutes until the dough is firm to the touch, elastic, and has a smooth surface. Add a little flour at a time if dough is too sticky after kneading. (The kneading and rising of the dough can be done with a bread machine. Set it to "dough only setting", add wet ingredients first, then add dry ingredients).

5. Place the kneaded dough in a large lightly oiled bowl. Do not use metal bowl. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and let it rise until doubled in size. (in warm weather, it takes about 1 1/2 hours. In order to make the dough rise faster, you can turn on the oven to 170°F for a few minutes or so then turn if off, place the dough container in the warm oven)

6. To ensure the rising is complete, test the dough by gently pressing with a fingertip. The dent should spring back gradually, not at once. Punch down the dough with your fist.

7. Preheat oven to 350F

8. Divide dough into 3 equal parts, roll each part into a rope.

9. In a small bowl, mix ground cinnamon, cast sugar with 1 TBSP of water to make a paste. Paste has to be thick,otherwise it won't stay on the dough.

10. With a pastry brush/basting brush, coat the 3 ropes with cinnamon sugar paste.

11. Pinch 1 ends of the ropes together, start braiding, the pinch the other ends together.

12. Place the braided dough into a greased loaf pan, cover and let it rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

13. Glaze(optional) with egg glaze: beat an egg with a pinch of salt, brush it on the surface of the dough.

14. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until golden. Remove from the loaf pan and cool on a wire rack.