Sephardic Challah With Whole Spices Recipe (2024)

I'd like to revise my opinion. The bread really comes into its own the day AFTER baking. We nibbled on it the first day but it wasn't anything to write home about. But this morning at breakfast, this bread suddenly had great personality. Given this, I heartily recommend it.

Can you please also provide instructions for hand-kneading? I

A real masterpiece both in terms of looks, this eggy turban,and flavor with a wonderful silky crumb. (I didn't use eggs and used the lesser amounts of olive oil and honey. I find too much honey makes things bitter). My only quibble is with the oven temperature and the baking time. At 400° the bread was so dark at 25 minutes I removed it from the oven. 200° internal temperature and perfect crumb.
When I make it again I'll do it at 375° for 30 minutes

I wish I could see a picture of step 6. Do I roll each piece into a super-thin rope and then coil it up like a snail? Making two snails? That would seem to make a flat spiral, but the picture looks much more dome-like...

400 degrees is too hot. My first loaf was burned in 20 minutes, but not completely cooked in the center. A mess. For the second loaf, I reduced oven temp to 350 degrees F.

You are correct, 3/4 cup is 180ml not 120ml.

It seems one of the cup/milliliter amounts in step 4 is off.

Just took my first try at these out of the oven. I used the optional eggs and began with the recommended amount of water, but the dough remained really stiff and dry. I wound up adding at least another 7-8 Tbsp of water, and might even use a little more next time. Maybe my eggs were smaller than expected?

I made the dough in a bread machine and then baked in the oven for about 30 minutes. It was beautiful bread, and fairly tasty. I used three tablespoons honey and would have liked it a little sweeter. I also cut the salt and rolled it however I wanted.

Made the challah and it was outstanding! I used 4.25 cups of flour plus a couple of tablespoons for the kneading/shaping. I started the yeast in a 0.25 cup of warm water with a little bit of the honey and then poured it into the mixture. Even with the lesser amount of flour, I had to add another 2 Tb of water. I also used 2.5 Tb of honey rather than the entire 4 Tb. I didn't have any poppy seeds, so I added black sesame instead.
The breads were very similar to the photo in the NYTimes.

What is commonly called "caraway" in North African cooking is not what we call kimmel that is used in seeded rye bread. It's Nigella Sativa, sometimes called black sesame seed.

Made it yesterday with eggs and 45 g honey, tried it this morning. Tasty! Future bakers, have a light hand with your coiling--I did mine too tight and the loaf grew up in the center, looking like, no other way to say it, the poop emoji. As a result, had to bake it a little longer to get to 190 degrees in the center and the crust was fairly dark ("bien cuit"). 400 was too hot in my oven, particularly given the dense center, so I took it down to 365 after the first 20 minutes. Would make again!

Check your oven temperature; came out fine for me at 400.

I just took mine out of the oven, and the centers puffed up high enough to make them look like turbans. Next time I'd try to make the spirals as flat as possible to keep them only gently-domed. (I imagine they'll taste just fine, however.)

Also only had instant yeast so used 11/2 tsp and added it right with the flour which eliminated the first proof .

I make this challah with a mixture of rye flour, whole wheat flour and bread flour and it comes out amazing.

this turned out great! i made it without a kitchenaid. i followed the instructions as they are, but hand stirred with a danish dough wisk and switched to kneading when i added the seeds, yeast and salt.i scoffed at using 2 egg yolks, but i used every bit of them for the loaves.

I used the low end of honey and oil, no eggs, kneaded completely by hand, baked at 385 for ~20 minutes then 400 for ~10 minutes. It came out totally gorgeous and absolutely delicious!

I made it by hand and baked it at 350. I also found that it tasted more delicious on the second day. I will reduce the salt next time.

I was nervous about the notes that 400 was too hot but 30 minutes at that temperature worked perfectly. I put the minimum amount of honey but would use more or more raisins next time, otherwise really good.

I found this was a little too salty. Sixteen grams is a lot of salt. I weighed 1 Tbsp of kosher salt and it was 7 grams. If you weigh your ingredients, be aware.

Add 50g water additional.Rise for an hour on the island, then in the refrigerator for a day or two.Bake at 325oF for 30 minutes.

Loved this recipe!

375 for 30 minutes

Egg wash 30 minute wait egg wash procedure was a revelation — so beautiful! It’s true it’s better the next day, and makes lovely toast.

Recipe written for standing mixer. For hand mixing it would be better to add the salt and yeast with all the other ingredients and then do a minimal kneading to mix in the seeds and raisins before the first rising.

I messed up and used bad yeast, so I ended up turning the challah into flatbread that I cooked in a cast iron skillet. If anyone else messes up their yeast don't worry, this dough makes a delicious flatbread !

I think the salt should go in with all of the other dry ingredients. I understand that it omitting it at the beginning could slightly benefit the rise but the dough is so dry that incorporating the salt at the point the recipe calls for is a bit difficult. I will either put the salt in at the beginning or hold back some of the water to dilute it.

The provided temperature is too high. 325oF worked for me.

I added an additional 15g water; I should have added more.