Bake

A Genius No-Knead Challah (That Tastes Just as Good on Day 3)

September  9, 2015

Every week, Food52's Executive Editor Kristen Miglore is unearthing recipes that are nothing short of genius.

Today: A better, easier, smarter homemade challah (L'shana tovah!).



By now we know that no-knead doughs—as dubious as they might sound—aren't an oxymoron or a lie. You can stir together a dough, largely ignore it, and the next day have bread—some of the more richly flavored, handsomely bubbled and crusted bread out there. Kneading is really going to have to make a stronger case for itself. Like the fanny pack has.



This is all because there's more than one way to build the strands of gluten that bread needs to trap air bubbles and form beautiful honeycombed networks of delicious carbohydrates and air: The first way is by agitating and working the dough (traditionally: kneading); the second is simply with time.

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In this genius challah recipe from Stir author and Sweet Amandine blogger Jessica Fechtor, the agitation comes in the form of a fold: a straightforward move (like the thing you did to all your socks last laundry day), which you'll do just five times, over long, inactive stretches. Time makes the bread, really—you just keep it organized.



Fechtor learned about the folding technique from her friend Andrew Janjigian, who happens to also be a senior editor at Cook's Illustrated and a bread genius. At the time, she was testing all sorts of different ratios and timing to perfect her challah and, though the flavor and texture weren't bad (and especially not bad when warm from the oven), it was lacking a structural subtlety that she missed from her undergrad days at Columbia, where the challah at the University Food Mart pulled apart in soft, flaky tufts, like gauzy strands of cotton candy.

 

 
Sticky folds early in the process (top) vs. smooth, elastic folds toward the end (bottom).

Janjigian told her that, rather than kneading, she should try intermittently folding her dough, simply drawing up the edges like a little coin purse, then flipping it over and letting it sit and slump again.

Not only did this subtle change in timing and motion create exactly the wispy texture she was looking for, but the active-then-inactive development rhythm made a bread with more longevity, too. "You could eat a rubber shoe out of the oven and it would taste good," Fechtor told me. But this loaf is just as good after 3 days in a Ziploc as it is freshly baked—without toasting, or butter, or other classic stale bread revival tricks.

 

Post-folding, she's designed the rest of the recipe to be essentially error-proof at every stage. A cold overnight rise helps slowly develop the flavor and structure of the bread in the refrigerator, where chances of over- or under-proofing are slim. 

 

 

Then, after pulling it from the fridge and making 2 little braids, you leave them to rise again, as she instructs, just till they appear swollen and hardly spring back when you sink a finger in.

Rather than relying on murky clues like thumping a loaf on its bottom, she recommends a cake tester or a straight thermometer reading (190° F), which is a last stroke of genius for newbie bread bakers.

If you've always wanted to make your own bread but feared your lack of intuition, all you have to do is treat it with the precision of baking a cake—let simple kitchen tools take away the anxiety of knowing, until you feel comfortable enough to go with your gut. Fechtor has set it up so that this challah will go well, whether it's your first or your four-hundredth.



This all might sound like a lot to keep track of, but I am a person who has a special impatience, and even I found this to require very little of me—no more than a half hour of paying attention overall. (I also have a special sense of time management, so take that as you will.) Plus, all the timing prescriptions are flexible: "Sometimes I'm giving my kids a bath and I'll do one fold in 45 minutes, the next one in 20 minutes," instead of precisely 30 minutes every time, Fechtor told me. She's even skipped the overnight rise in the fridge, adding a couple extra folds to compensate, then chilling only long enough to make the dough easier to work with.

"I've played this recipe really fast and loose and it's always come out great," she said. I too have forgotten to set my timer more than once, and the bread has apparently not been the wiser. (Pro tip: Set all your reminders to fold at the start—as alarms on your phone, so you never forget to keep resetting the timer.)



Lately, Fechtor has taken to rolling out the chilled dough, speckling it with cinnamon, sugar, and raisins, then curling it up into a cinnamon swirl loaf (or braiding it into an even sweeter challah).

"When the dough is so easy to work with, it just unlocks things," Fechtor told me. You could apply this folding technique to your family's own challah recipe, or other breads, even Liège waffles and buttermilk biscuits (she has). "The moral of this story is to fold everything and everything will be awesome."

Jessica Fechtor's Five-Fold Challah

Slightly adapted from Stir (Avery, 2015)

Makes two loaves

Dry ingredients: 

4 cups (500 grams) bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons instant dry yeast 
2 teaspoons fine sea salt 

Wet ingredients:

2 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk (save the extra white in a covered glass in the fridge for glazing later on)
3/4 cup (190 grams) water
1/3 cup (75 grams) olive oil 
1/4 cup (85 grams) honey

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

Got a genius recipe to share—from a classic cookbook, an online source, or anywhere, really? Please send it my way (and tell me what's so smart about it) at [email protected]. Thanks to Contributors Editor Sarah Jampel for acting as official challah consultant!

Photos by Bobbi Lin

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See what other Food52 readers are saying.

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I'm an ex-economist, lifelong-Californian who moved to New York to work in food media in 2007, before returning to the land of Dutch Crunch bread and tri-tip barbecues in 2020. Dodgy career choices aside, I can't help but apply the rational tendencies of my former life to things like: recipe tweaking, digging up obscure facts about pizza, and deciding how many pastries to put in my purse for "later."

23 Comments

burning-ice October 29, 2015
Thanks for the tip - but if the recipe states 2-3 eggs, then I will not use 4 or 5... I don't have time to endlessly tweak a recipe that is not working - I'd rather stick with one that does, like this one https://food52.com/recipes/3996-ima-s-challah
 
I_Fortuna October 29, 2015
Understood. I rely on a book I have had since the 80's from Sunset magazine publishers on bread. All the recipes are foolproof but I admit I can't help myself when it comes to tweaking a recipe. I have been cooking and baking for over 45 years and I just have to make a recipe my own. For me, it is part of the fun and a creative process. : )
 
I_Fortuna October 28, 2015
It sounds like too much flour was used. Baking is an art and following a recipe to a T does not always produce good results.
Also, calibrate the oven temperature. One oven often performs differently than another. My new oven was hard to get used to vs. my old one.
And, if you want to make this again try adding 2 or 3 tablespoons of applesauce. It will add moisture to your loaves.
Also, using egg yolks (I use 4 or 5) only will produce a more tender crumb.
Good luck! : )
 
Lisa M. March 18, 2020
Actually the more liquid -- oil or water-- I believe is the key to a more tender/soft crumb.
 
burning-ice October 28, 2015
This did not work for me at all. Dough hardly came together and once baked it was terribly dry. A real disappointment.
 
S G. October 21, 2015
I just baked this. It was so easy! No mess clean up also.
This is my new go to recipe to experiment with. I added rosemary and milled golden flex like i do with most of my breads. I used a silpat to shape and bake so cleaning was a breeze.
 
CFrance October 20, 2015
I made this. it took up time out of two days. The loaves are beautiful, but the taste is bland. I would rather dedicate a Sunday to making bread than stretching it out over two days and having to plan around it. Plus I like to hand-knead. It's the most fun part of bread baking to me.
 
Shirley A. October 19, 2015
Always love your photography. Great job photo team. Would love to observe a shoot sometime. Ever in MN?
 
vellner October 19, 2015
Used this recipe and found the flavor sadly lacking compared to other challah recipes. Perhaps my folding technique was lacking.
 
Jennifer September 15, 2015
I want to use this recipe to make French toast. Could I let it rise in a loaf pan? 2 loaves or 1?
 
CFrance October 20, 2015
Jennifer, two loaves definitely.
 
ustabahippie September 13, 2015
Whole wheat flour??
 
Sarah September 13, 2015
Perfect timing! This makes a wonderful starting point for holiday Challah.
 
I_Fortuna September 13, 2015
I use only egg yolks, about 4 to 5 at least for two loaves. One gets better color and texture. Otherwise, nice recipe. : )
 
Ann B. September 13, 2015
Great article about challah. The timing of it might have been better by putting this out a few days ago, rather than when one is running around trying to get Rosh Hashanah dinner ready for 25 (or more) people as challah, especially a round one, is an essential part of a holiday meal.
 
Lilly D. September 13, 2015
Soo when you say bread flour do you mean non risong plain flour? Sorry absolute newbie here!
 
Ann September 13, 2015
Bread flour has more protein than regular all purpose flour, which helps develop the gluten. You should be able to get it at your regular grocery, but all purpose can be used in a pinch. And, yes, it is not self-rising flour.
 
Fairmount_market September 11, 2015
Folding is also the key to this whole wheat sour dough bread from Jonathan Bethony of the Bread Lab at WSU, described in this article along with a helpful video:
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/02/toms-kitchen-100-whole-wheat-bread-doesnt-suck-and-pretty-easy
 
Kenzi W. September 9, 2015
Another pro-tip: We made egg, avocado, and tomato sandwiches on this bread...on day 3. You should do the same.
 
Sarah J. September 9, 2015
Just updated my LinkedIn to include "Official Challah Consultant."
 
Riddley G. September 9, 2015
hired.
 
Karl R. September 10, 2015
skill endorsed
 
Riddley G. September 9, 2015
Challah back! I can't wait to make this.