Tool Kit:
- 1 cup of blood orange juice ( about 2 or 3 oranges)
- The zest from the blood oranges that you plan on juicing (about 2 or 3 oranges)
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 ¼ teaspoons of instant dry yeast
- 6 cups all purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup sugar
- ⅔ cup of your favorite olive oil
- 1 egg
- Egg wash
- 1 egg beaten with a splash of water
This bread recipe was inspired by an old Molly Yeh Orange Juice Challah Bread recipe from 2018. I developed this one after trying to make hers but accidentally putting the wrong amounts of different ingredients in and loving it. After that I changed things up each time and ended up with this recipe.
A Few Notes
- Total Time needed: ~ 4 hours
(depending on how long they end up needing to bake)
- You can make the dough the night before and let it rise in the fridge overnight instead of rising on the counter for 2 hours
- How to braid bread
- Once you have portioned your dough out and rolled them into even snakes pinch the tops of each snake/ strand together then proceed to braid as you would normally..
- Challah bread is best eaten within the first 24 hours. However, if you don’t finish it all within its time frame don’t throw it out! Instead, turn it into a french toast or repurpose it by turning it into a bread pudding. I can never keep the bread long enough to do this though, it’s always gone within the first couple of hours.
LET’S DO THIS
Start by first zesting and juicing the blood oranges. Next, fit your stand mixer with the dough hook and add in the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. Mix it on low for a minute to let everything get mixed together. Then add the warm water, olive oil, egg, and orange juice and let the mixer do its magic on a nice low to medium speed until a sticky dough is formed.
Find your favorite giant bowl and oil it up so that the dough won’t stick, add the dough, cover it with plastic wrap or beeswax wrap , and leave the dough alone to rise for 2 hours.
This next part is all about you and whatever you want your bread to look like. You can divide it into four even pieces like I did, or you can choose to do two or even one I am not here to judge. Just whatever you choose, make sure they are in even pieces. Then take your even pieces and divide each of those into either three smaller pieces, like I have done, or you can go a more traditional route with six smaller pieces. Now roll them out like you would when making play-dough snakes as a child and braid till you can’t braid any more. You can braid these into loafs or make circle braids, it is really all up to you. You do you.
Now place them on a baking sheet and allow them to rest for 30 minutes. If you live in a dryer environment I recommend putting a towel over them for this second rise to help prevent the dough from drying out.
Preheat your oven to 375 F. While you wait for your oven to preheat, go ahead and brush the egg wash mixture onto your bread and sprinkle them with your favorite finishing salt. Now you are so close to having this bread, I am so excited for you!! Place them in the oven and leave them alone. Start checking on them in about 15 minutes and keep checking them every 2 minutes until they are golden brown and make a crunchy hollow sound when you tap the top.