Good morning. We're baking today. Round challah with honey in the dough and apple folded through it. If you've never made one, this is a good day to start. If you've made a hundred, stick around anyway, because the round shaping catches people who braid in their sleep. First, if you're new here from Baking Great Bread at Home, read this part. A working thread is not a live video. You don't have to be anywhere at any particular time, and you're not behind. It's one post that stays open all day. You bake at your own pace and drop a comment in here as you go. Mixed your dough, comment. Dough's doing something weird, comment with a photo. Pulled it out of the oven, comment. Everybody's progress lives in this one thread instead of scattered across forty separate posts, which means you can scroll down and see somebody two hours ahead of you hitting the exact problem you're about to hit. I'm in the comments all day. Ask me anything, and ask it here rather than in a new post, because then the answer helps the next twelve people who were wondering the same thing. Come in late. Come in tomorrow. The thread doesn't close. Photos in the comments are the whole point. Ugly ones especially. Nobody learned anything from a picture of a perfect loaf. Why round, and why apple and honey Challah is braided the rest of the year. For Rosh Hashanah it's coiled into a round, and the usual explanation is that the circle is the year itself with no beginning and no end, or a crown. Apples dipped in honey are the table tradition for a sweet year, so putting both into the bread is just taking the wish and baking it right into the loaf. You don't have to be Jewish to bake this, and you don't have to be Jewish to mean it. A lot of what I know about enriched dough I learned from a Jewish German baker when I was twenty-two, and I've never stopped being grateful for it. There's a lesson about him in the Classroom if you want the story. One note. Today is both Shabbat and Rosh Hashanah, so our observant members won't be baking or online today. That's expected. The thread stays open, and I'll be here when you get back.

𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝘄𝗲'𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗵. Rosh Hashanah starts at sundown this Friday, September 11. That's why the loaf is round instead of the usual braid. The circle stands for the year coming back around, and the apples and honey are the wish for a sweet one. You don't have to keep the holiday to bake the bread. It's a beautiful table loaf either way, and day-old challah makes the best French toast you'll ever eat. 𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗶𝗻. 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗲. 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗟𝗘 𝗖𝗥𝗢𝗪𝗡, 𝗬𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗗. Four hours start to finish. Four strands braided, then wound into a coil with diced Granny Smith and golden raisins folded through, honey brushed on hot out of the oven. If you want bread on the table for Friday night, this is the one that makes that possible. https://recipepantry.app/recipes/round-honey-apple-challah 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗔𝗛, 𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗗𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗛. Two days, mostly hands off. Levain built the night before, overnight cold retard, three strands rolled in black and white sesame and coiled into a crown. Deeper flavor, longer schedule. https://recipepantry.app/recipes/sourdough-round-challah 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: the sourdough version doesn't have apple in it. It's a honey-sweetened round with sesame and it's very good as written. If you want apples in your sourdough loaf, dice 120g of firm tart apple, toss it with a teaspoon of lemon juice, and laminate it in at the first stretch and fold. Everything else stays the same. 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗗𝗘𝗖𝗜𝗗𝗘 𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗔𝗞𝗘 𝗚𝗢𝗘𝗦. Fold the fruit in late. Apple goes in after the dough has already built strength, on a letter fold, not in the mix. Add it early and the moisture cuts your gluten and you end up with a slack dough that won't hold a braid. Use a firm tart apple, Granny Smith or Honeycrisp. Soft varieties cook down into applesauce pockets. Braid loose. A tight braid chokes the oven spring and splits at the seams. Sherman taught me that on enriched dough and it took me years to actually believe him. Roll a strand, let it rest, come back to it. The dough gives you the length. You don't take it.

I sat down tonight with Grand Teton Ancient Grains. Jade Koyle, the founder, and Adam from his team. It went about as well as a conversation can go. Grand Teton is an organic family farm and mill in Eastern Idaho. Jade came across einkorn in 2009, got curious, started researching, and the curiosity turned into a farm. They grow einkorn, spelt, emmer, khorasan, rye, hard red and hard white wheat, and more. Certified organic, every batch tested, free shipping. Here's why this matters to us. The question I get more than any other about milling isn't which machine to buy. It's where do I get good grain. Several of you have said the nearest source is a four or five hour drive. That's the wall people hit right after they get excited. That wall is coming down. Take a look at what they do: ancientgrains.com More soon. Henry⭐🔥

This is the bread we’re baking together Saturday, and I just put up a new article that’ll help you get ready. It covers the four-strand round weave, why we let stubborn strands rest instead of fighting them, when the apples go in, how to keep the crown from opening in the oven, and what that round shape means for Rosh Hashanah. One thing I want you to pay particular attention to: every one of those eight loose ends gets tucked underneath. That’s what keeps the crown together when the oven spring hits. Read this one before Saturday: 👉 https://bakinggreatbread.blog/2026/09/10/how-to-braid-round-challah/ Then get your ingredients together and meet us in the Bake Along. Come bake with us. 🍞❤️

I love this one. This is another appropriate six strand round challah for Rosh Hashanah for this Saturday’s bake along. This one is a little different than the one described in my recipe, but when have you guys ever followed what’s in my recipe. 😅 The two-tone strands? That's the wash, not the dough. Brush every strand with whole egg like normal except the strands you want to pop. Brush those with egg yolk only. The extra fat and color in the yolk browns deeper in the same bake. Seeds go on the whole-egg strands. Leave the yolk strands bare so the contrast shows. Do you think you might make this one? Henry⭐️🔥