Whole Wheat Honey Apple Challah Bread

First make your dough. I used my bread machine for this part of the process. If you have a bread machine it makes it very, very easy. To do this is a bread machine, put the ingredients into the bread machine bowl, in the following order: water, vegetable oil, honey, eggs (2 whole eggs plus 1 yolk), salt, flour, vital wheat gluten, and yeast. Then set the machine on the dough setting and wait for the cycle to complete (about 1.25 hours on my machine). This will also take care of the first rise for you.

If you are not using a machine, whisk yeast and 1 teaspoon honey into 2/3 cup warm water and let stand until foamy, a few minutes. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together yeast mixture, oil, remaining honey (1/3 cup), eggs and yolk. Switch to dough hook and add 4 1/4 cups flour, wheat gluten and salt. Use dough hook on a moderate speed until it pulls all of the flour and wet ingredients together into a craggy mass. Lower the speed and let the dough hook knead the dough for 5 minutes, until smooth, elastic and a little sticky. Transfer dough to a large oil-coated bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 1 hour, or until almost doubled in size.

Once the dough is ready, mix your apples, lemon juice and cinnamon together in a small bowl and toss to mix.

Then lightly flour your counter or board and roll out your dough into an oval shape. Then add 2/3 of your apples to one side (one half) of your oval.

Fold the empty half of the dough over the apples then top 1/2 of that layer with the remaining apples. Then fold the ‘empty’ half over the second layer of apples.

You will have a triangle looking shape when you are done. Gently reshape the mound by tucking in the corners to make a round shape (don’t worry about making it perfect). Then cover it with a bowl (leave the round on your counter or board) and let it sit for another 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes, divide your round into four portions. Don’t worry if any apples fall out, just press them back into the dough (gently).

Take each of the portions and gently form a long shape. Then gently roll it on the counter to form a 12″ long rope. Again, don’t worry if any apples fall out, just press them back in and reshape your dough.

Take your four ropes and lay them in a pound symbol (#) shape (laying two ropes out horizontally and the other two vertically) but as you are doing this weave each rope under the other. Do this on the baking sheet that you will cook the loaf on, lined with parchment paper.

Take the ends of your ropes and cross them over the rope directly next to it. Then take the ends of that cross and fold it around the outside of the loaf (you are kind of just tying everything into a round knot).

Make your egg wash by whisking an egg until it is completely broken into itself. Then using a pastry brush, brush it onto your loaf. Keep the leftover egg wash in the fridge as you will use it again.

Then, recover your loaf with the bowl and let it rise again for 1 hour.

Make sure you pre-heat your oven 45 minutes into the final rise to 375 degrees F so that the oven is ready when your loaf is ready to bake. Once the hour of rising is complete, reapply the egg wash to the loaf and then bake it at 375F for 40 minutes. Keep an eye on your loaf because it may brown too quickly. If it does start to brown to quickly, cover it with aluminum foil until the baking time is complete.

Make sure to let your loaf cool for 10-15 minutes after baking or it will be extremely hot and may fall apart a little. This bread is absolutely divine with a little butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon. The apples and the honey are the perfect amount of sweetness to make this bread slightly sweet which also make this a moist and velvety bread…you have to try this one!