Chocolate Six-Strand Braided Challah Loaf
If you haven’t noticed, I’m baking along with the themes of the Great British Bake Off each week. Not all the bakes of course, who has time for that? But each week I try to bake something inspired by the previous week’s show. This week was Bread Week, and the bakers had to make a Signature bake of a chocolate loaf, then Dampfnudeln in the Technical (a kind of sweet steamed bun or dumpling, originating in Germany) and finally a savoury plaited loaf for the Showstopper. My bake this week is a chocolate six-strand braided challah loaf.
I’ve seen delicious looking challah made by Helen from Family Friends Food, among others, and wanted to make it for quite a while, so I decided this would be the time to do it. I also came across a recipe by The Nosher for double chocolate chip challah and I loved the different colours of the dough and the multiple-stranded braid so wanted to include these elements in my bake as well. As many challah recipes are in cup measurements and I didn’t want to use these, I referred to several different recipe for challah and used elements of each, including Helen’s spiced apple challah, to make my own challah inspired recipe for the bread. Gladly it worked well and the resulting loaf is deliciously springy and full of the flavour of the cinnamon, honey and chocolate. As I didn’t try to incorporate any really heavy elements like chocolate spread into my loaf, it cooked through with problem (many of this week’s bakers seemed to have a problem with this due to all the chocolate in their bakes).
Inside, the different coloured strands have made a two-tone loaf, and the chocolate chips have melted into the bread in places after baking giving a really unctuous flavour. The slices look effective with their stripes of colour, and each slice is different due to the braiding. I love the dark colour that the dough with added cocoa has, and the bread really shines from the egg wash you apply before baking.
My braid isn’t that tidy, some parts of it broke apart during the second rise. I think on the show Paul mentioned it is best to only give a short rise time for the second rise when working with plaited bread, to avoid losing shape, but as I had to go to the supermarket while mine was proving there was little chance of that! I found the six-strand braid quite hard to do and will definitely be practising it again in the future. I do plait both my daughters’ hair every day so I have a lot of plaiting experience, but luckily I just do normal plaits!
Ingredients
- 300 ml warm water
- 2 sachets (14 fast action yeast
- 3 tbsp runny honey
- 80 ml vegetable oil I used sunflower
- 1 tsp heaped ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 500 g strong white (breaflour
- 25 g cocoa powder
- 100 g chocolate chunks
- 1 egg for egg wash
Instructions
- Add the yeast to the warm water in a large bowl and mix in the honey and oil.
- Slowly add the flour, bit by bit, stirring at first and then kneading once it is less sticky.
- Add the cinnamon, vanilla extract and salt, and knead using a dough hook in a stand mixer for ten minutes.
- Split the dough into two pieces, place one piece in a bowl and cover with clingfilm, then leave it to rise for an hour until doubled in size.
- Take the other piece of dough and knead in the cocoa powder. If it goes a little dry you can add a tiny bit more water and/or oil, but make sure it is only a tiny amount.
- Put the chocolate dough in a bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to rise for an hour until doubled in size.
- Knock back both bowls, then add half the chocolate chunks to each bowl and knead in to the dough.
- Split each piece of dough into three and roll each piece into a long thin strand.
- Braid the six strands to form a plait (check YouTube for tutorials on how to do thiand place the loaf on a silicone mat to rise again, for 30 to 45 mins (I left it for longer as I popped out but would reduce the time next time).
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan). Brush all over the loaf with the egg wash.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the loaf is golden brown and the base sounds hollow if tapped. When you check the loaf you can also brush on more egg wash to cover any areas where the bread has stretched during baking, this gives a uniform shiny appearance.
Pin this recipe for later on Pinterest:
Sending this over to the Great Bloggers Bake Off with Jenny.
And #Bakeoftheweek with Helen
Lucy this loaf looks superb! the colours running through it is so effective and i can imagine it tasted really nice, too. your plaits are great – as you say you get practice with your girls hair (unlike me!). very yummy looking xx thank you for linking up
Thanks Jenny we are tucking in right now! The egg wash made such a difference I think in adding shine too
Challah is so good but I’ve never tried a chocolate one. This looks really lovely. Plaiting dough is quite different to plaiting little girls’ hair – but at least it doesn’t wriggle so much!
Very true Mandy! It does get all stick together instead though which was a bit annoying!
I Am loving all these really pretty plaited breads inspired by GBBO. Your bread looks yummy.
Thanks Nayna 🙂
I really like the idea of the flavoured Challah. Braiding is tricky at least I think so but it does look great. Bet this was really tasty.
Thanks very much Jacqui, it really is tasty
Wow, six strands – I even chickened out of doing 3! I love challah bread so this is definitely on my list when I have people to share it with (my boyfriend doesn’t like chocolate and as much as I’d love to, I mustn’t eat it all myself!)
How can he not like chocolate?! Madness.. 😀 yes I recommend you wait for people to share it with as the loaf is pretty huge!
Oh how fun does this look? 😀 The chocolate bread bakes last week looked so amazing! You’re a star baker in my eyes 😀 looks stunning!
You’re so kind Nadia! 🙂
Bake off eat your heart out! That looks amazing, Paul Hollywood would be proud!
Thank you! 🙂
It looks amazing! I usually make a plait of 2 strands or maybe 3, but 6 it’s so complicated. Fab!
Thank you Anca, I think I will stick to three strands in future, much easier!!
Wow Lucy, this looks amazing. I love how the chocolate taste would be broken up by the chocolate chip parts. Your braiding is brilliant – Definitely years of hair experience showing! Thanks so much for joining in with #BakeoftheWeek again and the lovely warm welcome back x
[…] 1. 6 Strand Chocolate Challah Loaf from Baking Queen 74 […]
This sounds absolutely delicious Lucy, I love the contrast of the strands with and without the added cocoa powder.
I’ve never attempted a 6-strand plait before (actually I’ve never done more than 3), they always look a bit confusing when I’ve seen them done on TV. Yours looks like a great attempt, especially as you’d not done it before. You should be sending your daughters to school with 6-strand plaits until you know it so well you can do it with your eyes closed 🙂
This is absolutely sensational Lucy. I was quite pleased with my chocolate twist bread until I saw yours. It looks so glossy and the colour contrast is fantastic. Star Baker for you. Thanks for sharing with We Should Cocoa 🙂
Thanks so much Choclette, that is very kind of you. The glossiness was from the egg wash I think mainly, I painted it on quite thoroughly with a pastry brush!
This looks so impressive – I would love to make challah – maybe one day! And your braid looks great too – it is not something I am very good at – I went through a period of plaiting my daughter’s hair but she just takes it out if I put it up now – argh!
Thank you Johanna! Quite pleased with it after all that time it took which is good. My younger daughter has a habit of doing that, so annoying!
This looks fab, I do love the inside too! Going to have to try plaited bread at some point
Thanks Stacey, it is such fun to make