Martha’s Apple Honey Challah Bread

I was excited when I saw that this weeks Martha Monday challenge was this Apple Honey Challah bread. Looked like the perfect bread to make on a stay at home Labor Day weekend. So I started early in the morning, thank God, because this pretty little loaf is a true time consuming recipe. A sweet bread with big chunks of apples, this loaf and I had our problems

1. The soft dough. Could have been because I took the lazy mans way and did the 10 minute kneading with the dough hook on my Kitchenaid. I added about1/3 –1/2  cup more flour because it was so wet. I knew if I kneaded it by hand I would have incorporated at least that much into the dough by hand.. So I had a very soft and sticky dough.
2. The rise. It didn’t seem to really “double” like it was suppose to. But I had plenty of dough so I wasn’t too worried.  I did questioning the “life” of my yeast and it did concern me at the time. And did I mention there was three, count them, three rises.  That was what made this recipe sooo time consuming.
3. The sliced apples. They wanted to poke and fall out of the dough when I was trying to knead them in. I just got tough and showed that dough who was boss. It’s nice to have the large slices of apples but next time, I’ll chunk mine up a bit. I also added a sugar-cinnamon mixture on my apples. The recipe did not say to do that, but I just couldn’t help myself. I thought it really needed that extra oomph.
4. The Honey Butter. I brushed all my butter honey on top before baking not realizing that I was suppose to save half of it for when it came out of the oven. I thought it looked like it was drowning in a sea of butter. Oops! I did brush some extra on top when it did finally come out. No worry!

The bread turned out wonderful! It was sweet but not overly so with nice slices of apples throughout the loaf. I enjoyed the cinnamony goodness that came from the extra oomph that I gave the apples. It was moist and dense like an egg bread. I toasted mine for breakfast, it was dynamite!

 

I hope to make some French Toast out of a few sliced this weekend if I can keep my grubby paws out of it.  :)

Thank you to Sara of Sassy Suppers for picking this recipe. I truly enjoyed this one!

Apple Honey Challah Bread

recipe by Martha Stewart

• 4 oz. (1 stick0 unsalted butter, plus more for the bowl,pan, and plastic
• 3 1/2 unbleached bread flour, plus more for surface
• 3/4 warm water (100 degrees)
• 2 large eggs plus 3 large egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons dry active yeast (from one 1/4 oz envelope)
• 2 teaspoons course salt
• 1 1/2 green tart apples.Preferably Granny Smith cut into 1/4 inch slices (about 1 3/4 cups).

Directions!