When I was in third grade, my mom went back to work teaching and because of her schedule and a longish commute my dad took over the morning duties. I’ve never envied him the job of getting girls the ages of 6, 8, and 11 ready and off to school each day by himself, but he certainly was a trooper. When my older sister wanted her hair french braided he asked my mom to teach him. I don’t remember if he ever braided my hair or even if he succeeded in learning, but I love that he wanted to know how. I thought about this when we learned to braid Challah in class a couple weeks ago.

This will make excellent French Toast

Method

Note: you can ignore the bakers percentage information, as it is just here for when my Chef instructor views this for my portfolio. Hi Chef!

4 strands each at 5 oz = 20 oz dough

Bakers percentage:

Flour 100% = 11.053

Water 40% x 11.053 =  4.4212 oz

Yeast (instant) .94% x 11.053 = .1038 oz

Yolks 20% x 11.053 = 2.2106 oz

Sugar 7.5% x 11.053 = 8.290

Malt .6% x 11.053 = .066 oz

Salt 1.9% x 11.053 = .21 oz

Oil 10% x 11.053 = 1.105 oz

—————-

180.94

Conversion factor = 20/1.8094 = 11.053 oz

Mixing Method – Modified Straight Dough

• Add everything but oil at speed 1
• After 3 minutes slowly add oil
• up to speed 2 for 7 minutes.

Ferment @ 80 degrees for 1 1/2 hours

4 strand braiding method

• 4 over 2
• 1 over 3
• 2 over 3

After you move one stand over, the strands re-number themselves according to the position they are now in. This is the trickiest part to understand.