Chałka: soft, feathery Polish braided bread with crumble
Chałka like a good bakery's: a dough with yolks and butter, kneaded long, risen twice, braided from three ropes and topped with crumble. It pulls apart in strands instead of crumbling. The next day it makes the best French toast.
Your own work in that: 27 min.
- Starter 15 min
- Kneading 12 min
- Rising 60 min
- Braiding 15 min
- Rising 30 min
- Baking 35 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneMake the starter
Crumble the yeast into the lukewarm milk, add the sugar and flour, stir. Leave for 15 minutes until a foam rises.
Ingredients: 250 ml milk · 25 g fresh yeast · 1 tbsp sugar · 2 tbsp plain flour
Starter foaming after a quarter of an hourKnead the dough
Sift the flour into a bowl, add the sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, egg, yolks and the starter. Knead with dough hooks for 6 minutes, then pour in the butter slowly and knead another 6 minutes. The dough should be smooth and glossy, pull away from the bowl and stretch into a thin membrane without tearing.
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour · 70 g sugar · 1 pcs egg · 2 pcs egg yolks · 80 g butter · 1 tbsp vanilla sugar · 1½ tsp salt
TipLong kneading is the secret of a feathery chałka. Under-kneaded it will taste fine but be dense as a roll.
Smooth, elastic, a membrane that doesn't tearFirst rise
Cover and leave in a warm place for 60 minutes, until doubled. A dent made with a finger should fill back slowly, not spring straight back.
Doubled, the dent fills back slowlyBraid
Knock the dough back and divide into 3 equal pieces (weigh them; it comes out even). Roll each into a 40 cm rope, thicker in the middle. Pinch the ends together at the top, braid like hair, pinch the ends at the bottom and tuck them under. Lift onto a lined baking tray.
TipRoll the ropes on an unfloured counter: flour makes them slide and refuse to lengthen. If they spring back, give them 5 minutes' rest.
Three ropes, braided from the topSecond rise and crumble
Cover and leave for 30 minutes. Meanwhile heat the oven to 180 °C and make the crumble: rub the flour, sugar and cold butter together with your fingers. Brush the risen loaf with the yolk and milk and sprinkle generously with crumble.
Ingredients: 60 g plain flour · 40 g sugar · 40 g cold butter · 1 pcs egg yolk
Yolk on top, then the crumbleBake
180 °C, conventional, middle shelf, 30–35 minutes, until deep golden and hollow-sounding when the base is tapped. If the top browns too fast, cover with foil after 20 minutes.
Deep golden, the base sounds hollowCool and slice
Cool on a rack for at least 30 minutes: sliced warm it squashes and turns damp. With butter, with jam, and the next day as French toast.
Feathery crumb, butter and jam
Before you start
Without crumble
Sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds after the yolk glaze. Or nothing: a plain glossy chałka is beautiful too.
Four ropes
A four-strand braid is wider and more striking, but harder. The simplest way: weave the far right rope to the left — over, under, over — until it becomes the far left one. Repeat, always starting from the right, until you run out of rope.
Storing
In a linen cloth, 2 days. Freezes well whole; thaw in the cloth and refresh 8 minutes at 160 °C.
