MIX

Combine all of poaching ingredients, save apples, in a medium saucepan and heat on medium low for 15 minutes.

While the honey is heating, combine flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk. Into another medium bowl, combine water and yeast. Stir until dissolved and water is murky. Add the remainder of wet ingredients into the yeast water and stir until combined.

Pour this onto your flour. If you like to make a tedious well in the center of your flour with a twist o’ the wrist and look beguilingly towards an enchanted audience as you pour, do that. Or not. I’m not here to judge.

In broad strokes, stir together all dough ingredients until a mostly combined, shaggy mess is formed. Leave this for 10 minutes while you return to your apples.

POACH

Core apples from the bottom with a paring knife, removing center and seeds, taking care not to cut through to the top of the apple. Set apples on their sides in pot of honey, turn often, spooning torrid lashings of spiced honey on them as if basting a tenderloin. Poach 10-12 minutes and no more. (Firm apples are a must here. If they’ve turned soft in any way, they will burst in the honey and make a great delicious mess.)

Remove apples from honey and leave on a plate to cool. Take from heat, cover, and leave honey until needed later.

DOUGH

Begin by turning the mass of dough out on a clean surface and fold over on itself. Continue folding, pressing down, and making quarter turns of the dough with each pass. Do this for 8-10 minutes, until a smooth, firm dough is reached. If using a stand mixer with the dough hook, you’ll need only 6-8 minutes of kneading. It’s imperative that you knead for this long so that the individual braids of the dough will stand out proudly. The dough will be drier and firmer than you may be used to. This is perfect for braiding. Leave to rise for 2 hours, covered, on the counter, gently deflating the dough halfway through its rise.

SHAPE

Divide the dough in half. Divide the halves into thirds, roll each of the six pieces into stodgy cylinders and leave covered 5 minutes. Take flattened hands and drape them over one of the 6 pieces of dough, letting your palms and fingertips touch the counter. Begin rolling from the center outward and watch as the stodgy cylinder turns into your first strand of challah dough. Luxuriate briefly in your success and do the same to the rest of the dough, making 12”-14” strands.

Align three strands and pinch the top of them together. Carefully braid the three strands together and roll the long plait into a spiral on a large piece of parchment. Do the same for the other strands of dough.

PROOF

Let rise, covered at room temperature for 1.5 hours. Now is the time to egg wash every dip, curve, and divot of your challah braids. Thirty minutes into the proof, uncover the dough, readjust if any ends don’t look right, and open the spiral just a little in the center, dropping one of your poached apples to crown the rising loaf. One apple for each. You eat the third apple while you wait. Obviously.

BAKE

20 minutes before your final proof is up, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit with a shelf in the middle. Egg wash your loaves once more before baking. Load dough into oven, leaving 5” all around for oven bloom. These things are huge. Bake 25-30 minutes, checking after the first time and covering with foil if not done and looking a little dark. Remove your golden babies from oven, place on a wire rack, and cool completely. Serve it forth.