Gloria Smiley was born and raised in Savannah, GA. Culinary classes and gastronomic adventures in Paris, France, at Le Cordon Bleu and LaVarenne initiated a career as a food stylist in print and film. Notable clients included Julia Child, Marcella Hazan, Tony Bourdain, Nigella Lawson, Anne Byrn, and Bobby Flay. She served as President and Treasurer of the Atlanta chapter as well as International Treasurer.

This recipe is reprinted with permission from Baking in the American South, by fellow dame Anne Byrn (Harper Celebrate, 2024)

Gloria Smiley's Honey and Olive Oil Challah

Gloria Smiley has been teaching people how to bake all her life. She was raised in Savannah in a family of Jewish bakers. Her paternal grandfather delivered bread via horse and buggy. And after her father died, her mother married Leon Gottlieb of Gottlieb's Bakery, a Russian Jewish family of five sons, who baked and shipped rye bread and challah to all parts of the South via Greyhound bus. Today, Smiley braids challah in her Atlanta kitchen, using a recipe adapted from one given to her by her late friend, the baker and Atlanta dame Doris Koplin.
In Koplan's recipe, Smiley substitutes honey and olive oil for the sugar and canola oil. She uses a bread machine to mix the ingredients, then kneads and shapes the dough by hand. The bread is delicious, and the dough is easy to work with.
While Jewish immigrants assimilated into Southern life, cooking fried chicken and field peas like their Gentile neighbors, challah was their own and distinguished their holy days and religious heritage. While Kaplan's original recipe called for two risings, Smiley's uses a third rise to improve texture. You can shape. the bread as you like—-as a braid or a round- or just divide the dough in half, shape into loaves, and tuck into lightly greased loaf pans.
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Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 3/4 cup warm water 125°F or less
  • 21/4 teaspoons 1 package dry yeast
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil plus more for greasing the bowl
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 31/2 cups 420 grams bread flour, divided
  • 11/2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 large egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water, for the egg wash
  • Parchment paper for lining the pan

Method
 

  1. Place the warm water in a measuring cup and stir in the yeast to dissolve.
  2. Place the eggs in a small bowl. Pour in the olive oil and honey and whisk to combine.
  3. Place 3 cups (360 grams) of the flour and the salt in the large bowl of a stand mixer and beat on low speed to combine. Pour the yeast mixture and the egg mixture into the bowl and beat on low until just incorporated. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat on low to incorporate the remaining 1/2 cup flour, so the dough is moist but not sticky. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the dough begins to leave the sides of the bowl and is elastic and smooth, 4 to 5 minutes. Turn the dough into a large clean bowl greased with a little olive oil. Cover with a kitchen towel and place in a warm spot to rise until doubled, about 1 hour. (If you are not ready to make your loaf, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill until you are.)
  4. Punch down the dough with your fist or a wooden spoon. (Here Smiley sneaks in a second rise, repeating the first.)
  5. Line a 12-by-17-inch rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. For a braided loaf, divide the dough into thirds. Roll each piece to about 18 inches long and line the long pieces up side by side. Pinch the ends of the strands to connect them at the top. Take the strand on the far right and begin braiding, with the right strand over the left and the left over the right, braiding around the center strand, tugging gently at the strands as you work. Pinch the ends of the braid and tuck them underneath the loaf, then transfer to the parchment-lined pan. For a round loaf, divide the dough in half and roll into 2 strands about 28 inches long. Twist the strands together, then roll up into a coil, tucking the end underneath. Transfer to the parchment-­lined pan.
  6. Brush the top of the dough with the egg wash. Place in a warm spot to rise uncovered until doubled,1 to 1 1/2 hours.
  7. Heat the oven to350ºF, with a rack in the middle.
  8. Brush the dough again with the egg wash and place in the oven. Bake until the loaf is deeply golden brown and registers190ºF in the center on an instant-­ read thermometer, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet, then slice and serve.
     
  9. HOW TO MAKE CHALLAH WITH A BREAD MACHINE
    Mix the water, yeast, eggs, olive oil, and honey in a large glass measure or a small bowl. Pour into the bread machine pan. Add the flour. On one side of the flour, place the salt, and on the other side, place the yeast. Set the bread machine to Dough Only, which is about 1 hour and 50 minutes. Turn the machine on. Check to make sure all the flour is mixed in.
    When the bread machine says the dough has mixed, lightly oil a large bowl and place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat with a little oil. Cover with a kitchen towel and place in a warm spot to rise until doubled. Once the dough has risen, punch it down, and braid as directed.
     
     

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