HOW DO I EXTEND SHELF LIFE TO CHALLAH BREAD

I'm not sure that challah is really supposed to last much longer than a day. Try making smaller loaves and freezing all but one. When you bring a loaf out to thaw, leave it in its bag until it has completely thawed.

Although, come to think of it, I believe that Maggie Glezer's challah made with wild yeast may have a slightly longer shelf life. ...looking in bookmarks...

Aha!! Yes, here's what I was looking for:

The crumb was amazing to me. It was very creamy and soft and almost reminded me of an angel food cake. It has remained moist to this day (5 days later) as there are only two of us to eat and can’t quite get rid of all the bread I bake. I am going to cut very thick slices of what is remaining to freeze and later use to make French toast.

-excerpt from Zolablue's blog post about Sourdough Challah

-Elizabeth

And here is our semi-wild challah recipe based on a different recipe in A Blessing of Bread by Maggie Glezer.

(A request: next time you post, could you please remove your caps lock?)

It is generally considered shouting when one uses all caps in a post or headline. I'm sure you don't mean to shout.

Eric

If you can make a preferment, that will help.  Mix the water with the yeast and some of the flour and let it sit for a few hours (6 to 8 or overnight) at room temperature and then add the rest of the ingredients and continue making the dough.  Using sourdough is another way to accomplish that since sourdough is a type of preferment.

You can also make the dough, let it sit at room temperature for an hour and then put it in the fridge overnight (or for a day or two).   Then, take the dough out, let it sit at room temperature for an hour and continue shaping and bake as usual.  Retarding the dough in the refrigerator like that will help shelf life.

Retarding or prefermenting allows some of the effects of the bread going stale (such as microorganisms consuming sugars and producing by-products) to happen *before* baking, thus helping improve shelf life.  It also improves flavour.

There is a honeyed challah recipe here that uses an overnight sponge.  It's easy to make (though I don't recommend the "soft" version--it was very hard to work that dough even after the recommended stretch and folds) and the challah does seem to last for several days. 

I make small challahs (usually 4 challahs out of a recipe designed for 2) and freeze the extra.  That seems to be plenty for my family of four for Shabbat dinner and snacking the next day.  Then I have a month's worth from a single baking session.