Challah Baking Success....

In keeping with my ' if a woman could make it on a fire 1000 years ago, surely I can do it' approach to cooking of late I decided to try Challah, a traditional Jewish bread. I am not Jewish, although after cutting this loaf and spreading it with real butter....we are considering conversion. lol.

Ingredients
1 cup lukewarm water
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons honey
4 1/2 cups bread flour ( I use Lighthouse brand Bread and Pizza Flour)
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
sesame seeds
Egg wash:
2 egg whites

Mix the water, honey, oil, eggs and egg yolks in a bowl and whisk well. Then pour in half the flour, salt and yeast. Stir well until smooth and leave for 15 minutes. Then slowly add the rest of the flour half a cup at a time, mixing in well. Turn out and knead for 10 minutes. Put in an oiled bowl and wait for about 90 minutes until it doubles in size.

Then divide evenly ( about 375 grams each) and roll out into three ropes. Braid into a long twist tucking both ends under. Glaze with whisked egg white and cover and wait until dough rises further. Then glaze again and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake at about 200 degrees for 20 minutes.

We ate it fresh, with real butter. We also drizzled olive oil over some slices, spread them with crushed garlic and italian herbs and pan fried them for a lovely toasty texture. we then topped it with home made tabbouleh.

A recipe definitely worth trying.

SHALOM.