Challah

One of my all time favorites to make is Challah. Challah is a special bread in Jewish cuisine, usually braided and typically eaten on ceremonial occasions such as Shabbat and major Jewish holidays, now I am not Jewish so I usually make this for a french toast breakfast, i will make the bread two days ahead so my family can munch on some of it, then by the second day I'll cut into 1-inch cubes and soak over night in an egg mixture and proceed the following day with a delicious baked challah french toast served with fresh berries, maple syrup, and powdered sugar.

Yields- 2 Whole Loaves

Instant Yeast .5 oz

Water 10.7 oz

Butter 3 oz

Honey 6 oz

Eggs 2 whole eggs

Bread Flour (All-purpose) 28 oz

Salt .5-.10 oz(depending on your salt type you may need more or less)

Milk Powder 1.1 oz

* If you use milk powder make sure to incorporate well with the dry ingredients or it will create clumps that are impossible to get out

* You can substitute Whole Milk instead of the water add it in then slowly so the consistency is sticky but able to pull away, make sure to warm milk up*

*Use room temperature eggs usually I take mine out an hour - two before starting

1. In a bowl of a standard mixer fitted with a hook attachment Add in all dry ingredients if using milk powder mix thoroughly first so the milk powder is well mixed in

2. Melt Butter, if honey is to hard melt that as well

3. Make a slight well and add in all liquid ingredients, if you are not using milk powder do not mix the Whole milk with the liquids start your mixer and start adding the whole milk till the right sticky but pull away consistency

4. Take it out of your bowl onto a clean floured surface give it a nice four sided fold, starting from one end fold in the middle rotate grab another corner and fold in middle continue til four folds have been made and you're able to form a ball

5. Put into a sprayed bowl and let rise till doubled in size usually between an hour and two

6. Let gentle fall out onto a floured surface if sticking to bowl use a bowl scrapper to gentle help pull it away onto surface

7. Divide the dough into two large halves @ 8 oz

8. Take a half and separate into 3 long robes, start crossing the dough like a braid there is different ways to braid it so find which ones easiest i find this to be the easiest and quickest if you're looking for more traditional fancy look go with a 6 strand braid

9. Cover the braids and let bench rest for 30 minutes, while doing so make an egg wash(one egg,milk, honey for these)

10. Put the rested braid into a bread pan or on a baking sheet with parchment paper, cover generously but not soaking them with the egg wash

11. Bake @ 375 for 30-35 min (check in middle of baking to see if it is not browning too much on one side if so just give it a good rotate and continue to bake)

12. Take out oven, cool 5 min in pans or on the hot parchment, then take out/off and place on wire rack to cool, once cooled either serve with hot butter, enjoy plain, or cover for next day for Challah Baked French toast

Baked Challah french toast