Challah

By Ariel Edwards-Levy, 13, North Hollywood  HS

The first time I made challah, a traditional Jewish braided bread, it took most of my day to follow the cycle of kneading and letting it rise, but the end result was delicious. When I decided to make it this time, I was pretty sure it would be easy. Unfortunately, some of the steps slipped my mind. I had to remake the dough three times because I kept adding the wrong amount of water, and meanwhile, the flour got soaked from the water and nearly ruined. The kneading and rising took most of the rest of the day, so I did it in between homework. Before long, the dough looked great, although it hadn’t risen enough. I braided it, baked it and got a surprise. This time the crust was harder and the inside chewier, and it tasted almost nothing like challah. Luckily it was still fairly good bread.

• If you use a bread machine, this works just fine to be processed on the "dough" cycle and then shaped and raised as the recipe directs. Just use the ingredients in the normal order for your machine, and omit the yeast-soaking process.

• If you know how to braid in four strands (does anybody learn that making boondoggles at camp anymore?), use that technique; otherwise, divide your dough into four parts, and further divide one of them into three parts. Make a big braid from the three large parts, and then make a small braid from the three small parts; put the little one on the big one.

Ingredients
1 package dry yeast
2 teaspoons sugar, 1/8 teaspoon saffron
1 1/4 lukewarm water
4 1/2 cups sifted flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
2 tablespoons oil
1 egg yolk, beaten with 1 teaspoon water
4 tablespoons poppy or sesame seeds

Directions:
1. Combine yeast, sugar, saffron, 1/4 c. water, and let stand 5 minutes.
2. Sift flour and salt into a large bowl, make a well in the flour, and drop in the eggs, oil, water, and dissolved yeast mixture.
3. Work in well with your hands, turn out on a floured board and knead well.
4. Cover, and let rise in a warm place for one hour.
5. Punch the dough down, recover, and let rise until doubled (if you poke a finger into it, the dent will spring back fairly quickly).
6. Divide into three or four parts (see comments above) and let rest for 10 minutes.
7. Shape the loaf. (For Rosh Hashanah do not braid but form the challah into a round shape)
8. Cover again and let rise until double.
9. Brush with the beaten egg/water mixture, sprinkle with seeds, and bake for 50 minutes in a 375 oven.