Alright, it's not Shabbat, because if it was, well, I would not be on posting, right? But to get ready for next week, and for Clara, here's our challah. I am assuming most people's ovens do not try to burn things (ala our 1947 General Motors oven), but I do tent mine after ten minutes as I suspect the sugar in it and the glaze increase its tendency to go way too dark. So be forewarned it's a possibility. This is bread machine mixed, but if you don't have a bread machine, combine as usual, kneed 10 minutes, rise one hour, braid then rise two. Otherwise, follow directions below.
Challah
1 cup warm milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tblsp salt
1/4 cup melted butter
2 eggs
4 1/4 cups white flour
3/4 ounce yeast (about one tablespoon)
Optional glaze
either brush a little milk over the top or an egg beaten with a teaspoon of water (you won't use the whole egg of course). Then sprinkle with sesame seeds or poppy seeds. Do this right before baking and be gentle so that you do not cause the bread to collapse.
Put ingredients in the order above into bread machine. Make sure milk is warm but not hot (hot kills yeast, cold does not allow it to rise). Beat the eggs with a fork before adding flour. Once everything's in, turn it on to dough setting. Once it's done, take out and braid: to do this separate the challah into three balls and then roll each ball into a long piece (like playing with playdough!) and braid as you would hair (Not sure mentioning hair in a recipe is very appealing ...). I put the challah on a buttered silpat mat to rest, you may also use parchment paper. At this point the challah needs to rise for at least 2 hours. We normally make the challah this way after dinner, put it in the fridge for a slow rise overnight and take it out when the cat wakes me up at 5 a.m. or so. Take it out as soon as you wake up if you lack a cat alarm clock. Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes. Check to see if it needs tenting with tin foil after 15 minutes: if it looks baked at that point then it's going to be black after 50! As with all bread it is done when it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Let bread cool before either slicing or pulling apart (the braiding allows it to pull apart very nicely and is much more traditional than slicing: I've never actually witnessed slicing but I'm sure it must happen).
