Bread Baking Babes - Challah

I am verrrrrry excited to be the "Kitchen of the Month" for October with my bread baking friends The Bread Baking Babes. It's a lot of pressure to come up with a recipe for these ladies; something interesting, fun, different....
I sat myself down with my copy of The New York Times Bread and Soup Cookbook that Scott bought me from a book sale earlier this year (we love book sales!), and at one point I had 18 bread recipes marked! It was a tough choice, but I decided on Challah (pronounced hallah) bread.

I chose the recipe for 2 reasons, first because the dough didn't sound too difficult to make, and second because I've never made a braided dough before and these baking groups have woken up the part of my teeny brain that wants to experiment more with bread baking. Damn them! In the nicest way of course.

So you make the dough, let it rise, and then divide the dough into 2 equal pieces, for 2 loaves. Then you split each piece into two unequal (2/3 and 1/3 pieces), and split each of those pieces into 3. Roll the pieces into ropes, and braid them.


Lay the smaller braid on top of the larger braid and seal the ends together.


Brush with egg yolk and sprinkle with poppy seeds (if desired, I didn't) and let rise again.


Then bake, let cool, and stand back and admire your beautiful loaves of bread. The one on the right lost some definition because I covered them with plastic wrap for the second rise. I guess I shouldn't have done that.


Pretty!
Please check out my bread baking friends today and see how amazing their Challahs turned out:
Bake My Day (Karen), Cookie Baker Lynn (Lynn), Living on Bread and Water (Monique), Lucullian Delights (Ilva), My Kitchen in Half Cups (Tanna),Notitie van Lien (Lien), The Sour Dough (Mary aka Breadchick), Thyme of Cooking (Katie), and Grain Doe (Gorel).

Edited To Add: My apologies to all the Bread Baking Buddies out there! If you'd like to be a Bread Baking Buddy, please make the bread and send me a link to your post by October 31! My email is iliketocook AT shaw DOT ca.

Challah
from The New York Times Bread and Soup Cookbook

Makes two loaves

5 1/2 to 6 1/2 cups flour, unsifted
3 TB sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 package dry active yeast
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
pinch powdered saffron
1 cup warm water (120-130'F)
4 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp cold water
1/2 tsp poppy seeds

Combine 1 1/4 cups of flour, the sugar, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Mix in the softened butter. Stir the saffron into the warm water until it dissolves. Add a little at a time to the flour mixture and blend thoroughly. Beat for 2 minutes with an electric mixer and medium speed, scraping the bowl occasionally. Separate the yolk and white of one egg. Blend the single egg white and the other 3 whole eggs into the batter. Reserve the single egg yolk. Stir 1/2 cup of flour into the batter and beat at high speed for 2 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally. Blend in enough additional flour to make a soft dough. Knead the dough on a lightly floured board about 8 to 10 minutes or until it is smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning it once to grease the top. Cover and allow the dough to rise in a warm, draft free place until double in bulk (approximately one hour).

Flour a pastry board lightly and set the dough on it. Divide the dough into 2 equal portions. Divide each portion into 2 pieces, using 1/3 of the dough for one piece, and 2/3 of the dough for the other. Divide the large piece into 3 equal portions. Roll each of these into 12 inch ropes. Braid the ropes together tightly, using your fingers to press the dough together at the ends. Divide the smaller piece into 3 equal portions. Roll each of these into 10 inch ropes and braid tightly. Place the smaller braid on top of the larger one and seal the ends. Repeat this process to form the second loaf.

Place both braided loaves on a greased baking sheet. Mix the reserved single egg yolk with the 1 tsp of cold water and brush the top of the loaves with the mixture. Sprinkle with poppy seeds, and let the loaves rise until double in bulk in a warm draft free place (approximately one hour). Bake in a 400' over for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on wire racks.