Christy and Jane's Challah Bread

I find that people with two young children generally love surprise overnight guests.  With this in mind, Mark and I invited ourselves over to my cousin Tim's house a few weeks ago while we were passing through the area. His wife, Christy made us the most delicious dinner, topped off with some amazing homemade Challah bread. Did I mention that she has two children under two? And the girl is making fresh baked bread for dinner?!?!? Wonder Woman!  I think that this recipe has the best of both worlds.  It uses a bread maker to make the dough and then you form the beautiful double braided load (which is actually very do-able) and bake away.  The bread maker is helpful for people like me, who aren't well versed in the world of yeast-based doughs and would normally be too afraid to try this recipe.  If you don't have a bread maker (or your mother isn't a hoarder and has an extra bread maker in her basement that she can give you.  Fact), you can also make this by hand quite easily too.  If you have child labor that you can employ for this project, it is a great one for the kids, even very little ones.  They love to roll out the dough and eat the end result of their toils.

Christy and Jane's Challah Bread
Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups warm water (70F to 80F)
1 Tbs. plus 1 tsp. butter
2 Tbs. sugar
2 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. plus 1 tsp. dried milk powder
4 cups all purpose unbleached flour
1 packet Flemishmans active dry yeast
1 egg (for egg wash at the end. Do NOT add to bread maker)

1. Put ingredients (sans the egg, remember) into your bread maker on "Dough" setting.

2. When dough is ready and the machine beeps, take out and divide into two pieces.  Make one piece larger than the other, so about 2/3 of the dough for one piece and 1/3 for the other piece.

3. Separate those two pieces each into three equal parts (now you've got 6 pieces - yeah math).

4. Roll each piece of dough out into ropes and braid together.

5. Place larger braid on a greased baking pan or cookie sheet.

6. Using room temp milk, rub into the top of the larger braid and place smaller braid on top. Let rise for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

7. Beat egg. Using fingers or pastry brush, coat top and sides of bread with with egg wash.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes.

Try and wait a few minutes before cutting into it.  It will be hard, but try.

One Year Ago: Chipotle-Pumpkin Turkey Chili
Two Years Ago: Antipasti Platter