my friday night challah

In the past two weeks, I've made challah twice. Four loaves in total. Let me tell you, they got better each time. My first attempt resembled a rock, a stone cold tooth breaker. The second was lighter and although the bottom was inedible, the top was delicious. But by my third and fourth loaves, our Israeli friends even spoke highly of it. I call that some accomplishment. Next goal: to memorize the recipe.

Challah one and two were for Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year. We ate our weight in apples and honey and tried to sing the fragments of songs we barely remembered anyways. We played reggae music and rocked out. The most surprising thing about our Rosh Hashanah: It happened on a Monday night and my mom was out of the country. Four cheers for dad.

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Challah number three and four were for Sukkoth. As a mostly food invested jew, I'm not too sure what the actual day is supposed to be celebrating, but Sukkoth is one of my favorite holidays. More traditional families build a Sukkah, kinda like an outdoor house, and then sleep in it for a few days. Here, our friends taught their Swazi gardener how to build a Sukkah. He is now a Sukkah-building expert, having constructed one for eight straight years. Sukkoth is probably the most hipster holiday I know about; you sleep outside in tents draped with mandala fabrics and eat israeli food with campfires and other outdoor activities.

Simple Challah
from Joan Nathan, the queen of jewish cooking as far as I'm concerned.

1 1/2 Tablespoons active dry yeast
1 Tablespoon + 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil plus more for greasing bowl
4 +1 eggs
1 Tablespoon salt
8-81/2 cups all purpose flour
poppy seeds for sprinkling

In a large bow, whisk yeast and 1 Tablespoon sugar into 1 3/4 cups lukewarm water.

Whisk oil into yeast and then beat in four eggs one at a time with remaining sugar and salt. Add flour slowly and mix into the dough holds together.

Turn dough out onto a floured counter and knead until the dough is smooth. Clean out the bowl and then oil it. Place dough in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled. (To speed up the process, you can always place dough in an oven preheated to 150 degrees then turned off for five minutes.) Punch down dough and then let rise again for another thirty minutes in a warm place.

In order to make six braid challah: Take half the dough and split into six even balls. Roll the balls out until they are about twelve inches in length and about 1 1/2 inches in width. Its okay for the ropes to not be exactly the same length of width. Arrange the six strands in a line, parallel to each other and pinch the tops together. Move the outside right strand over two strands. Take the outside left strand and move it to the far right. Take the outside left strand and move it over two. Move second strand from the right to the far left. Start over with the new outside right strand. Continue until the loaves are braided. Tuck ugly ends underneath. These straight loaves can be made circular by twisting and into a circular shape and pinching the ends.

In order to make four braid circular challah: Take half the dough and split into four balls. Roll each ball into about a 13" rope. Like in the picture above*, overall the four ropes so their ends stick out perpendicular to the ropes next to them. Cross each rope over the rope to the right until you run out of dough. Tuck all unfinished bits under the challah. No one will ever know.

For both methods: Place loaves on engrossed baking sheet at least 2 inches apart. (I use big roasting pan). Beat last egg in a small bowl and brush loaves lightly. Let them rise for another hour.

Preheat oven to 375 and brush loaves again. Sprinkle with poppy seeds or sesame seeds, if you prefer.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 35-40 minutes until golden brown.