Braided Bread (Challa)

Growing up, we had a neighbor who made the most beautiful braided bread. She was friends with my mom and I loved when she'd come by, she rarely came empty handed. She was from Switzerland and used to say the bread was "just something they made". She had a talent and not only was her bread lovely, it tasted great too.

She offered to lend a hand with our wedding reception and guess what she did? She baked 5 gazillion loaves of that beautiful bread. I remember her stopping by my house with samples and asking for feedback when she had tweaked a recipe just a bit.

I have tried to replicate her recipe over the years, but nothing comes close. (I need to track her down!) I made this braided bread on Sunday to serve at family dinner, it needs some obvious fine tuning, but turned out pretty good.

Braided Bread
(also called Challa)
Ingredients:

3 Tb yeast

2 cups warm water

½ c. sugar

1 Tb salt

½ c. oil (I used grapeseed)

6 -7 c. flour

5 large eggs

Directions:

Combine water, yeast and sugar, leave it to proof for about 10 minutes in a bowl(I used my Bosch). Once its all foamy and bubbly, add the salt, oil, and about 3 cups of flour. Mix together well and then add the eggs. Once the eggs are all incorporated, add about 3 more cups of flour. Add enough flour til you get a good dough to work with and it pulls away from the side of the bowl. Cover it and let it sit somewhere warm for about an hour. Separate into 3 large pieces and then divide each of those pieces into three smaller pieces. Roll into snakes and braid together. Let rise for about 1 hour, it will be about double in size. Then brush with egg wash (1 egg white and 1 Tb water).

Bake at 350° for about 18 minutes

These loaves are 100% white flour, something I have not done in a long time. When I make this again, I will definately add some fresh-ground-something-or-other. The dough was very soft and workable, it could use a little more substance.