RECIPE: Jewish Sabbath Bread--"Challah" (Egg Braid, Loaves, or Rolls)

RECIPE: Jewish Sabbath Bread--"Challah" (Egg Braid, Loaves, or Rolls):

2 packages (1-1/2 T) yeast

6-1/2 c bread flour (San Francisco amount—May be 6 to 8 c in your atmospheric conditions)—

                I have also used 3 c whole wheat flour with 3-1/2 c bread flour successfully.

                This recipe does not work well with all-purpose flour, including unbleached.

½ c sugar

1 T salt

8 T/1/2 c/1 stick margarine

1-3/4 c water

5 eggs

Optional: seeds to sprinkle on top of loaves when they are ready for baking, following applying a wash of an extra egg.

In a saucepan, melt the margarine in the water. Move pan off burner to cool to body temperature.

Combine yeast, bread flour, sugar, and salt in a huge bowl—mine is 15 qts. Stir thoroughly. When margarine-and-water has cooled, add it and stir to combine thoroughly.

Add one egg at a time, combining thoroughly after each addition.

Knead dough 12 times directly in the bowl if yours is huge, else on a pastry mat (floured if not silicone.) Place in a separate greased bowl, which can be 5-qt. Turn to grease sides and top.

Cover with bath towel and let rise for 1 hr.

Punch dough down. Divide. I bake the challah in 2 loaf pans, so divide the dough in half. For a traditional loaf, divide into 3 parts.

Cover dough. Let rest for 10 min.

*Either place the dough formed into loaves, into pans OR stretch each part into a rope on a sheet pan and braid--then place on a sheet pan.

*(Alternatively, form into individual rolls. Recipe makes about 22 rolls.)

Cover with bath towel(s) and let rise for 45 min. Preheat oven to 350 degrees at the 15-min mark.

Bake loaves (whether in loaf pans or on a sheet pan) for 40-50 min depending on how much flour you used, rolls for 20-25 min.