Holler for Challah

Last week I was reading Washington Post's Food Section and their discussion about bread. I had an idea that I should make challah! Because I've never made challah, or any bread for that matter, I asked Anna what recipe she used when she made it a few years ago. She said Yaneev's. Emailed Yaneev, got the recipe, invited Paige and Jenn to come over and set out to make my first ever challah.

Good thing I read the recipe the night before: turns out you have to let the dough sit in the fridge over night. I ended up buying the ingredients and doing the prep work the night before.

this is what it looks like when the yeast gets activated with sugar and warm water
this is what the dough looked like after I added the rest of the ingredients....something went wrong....but what!?
I realized the recipe was missing a step (adding the rest of the water with the flour). Problem solved: now it actually looks like a proper dough
after almost two hours covered in a warm place, the dough doubled in size!!!
after a night in the fridge, the dough somewhat dried out and I totally panicked. When Jenn and Paige came over, we ended up adding some water and kneading it again. The result is on the right side of the picture: another crisis averted

3 challahs: Paige's, mine, Jenn's

3 of our challahs after they were allowed to rise for an hour and a half: they totally expanded!!!

before putting challahs in the oven, we brushed them with an egg mixture and sprinkled with sugar

challah is ready!

my challah: with cranberries

time to enjoy the fruits of our labor!

This was a great success. There were definitely several "oh my god, this is going to suck" moments, but I'm glad I tried a new recipe. Thanks Yaneev and Anna for encouragement. Thanks Jenn and Paige for doing this with me :)

If you want the exact recipe, email me me directly, and I'll be happy to send it to you.