challah recipe

my rebbetzin was gracious enough to give me her challah recipe, which is how i've spent my day.

if you have a large group of hungry people who like the taste of good old lechem mishna, here's a great way to make more than enough for them:

take 5 cups of lukewarm water, about the temperature at which you'd bathe a baby.
dissolve a scant 1/3 c. of yeast, or 9 tblspns.  a scant measurement is when you fill it to the rim, not all the way.  just enough so you can still see the rim.  stir the yeast to get rid of clumps, then let it sit for 15 minutes.

5 lbs. of flour follow.  this is a full bag of flour.  Rebbetzin Fine prefers to use bread flour, i used regular flour, and then whole wheat (i'll explain that in a bit).

put 2/3 of the bag of flour into your mixing bowl.

add:
scant 1/4 c. coarse/kosher salt (i used sea salt for lack of a good alternative)
1 3/4 c. sugar
1 1/4 c oil (add most of the oil, leave behind enough to grease the dough later)
7 eggs

put yeast (and water) in with it.  if you have a mixer, let it run on medium for 7 or 8 minutes.  if you're like me, prepare to work out your arms, and mix it thoroughly.  it was totally fun.

then add the rest of the flour from the bag, and about 2 more cups of flour to get the right consistency (this is where the 1.5 c of whole wheat came in)

mix for another 8 minutes with a machine, or until it feels right (somewhat sticky, elasticy, but you can get your hands out without too much pain)

for the mixer using crew: grease rising bowl (ie, the bowl you use to let the dough rise), dump in the dough, turn once to get it covered in oil
for the non-mixer using crew: pour a bit of oil, spread it over the dough.  pick up the dough and flumf it over (for lack of a better word) and cover that side also.  when i say cover, i mean thinly coat, by the way.

cover with a towel, or if you live s/w like scranton where it's really dry today, loosely cover it with a plastic food bag, then towels.

let it rise til it doubles.  then (my favorite part) punch it down, take challah, and let ir rise again.

then you get to shape it.  have fun with that.

let it sit for 1/2 hour, 40 minutes - pre-heat the oven to 400.

mix an egg and 1/3 teaspon sugar, paint challah.

bake @ 400 for 10 minutes, then lower it to 350 for 25.  check it after 18 minutes to see where it's holding.  (if you have 2 racks in, switch them about 7 minutes after you lower the heat so they get evenly done)