Enjoy these favorite family recipes from your CBN.com family.
Total Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes
Servings: 20
Ingredients:
7 cups bread flour
2 pkg yeast
1 egg, beatened
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 cup warm water
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Cooking Instructions:
From the 1/2 sugar, take 1 tbsp and combine it with the yeast and warm water. Let that sit for a few min to become foamy. Add the rest of the sugar, the salt, and 3 1/2 cup flour. Mix that well and add beaten egg and oil. Mix in the remaining flour. You know I have a 6 qt kitchen aid mixer so this mixing is no skin off my teeth. If you're doing it by hand... well, God bless you (I mix it with the mixer for 11 minutes till a good dough forms).
Grease a large bowl. Make the dough into a ball and put it into the greased bowl. Turn it over so the oiled side is up. Cover the bowl with saran or a damp cloth and put in a warm place for 2 hrs. Every 20 min punch it down the recover and let it raise another 20 min. Keep on with the 20 min punching until 2 hours have gone by.
Divide it in 1/2 and each half divide into 3 or 6 or 4 or however many pieces you will braid together. Roll the pieces into a long rope maybe 12 to 15 inches long. Braid them together.
Put your loaves on greased sheetpans and let rise about 1/2 hour or till you feel like they are ready to bake.
When I let the loaves rise, I take the Saran wrap I had covered the bowl with and spray one side with Pam and put that over the loaf. If you don't spray the paper, it might stick to your loaf and deflate it when you go to remove it.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Brush the loaves with egg mixed with a little water and bake them for 25 minutes.
The recipe (from the Internet) said to turn the oven off and leave the bread in the oven for another 10 minutes. I don't do that. I bake it till it is done and then take it out and start eating!
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Memorable Moment:
I went to school in a Methodist college in Northeastern PA. There were many wonderful Jewish friends in our dorms who generously shared their Hannukah gifts of Challah bread. For me, Challah unites traditions of Judaism and Christianity around the Christmas season. As to Jesus the Christ being their Messiah, we agreed to disagree. I continue to pray for them these 30 years later.