"...now the children are all grown up, but when they were small and I made challah, I would always make enough dough so that they could each make their own loaves.

"Each year as they got older I would give them more dough to make a bigger bread, and before you knew it they were making loaves of challah as big as mine.  Time flies, especially in the challah department"

Reprinted from The Molly Goldberg Jewish Cookbook

 Challot (Braided Bread)    Sascha Lazar

500 ml. lukewarm water 

1 kg. flour

3 T. sugar 

1 t. salt

2 T. dry yeast (or “Shimrit” in Israel)

100 ml. oil

*****

Sift flour.    Mix the water, yeast and sugar.  In a few minutes the water will start to bubble.  Once it bubbles, add the water mixture to the flour.   Add the oil and salt.

Knead the dough until it is nice and elastic.  Cover with a damp towel to let it rise (about 20 minutes).

Note:  You can combine 1 c. white flour with 1 c. whole wheat flour (but recipe doesn’t come out as well if 2 c. whole wheat flour is used).

After the dough rises, push it down & allow it rise once more (about 20 min).

Preheat oven to 220-250°C or to medium heat.

Take a little piece of dough and burn it on bottom of the oven (this is a Jewish tradition & not part of the recipe).

Divide dough into 5 equal balls.  Take each ball & divide into 3; form 3 long "tubes".  Braid the challot.  Brush some egg on top and sprinkle sesame or sunflower seeds on top.  Bake them for about half an hour (or until they look done).

Variations:  You can take part of the dough and add "zaatar" ("hyssop" spice), olives, sun dried tomatoes, nuts or anything else you like.  Or, you can roll the dough into rectangles and bake as you do the challot.

Sascha's recipe has been reprinted from  "What's for Dinner?" & "Maternal Instincts."