Challaaaahhh!!!!

My family is Jewish, and every Friday night we make homemade Challah and it is delicious!!! It's super easy, very tasty, and leftover Challah makes pretty excellent French Toast....in case you were wondering.

Ingredients: Yields 2 Challah loaves
- 3 1/2 cups of bread flour
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- 1/4 cup of canola/vegetable oil
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 cup of hot water (not boiling water, just hot)
- 1 packet of active yeast

Directions: (I use a stand-mixer to make the dough)
- In a large bowl, combine the hot water and the yeast. Let the yeast sit for a few minutes, then, use the hook attachment to dissolve the rest of the yeast in the water.
- Add flour, sugar, salt, and oil to the bowl and set the mixer on low until all of the ingredients have formed a ball of dough on the hook attachment.
- Remove the hook attachment and place a cloth or plate on top of the bowl and let the dough rise for about one hour.
- Then, remove the dough and knead it for a couple minutes. Divide the dough in half and place one of the halves aside.
- Take one half of the dough and divide it into three equal pieces. Take each piece and roll it out on a surface (remember when you used to make "worms" out of Play-Doh? same thing) until you have three long "strings" of dough about 12" long.
- Pinch the ends of the three pieces together, and then carefully braid the three "strings" pinching the pieces tightly at the end.
- Repeat this process with the other half of the dough and place both braided Challahs on a a large baking sheet with ample space between them.
- Place a clean cloth on top of the dough and let the loaves rise for another hour or so.
- Brush both loaves with an egg wash and then cook in the oven at 375 degrees for between 20-30 minutes until golden.