This recipe comes from Susan, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, but has lived outside of New Haven, Connecticut, for more than 40 years. When Susan was growing up, her mother loved to cook but never spent a lot of time baking because there were so many Jewish bakeries in their area.  When Susan moved to Connecticut with her husband and children years later, she missed all of those bakeries—and  decided to take baking challah into her own hands. It turned out she had a knack for it. Susan’s challahs quickly became well known in her community, and now many friends and relatives request her delicious bread for the holidays. 

Susan shared with me that one of her greatest joys was baking two challahs for her grandson’s bar mitzvah—she baked them in her home kitchen, packed them in her carry-on luggage, and carried them across the country to share with family and friends. She looks forward to doing the same for her youngest grandson in the next year.   

I love Susan’s story so much because in my experience, moving away from a place you have lived for a very long time can be difficult; and often what we miss the most is the food. I love that Susan started her own tradition and created a recipe that brings so much joy to her and her family. I have now made this recipe numerous times for my own family, and we all can’t get enough. If you have leftovers (which you probably won’t) the challah makes the best French toast as well as the most delicious homemade croutons.  

Makes two loaves

Active Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 8 hours (this includes rising time) 

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups of lukewarm water 
• 6 ¾ teaspoon of yeast (3 packs)
• 8 cups All Purpose flour, plus 1-2 cups for kneading
• 1 ½ cups of sugar (plus 1 teaspoon for yeast)
• 1 ½ teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup of butter (2 sticks), cut into small cubes, room temperature, plus 1 tablespoon for greasing the bowl for 2nd rise. (Susan’s original recipe says that you can also use margarine) 
• 4 large eggs, beaten at room temperature plus 1 for glaze
• 1 teaspoon of poppy seeds 

Directions:  

1. In a large bowl, mix yeast, water and 1 teaspoon of sugar until the yeast dissolves. 
2. Add 3 cups of flour and 1 cup of sugar and mix well with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.
3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour until the dough looks spongy and bubbly. 
4. In another large bowl (or mixing bowl with a dough hook) mix 5 cups of flour, salt, and ½ cup of sugar.
5. Add butter into the flour mixture and mix well. 
6. Add eggs into the yeast mixture and mix well. 
7. Add yeast mixture into flour mixture and knead until smooth and elastic. Pour onto a floured board and knead for another 10 minutes. Add more flour if needed. 
8. Put into a large greased bowl and let rise for 4-5 hours or until doubled in size. 
9. Punch down the dough and pour onto a floured board. Cut in half. With one half cut into 3 pieces and roll and mold them into long baguette shapes about 21 inches long. 
10. Braid the dough starting from the middle. 
11. See below the different ways you can shape your challah ** 
12. Once you shape your challah you can either let it rise again right away for about an hour or until it doubles in size or put it in the fridge overnight and let it rise in the morning. 
13. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bring the rising dough to room temperature. 
14. Glaze the top of the dough with beaten egg and sprinkle with poppy seeds
15. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown. 
16. Let cool and enjoy.

**Preparation of Pans and Braid Styles:

This recipe makes 2 large loaves of Challah. There are many ways you can do this and here are a few options:

Susan’s Tips: I love this trick because this is how Susan makes this recipe and you end up having two gorgeous full round rolls. To make this follow these instructions:

1. Take 2 angel cake pans and 2 springform pans (if you do not have springform pans use 2 baking sheets with parchment paper) and take the middle sections out of the angle pan. 
2. Grease the pans well and put the angel pan inside the spring pan or on top of the baking sheet. 
3. After you braid your challah you can put the challah inside the angel pan in a circle. The challah will bake and rise so there is no hole in the middle and the springform pan or baking sheet with parchment will hold the bottom of the dough in place.   

Traditional: 

1. On two baking sheets place parchment. 
2. Braid two loaves and place on a baking sheet to rise.
3. Continue on #12

Happy baking and watch here! 

Elizabeth