Challah

I love to bake, especially breads and fruit pies. My favorite bread books are by Peter Reinhart. This recipe comes from his book "The Bread Bakers Apprentice". This is one of the few breads in the book that can be made in one day. Most of them require two days to make.

It's a simple dough with simple ingredients. Milk, eggs, sugar, salt, butter and bread flour. I use quick yeast and mix it with the dry ingredients. It goes through three rises each taking about an hour. The dough is divided into three equal parts and braided to make an attractive loaf on the table. The beautiful brown color on the crust comes from the egg wash before baking and a sprinkle of poppy seed looks nice and gives a subtle citrus taste to the bread. A very good bread with a nice moist crumb and chewy texture.