For our book club last month we read The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult. I absolutely loved the book. It's a box of tissues kind of book but very good. Throughout the book it talks about challah bread which kept making me feel so hungry! Challah is a traditional Jewish bread that is made for Shabbat and other religious holidays, other than Passover, of course. I am not Jewish, but I figured I would love to try out one of their specialties and also, in the process, educate myself and my children about the Jewish religion/culture. Plus, the braided bread is just so darn pretty! I found the recipe on Pinterest (where else?!) and also the instructions on how to braid the challah. I did the 4 strand braid which was really quite simple, don't be scared to try it! It was fun to braid the bread. I have never really braided bread before so it was a new experience for me. I just followed the recipe exactly as written on this other blog, so I'm just going to provide links rather than copying the recipe directly to this post. I think I did cook mine just a bit too long so I think next time I will cut off a few minutes of cook time. It still tasted really good but I wanted a little softer crust. This is a rather time consuming bread, mostly because of the rising times, so plan on doing it on a day when you're not running about like a chicken with your head cut off!
Dough Recipe
How to Braid Challah
