Challah New Year

Last week we celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. As I get older, I have, for many reasons, become more of a spiritualist. Simply put, I don't go to synagogue anymore. I find my religion in a more personal, less organized fashion. We can talk about that some other time, ok? We'll all get together, have a few drinks, and talk about our beliefs. Today, however, we are talking about bread.
I have always celebrated holidays with my children through food. For as long as I can remember, I have made challah with my kids. Anything involving dough is fun to do with kids, but challah is so much fun, because you can play with the dough-stretching it, making long cords, and then braiding them. On Rosh Hashanah, it is traditional to make the challah round, signifying the circular nature of life, so we make a long braid, then snail it up into a round loaf.
Years ago, long before the age of the internet search, I found a recipe for the bread in a Jewish cookbook. I always found the challah heavy and tough, but never thought about looking for a new recipe. This year, I decided to utilize that magical search engine called Google, figuring I could find something and then play with it. I mashed a few recipes together, and this is what I came up with:

makes one medium sized loaf

3/4 tsp. yeast
2/3 cup+ 1 TB warm water
pinch of sugar
1/3 cup unbleached AP flour
2TB vegetable oil
2TB honey
1 large egg, at room temp
pinch of salt
2+ cups unbleached AP flour

In the bowl of a mixer, combine yeast, warm water and the pinch of sugar. Allow the yeast to start to bubble a bit, then add the 1/3 cup of flour and mix a bit with a dough hook. Let rise for about 5-10 minutes. With the mixer running on slow speed, add the oil, the honey and the egg and let combine. Add the salt and the flour until a ball forms, that pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Let the mixer knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Turn the dough out onto the table, add a bit of flour if needed and knead a bit by hand into a nice ball. Place the dough ball into a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise until it doubles in bulk. This is the hard part; having patience.
When the dough has doubled, take out of the bowl and punch down. Divide into three ball and roll each into a long cord, then braid them together. Don't worry if the dough breaks, just smush it back together. Once you have the braid, stretch that out as long as possible, then spiral it into a circle, starting from the outside and working to the center. Place the bread on a sprayed metal sheet, or a stone, and sit back and allow to rise again.
Once the bread has risen (again about 20 minutes), brush with some beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sea salt if you like. Bake in a 350 oven until brown on top and it makes a hollow sound when you tap it on the bottom. Of course, I didn't set the timer...I guess we're talking like 10-15 minutes here.
Here are some pictures of the girls and their beautiful creation. It's great now that I have kids old enough to do all the work..

It was absolutely delicious. And it's a really easy and fun thing to do with your kids.
I wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. I cast some of this special bread on the water, and asked for another year. I think I'm off to a good start. Shana Tova, my friends.