24 Oct CHALLAH

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup warm water
11⁄2 Tbsp yeast
1⁄2 cup sugar
1⁄4 cup oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups bread flour
1⁄2 Tbsp salt

DIRECTIONS:

Place the warm water in a measuring cup and add the yeast.
Lightly stirred just to combine, leave the yeast for 1 minute
then add 1⁄4 cup of sugar. While the yeast has a chance to
rise for 5 minutes, whisk together 1⁄4 cup sugar, oil, eggs and
vanilla in a stand mixer. When the yeast had a nice thick
foam, pour it in to the egg mixture and whisk together.
Add the flour and salt and knead with a dough hook for 5
minutes. Place the dough in bowl prepared with cooking
spray so it won’t stick and cover with a towel. Place the
bowl in a warm spot and let it rise for 11⁄2 hours. Punch down
the risen dough! Just a few punches in the center and
around the sides then back in the warm spot to rise for
another hour. Take the dough out of the bowl and placed it on a surface prepared with cooking spray. Make the key
shapes: Slice the dough in to sections with a sharp knife. First braid some dough and make the first key with three
different braids. One with a straight traditional braid for the key neck. Next comes a long braid connected at both ends
to create the key handle. Last is a little braid for the teeth. Then you can make a pull-apart key using rolls of challah.
For that, just roll out long snakes of dough and make cute little knots. Stick them together to create the key shape. And
last you can make the traditional braided challah with a key-shaped dough cut out on top. Brush the tops of the challah
with egg, sprinkle some vanilla sugar over