Everyone in hubby’s family has a May birthday so we’ve been spending a lot of time over at MIL’s house for gatherings. I usually dislike being around the whole in-law clan (because they are all mouthy Conservative Christian Republicans and LOVE to argue politics) but I was in charge of helping hubby’s grandmother (who is the only decent one of the bunch) with the bbq. I’m always into learning how to make kick-ass food and believe me.. this woman can barbecue like nobody’s business!! The food was awesome (mmm.. grilled chicken…) and no one ended up dead, so I consider that a success. I also managed to squeeze the recipe for homemade Challah bread out of my SIL. She married into the Jewish faith and had some awesome ’sisters’ where she lived who made their own EVERYTHING from scratch.. including challah for Sabbath.

After puttering around the house for a while yesterday I pulled out SIL’s challah recipe and gave it a go. I usually don’t have eggs in the house (which challah uses a few of) but I made brownies for hubby’s birthday last week and still had them in the fridge. I followed the directions and ended up with a whole bowl of sticky, soupy dough that would have just oozed down the counter rather than kneaded. I panicked, called SIL (who didn’t answer her phone), and then proceeded to dump flour into the bowl and stir until the stuff in the bowl resembled dough. When SIL did finally call back.. she was convinced that I had done something “wrong” but had no idea what — since she mostly watched the bread-making and didn’t actually do it herself. DOH! By this point the bread was rising in my “dough bucket” and I figured I would just ride it out and see what happened. I had already “wasted” the ingredients and had the oven pre-heating.

After a few pathetic attempts at a 4 strand braid (admittedly, I had never done a 4 strand braid and should probably try it on something other than giant wads of sticky dough) I gave up and did a simple 3 strand.. let it rise a second time, covered it in an egg wash, and threw it in the oven while silently hoping that it didn’t suck. The results?

It seriously didn’t suck. My husband has eaten over half the gigantic loaf between last night and today.. He usually doesn’t go that crazy for homemade bread but I couldn’t even keep him out of this! Totally a success- and it looks pretty too! The only thing I’ll do differently next time is to add more sugar so its sweeter – more like the Russian Easter bread (or “paska” as its called) I love so much.

(also.. if any bakers out there would like to tell me why the bread “cracked” like that on the top where the braiding crossed over and how I can avoid that next time.. I’d be very grateful. I’m thinking I might have “braided” it too tightly.)