Challah Bread

Instructions

1. Dissolve your yeast into your warm water, add ¼ teaspoon sugar. Stir and let set until a frothy layer is on top of the yeast mixture.
2. Whisk together your flour, remaining sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Make a well in the middle of your dry ingredients, add your eggs + egg yolk and oil. Whisk together, creating a slurry, pulling a little of the flour mixture from the sides. (Do not mix it with ALL the flour mixture yet.) Pour the yeast mixture over the egg slurry and mix to form a rough dough ball. I found that using a wooden spoon worked best for this.
3. Turn your dough out on to a floured surface and using your remaining ¼ cup of flour, knead for about 8-10 minutes. Your dough should be smooth and slightly tacky.
4. Form into a ball and place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double in size (about 1½ to 2 hours).
5. Cut your dough into 3 equal if doing a traditional braid or 6 equal sections for a braid like I did. (The Kitchn has a perfect, photographic step by step on how to do a 6 rope braid.) Roll each section out into a rope about 16 inches long. Squeeze the top of the sections together and braid together. When finished squeeze the ends together and tuck under.
6. Drape with a dish cloth and let rise for about an hour.
7. About 20 minutes before baking, preheat your oven to 350°F and add 1 tablespoon of water to your remaining egg white to create an egg wash. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the egg white on the bread taking care to get in all the creases.
8. Bake for 15 minutes, rotate the pan, then bake another 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool. Slice, serve and enjoy!