Challah-lah!

Total Time: 30 mins Preparation Time: 5 mins Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 teaspoons yeast (granulated)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 eggs (measured with water)
• 1 1/8 cups water

Recipe

• 1 place all the above ingredients in bread machine pan in the order i have listed them in.
• 2 select dough cycle.
• 3 when dough cycle is complete, remove dough and place on lightly floured surface and allow the dough to rest for about 10 minutes.
• 4 then divide dough into 3 evenly sized pieces (i usually weigh each piece to ensure this).
• 5 roll and'gently massage' each piece to form 3 long snakes.
• 6 approxiamately 30-35 cm each.
• 7 pinch 3 ends together and place under something weighty (i use a heavy bread board), and then start plaiting!
• 8 when you get to the end, pinch the ends together (as you did at the beginning with the other end), and tuck underneath.
• 9 place covered bread dough in warm and draught free place on lightly greased oven tray (a sun room or conservatory is great for this- otherwise a pre-heated warming drawer of an oven is also good) leave it to double in size (about 1 hour).
• 10 brush with a lightly beaten egg and sprinkle liberally with poppy seeds.
• 11 bake in oven at 180'c for about 25-30 minutes- or until a nice golden brown colour.
• 12 cool on wire rack.