challah!

oh HELL yeah.

 this dough works best as an overnighter, start it an hour or so before you go to bed, and plan to bake in the morning.

i'll assume you don't have a sweet kitchenaid mixer with a dough hook and you're about to make sweet love to the dough in the old fashioned way.

get a big ol' bowl and put in:
1 package yeast (that's 2 1/2 tsp)
1/2 c warm water

when you can see that the yeast is partying (it'll be a little bubbly, takes like 2 min)
add:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
(i like to use white whole wheat, this dough doesn't rise well when you try to make it w. regular whole wheat)
2 eggs
2 egg yolks (hang on to the whites for meringue!!!! recipe soon! did i spell it right?)
3 tbs oil
3 tbs honey or sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt

i like to use Spatchy Spatcherton the Wonder Spatula for this job, he is a high quality rubber spatula that i got for my birthday, and he is red and very charming. mix it until it's all smooth kinda like cake batter, and then  gradually stir in:

2 1/2 c. bread flour
(usually i just use more white whole wheat. i'm having an affair with king arthur and his flour)

at some point, Spatchy gets jettisoned and you use your hands and start kneading. don't add more flour if it's too sticky, just wet your hands and keep at it.  in about ten minutes you'll have the softest nicest dough ever, all ready to go into an oiled bowl and be covered with plastic.

let rise until doubled, (you know dough is done rising when you poke it and your finger hole stays put and doesn't fill back in. dont let dough over rise or the gluten strands will break and you'll be gnawing on some tough shit that barely rose when you baked it)

then punch it down (you dont have to be a ninja, just squish it so it farts out the extra gas)
and put it in the fridge overnight or for at least four hours to rise again. make sure it's covered well and has room to expand a lot.

in the morning after you eat toast and tea, get out your dough lump. perty, aint it?

divide into three or four lumps, depending on what kind of braiding skills you have, and make three or four snakes, whatever you can handle, or makes you feel happy, or works with your daily numerology better.

roll your snakes in flour and braid em, put them on a greased, cornmeal sprinkled cookie sheet,  and brush w.
 1 egg
a pinch of salt
and cover w. the greasy plastic wrap you let it rise under before, until it's proofed. (which means poofed)

preheat oven to 375
brush your loavys w. more of the salty egg right before you put 'em in, and maybe put some sesame seeds on it too if you're fancy.

bake until nice and goldy brown, and they sound super hollow when you tap on the bottoms. they only take about 30 minutes to bake and OMFG best yummy snack ever w. butter and A MAZE ING TOAST and french toast if you let it get stale but it never lasts that long.