Ingredients
Dough
1/2 cup lukewarm water
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
4 cups (482g) Artisan Bread Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon instant yeast
Glaze
1 large egg, beaten with 1 tbsp water
Instructions
To make the dough: Weigh your flour using grams; Combine all of the dough ingredients and mix and knead them, by hand, until you have a soft, smooth dough. Allow the dough to rise in a plastic wrap covered bowl for about 2 hours, or until it's puffy. Gently deflate the dough, and transfer it to a lightly greased work surface.
Divide the dough into pieces, the number depending on what kind of braid you want to make, standard is 3 but it can go up to 6. Make sure each strand is about 20inches. Braid and fold ends under. There are a bunch of videos on youtube showing you how to do this.
Gently pick up the braided loaf and place it on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover the loaf with lightly greased plastic wrap, and let it rise until it's very puffy, 90 minutes to 2 hours at room temperature.
Make the glaze: Whisk together the egg and water. Brush the glaze over the risen loaf. Place the baking sheet atop another baking sheet, this will insulate the bread's bottom crust, and keep it from browning too much. Put the challah in the lower third of the oven, and bake it for 20 minutes at 375F. If it's a deep golden brown, tent it loosely with aluminum foil. If it's not as brown as you like, check it again at 30 minutes. Once you've tented the challah, bake it for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until the loaf looks and feels set and its interior registers at least 190F. Remove the bread from the oven, and place it on a rack to cool.
