Bread Machine Challah Plait

The bread machine is brilliant for making Challah dough. Challah is a traditional Jewish bread, egg enriched, and braided.

Ingredients

2 lightly beaten eggs
Water to add to the eggs making up 275 ml in total
2 tbsp oil
450 g strong white bread flour
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp quick dried yeast
A further beaten egg to glaze
Poppy seeds


Recipe
Mix the eggs in a measuring jug, then top up with water to 275 ml.
Pour in the water/eggs, then the oil. Sprinkle over the flour. Add salt and sugar in separate corners of the pan, then yeast in the middle. Set to a dough setting (generally 1 hr 30 mins).
When the dough is ready, knock it out onto a lightly floured surface then break into three sections. Plait the dough, tucking the ends under at each end of the loaf.
Place on an oiled baking tray and cover with oiled cling film for half hour, or until doubled in size. If you let the bread over prove, you will lose the definition of the plait. If the bread hasn't risen enough, the strands of the plait won't join together.
After rising, glaze the bread with beaten egg and sprinkle with poppy seeds.

Bake the bread at 190c for 30 minutes, or until the bread has a hollow sound when tapped underneath and is nicely brown on the top. Leave to cool, and try to resist breaking off great big chunks and coating with salty butter.