The First loaves - Challah

While I mentioned the inspiration of this project was the movie "Julie and Julia"; the ACTUAL inspiration of deciding on bread was my friends' Kevin and Anat's wedding this past Sunday. It was the first Jewish wedding I have ever been to. It was amazing. The tradition of why certain ceremonies are done during the wedding made each part of the ceremony and reception one of the most memorable and meaningful weddings I have EVER been to. One part of the ceremony spoke about the traditional Challah and provided a blessing to the Challah and wine, and then sent a piece of this wonderful bread to each table for the guests to enjoy. It was so delicious...and I knew when I tasted that sweet, egg rich bread what my endeavor was going to be.

So, last night I made up the Challah dough and left it to age a bit in the refrigerator. I am using "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" cookbook for this recipe. The bread is sitting in the kitchen now...it has been braided and is awaiting the final step of putting an egg wash on it and then into the oven. I have read that the traditional toppings on this bread are sesame seeds and poppy seeds. I've decided to make one with Sesame seeds, and the second loaf (which is for Anat and Kevin) will be left plain per their request. Kevin and Anat will be my critics and will hopefully offer constructive feedback as to how close this bread is to what they know as good traditional Challah!
And I have finished putting the egg wash on, after the bread rose for 1 hour and 20 minutes:

The final product looks pretty tasty to me! Can't wait to taste this tonight with Tony's family!