CHOCOLATE CHALLAH

Steps:

• Put dough into lightly greased large bowl, cover w/ a damp towel and let rise until doubled in size, about an hour or so, again depending on conditions. Divide dough into equal pieces depending on how fancy a braid you want to make. The easiest is a 3-strand braid, but I like the fat short loaves resulting from more strands. This month’s Saveur (Sept/Oct ’02) has a nifty diagram illustrating a complicated 6-strand braid which is infuriatingly difficult to follow if you don’t use their method of numbering the strands w/ little stuck on tags. I botched it a couple of times before googling this fantastic no-fail trick (link below), which probably results in a different braid but is way cool anyway. I also found this very interesting discussion of challah (along with great braid diagrams): http://www.geocities.com/devorah5760/Challah.html. Whichever braid you use, finish by pinching together all strands at the end and tuck under. Allow to rise for another 15 minutes then brush with a beaten egg mixed with a little water. Bake at 350ºF for 35 minutes or so until you get a hollow sounding thump when you knock on the bottom. Enjoy!