Heavenly Challah Bread

There's nothing like eating a meal, making toast or a eating a sandwich with freshly baked bread.  Bread machines make it incredibly easy to make a fresh loaf of bread in 3 hours or less.  Through a lot of experimentation, I came up with the perfect bread machine recipe for Challah bread.  Making the bread is simple: just add the ingredients in the order presented in this recipe and voila! you have a delicious loaf of Challah bread!  I hope you enjoy this recipe.
 

You will need the following ingredients to make a one and a half pound loaf of Heavenly Challah Bread in a bread machine:

6 ounces of warm water
3 medium or large eggs
3 tablespoons of unsalted sweet cream butter
3 tablespoons of honey
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
3 cups of bread flour
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of poppy seeds
1 teaspoon of active dry yeast

You'll need some measuring cups, measuring spoons, and of course a bread machine.

Remove the bread machine's bread pan from the machine.  Measure out six ounces of warm water and pour it into the bread pan.

Remove three medium or large eggs from your refrigerator and allow them to warm to room temperature.
Crack open the eggs and add to the bread pan.

Measure out three tablespoons of unsalted sweet cream butter.  Cut the butter into smaller slices and allow the butter to warm to room temperature.  Add the butter to the bread pan.

Since the recipe calls for salt to be added at a later step, I use unsalted butter so the bread won't come out too salty.

Measure three tablespoons of honey and add it to the bread pan.

Measure one and a half teaspoons of salt and add it to the bread pan.

Measure and add three cups of bread flour to the bread pan.

Add one tablespoon of sugar to the bread pan.

Add one and a half teaspoons of Poppy Seeds to the baking pan.

Measure and add one teaspoon of active dry yeast to the bread pan.  Don't use more than one teaspoon because this bread rises quite a bit and if you use more yeast, the bread will rise and come into contact with the lid on the bread machine (this is the voice of experience).  It'll still taste good but won't have a nice curved top crust.

Put the bread pan into the bread machine and close the lid.

Set your bread machine to:

• 1.5 pound loaf
• Medium crust
• Basic (or white) bread.

Press Start.  In about three hours, you'll have a delicious Challah bread!

As the bread machine mixes the ingredients and starts the kneading process, you'll get a beautiful dough like the ones in the photos below.

Carefully remove the very hot bread pan from the bread machine and remove the bread according to the instructions that came with your bread machine.  Voila! - a beautiful and delicious loaf of Challah Bread!