Bread Machine Honey Whole Wheat Challah

This bread was tender, soft & had a hint of sweet that compliments both a sweet or savory dish. My family LOVED this recipe! While I had intended to make as directed I found there were some bumps in the road on the way to success. :) I only had 2 cups of whole wheat flour left, so had to sub 4-1/2 cups of white flour. This was not only my first time making challah, but the first time I have ever used the dough cycle on my bread machine (it's over 10 years old). The lesson learned here was that my machine is not capable of holding the amount of dough this recipe makes. (It would be helpful to others in the future if the recipe stated what size machine this was tested in.) The dough cycle had under 5 minutes left when all of a sudden the dough expanded enough to pop the lid up on it's own. I had dough stuck to every inch of the interior of the machine; including the element below the bread container! Luckily it turned out fairly easy to clean up. Meanwhile, I continued with the recipe. This is where the recipe's instructions begin to get muddy for anyone new to making challah, or any kind of bread. This recipe simply says to remove dough from machine & braid. If not for the yield being 3 loaves I would have made one gigantic one, based on the instructions. So, I kneaded a bit of flour into the dough to make it workable, divided it into 3 equal pieces, each of which I divided again into 3 equal pieces & then braided to create the 3 loaves. As an avid breadbaker I was then concerned that this recipe doesn't call for a second rise, but not being familar with challah I employed DH to look up some other challah recipes online. He read several to me that all required a second rise. So at this point I placed the braided loaves on parchment lined cookie sheets, covered them with a tea towel & allowed them to rise for 30 minutes. Then baked as instructed here for 30 minutes. I did not use the egg wash or sesame seeds, as I was making this specifically to use for recipe #63178. We also ate a bunch plain as well as with recipe #357449. Delicious each & every way & totally worth the trouble! I will continue to make this recipe, probably by hand instead of in the machine, because I'd hate to cut the recipe in half to fit the machine & not get as many loaves! ;) Thanks for sharing your recipe, Rachel! Made & enjoyed for Fall 2009 Pick A Chef. You've been adopted! :) http://www.recipezaar.com/bb/viewtopic.zsp?t=310505&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

have made twice comes out excellentley

I want to try this recipe for Rosh Hashanah this year! What type of whole wheat flour have people used? Can I use 4 tablespoons of honey instead of using regular sugar?

I am in the process of making this now, but I wonder how many breads I will be able to get from this recipe. It is a lot of lour.

OK, but I agree it was a little bland. Perhaps more salt? Most recipes I've seen have at least a tsp of salt, and this one had only 1/8 tsp for 4 cups flour. I'll try 1 tsp next time. Otherwise, it was a great 100% whole wheat recipe. Thanks for posting!