Apologies for the unscheduled interruption in service. Things have been a bit crazy in our household this week (completely un-food-related) and it has severly curtailed my desire or ability to accomplish anything in the kitchen beyond frozen ravioli or takeout burritos. Hopefully the chaos will subside a bit, and I'll have a chance to redeem myself.

My last major food attempt, however, was an unmitigated disaster. I tried to make challah last Friday from an old, old recipe of my grandmother's that I had found when cleaning out her kitchen. The recipe wasn't very clear (literally AND figuratively), and I never remember my grandmother making challah, so I'm not sure as to the origin of this recipe. Maybe it was shunted far back in the cabinet because it sucked? Because my challah sure sucked: hard as a rock, the color of a raw egg yolk, way too crusty, and lacking that lovely lightness and sweetness that an egg dough should have. Breaking off a bit after saying the Motzi was an athletic feat. Sacreligious or not, it went straight in the trash after dinner.

I had been planning on making another attempt today with a better recipe, courtesy of Raptorgirl, but (stemming from the aforementioned chaos) I have a few other more pressing activities to attend to today so it looks like I'll be buying this week's challah and trying again soon.

In the meantime, aside from using a proven recipe, anyone have suggestions about how to make the perfect challah?