To make dough in mixer with dough hook Sift 23⁄4 cups of flour into bowl of mixer fitted with dough hook. Make large deep well in center. Add yeast mixture, remaining sugar, oil, eggs, remaining water and salt to well.Mix at medium-low speed, pushing flour in often at first and scraping dough down occasionally from bowl and hook, until ingredients form dough that just begins to cling to hook, about 7 minutes. Dough should be soft and sticky. Mix at medium speed, scraping down twice, until dough is smooth, partially clings to hook and almost cleans sides of bowl, about 5 minutes.Pinch dough quickly; if it sticks to your fingers, beat in more flour 1 tablespoon at a time until dough is no longer very sticky, and mix at medium speed about 2 minutes. Dough should be soft, smooth and elastic.To make dough in food processor Combine 23⁄4 cups of flour, remaining sugar and salt in food processor fitted with dough blade and process briefly to mix them. Add yeast mixture, oil and eggs.With blades of processor turning, pour in remaining water. Process until ingredients come together to a soft dough. It will not form a ball. Process for about 30 seconds to knead dough. Pinch dough quickly; if it sticks to your fingers, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time until dough is no longer very sticky. Process about 30 seconds or until smooth. Remove dough and shape in rough ball in your hands.Put dough in oiled bowl and turn dough over to oil all surfaces. Cover with warm, slightly damp towel or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 11⁄4 hours.Remove with rubber spatula to work surface.Knead dough lightly to knock out air.Clean bowl if necessary. Return dough to bowl, cover and let rise again until doubled, about 1 hour.Lightly oil a baking sheet. Knead dough lightly on work surface, flouring lightly only if dough sticks. Shape dough in rough cylinder and cut in 3 equal parts. Knead 1 part briefly and shape in cylinder. Roll back and forth firmly on working surface, pressing with your hands held flat and elongating cylinder from center to edges as you roll, to form a smooth rope about 51 cm. long and about 2 cm. wide and tapered slightly at ends. Repeat with other two parts. To braid dough, put the 3 ropes side by side, with one end of each closer to you. Join ends far from you, covering end of rope on your right side with end of center rope, then end of left rope. Press to join. Bring left rope over center one. Continue bringing outer ropes alternately over center one, braiding tightly. Pinch each end and tuck them underneath. Set braided bread carefully on prepared baking sheet.Cover shaped loaf with a warm, slightly damp towel and let rise until nearly doubled in size, about 1 hour. Meanwhile, position rack in center of oven and preheat to 190ºC.Brush risen loaf gently with beaten egg and sprinkle with seeds. Bake about 40 minutes, or until top and bottom of bread are firm and bread sounds hollow when tapped on bottom. Carefully transfer bread to a rack and cool.SWEET HALLAIncrease sugar to 3 or 4 Tbsp. Dough will require a few Tbsp. more flour. Dough will rise less and will take longer to rise. After baking loaf for 15 minutes, reduce oven temperature to 175ºC and continue baking as above, adding 2 or 3 minutes to baking time. If loaf browns too quickly, cover loosely with foil.SAVORY SPINACH BREADMakes 1 medium loafThis bread makes tasty sandwiches, especially with cheeses such as creamy goat cheese or well-flavored Swiss cheese.Spinach puree makes this bread denser than other egg breads. The puree makes the dough sticky and it is therefore easiest to make in a mixer.✔ 700 gr. fresh spinach, stems removed, leaves washed thoroughly ✔ Salt ✔ 1⁄3 cup pine nuts ✔ 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil or olive oil ✔ 3 medium garlic cloves, minced (2 tsp.) Basic Halla dough (see recipe above) made with ✔ 1 tsp. sugar, 5 Tbsp. oil and 1⁄4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. water ✔ 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil or 2 tsp. dried, crumbled ✔ 1 egg, beaten with pinch of salt (for glaze) ✔ 1 Tbsp. sesame seedsCook spinach uncovered in a large saucepan of boiling salted water over high heat for 2 minutes or until tender. Drain, rinse with cold water until cool and drain thoroughly.Squeeze by small handfuls until dry. Puree in food processor until finely chopped. (You will need about 2⁄3 cup puree.)Preheat oven to 190ºC. Lightly toast pine nuts in a shallow pan in preheated oven 3 minutes. Transfer to plate and cool.Heat oil in small saucepan over low heat. Add garlic and saute 1⁄2 minute. Add spinach and cook together 1 minute, stirring and breaking up spinach with wooden spoon to mixed in garlic. Transfer to bowl. Cool to room temperature.When making dough, sprinkle the teaspoon sugar over yeast mixture. Make dough in mixer with dough hook or by hand, adding spinach mixture and basil with eggs. Dough will be sticky; if necessary, add a little extra flour during kneading.Let dough rise twice.Grease 23- x 13-cm. loaf pan. After dough has risen for second time, sprinkle pine nuts over dough in bowl and lightly knead to distributed them evenly in dough. Transfer to work surface. Pat dough to oval to obtain rough loaf shape.Put in prepared pan and pat down so loaf is fairly even at top.Cover with a warm, slightly damp cloth and let rise until nearly doubled in size, about 1 hour. Meanwhile, position rack in center of oven and preheat to 190ºC.Brush risen loaf gently with beaten egg and sprinkle with seeds. Bake until top and bottom of bread are firm and bread sounds hollow when tapped on bottom, about 40 minutes. Turn loaf out of pan and cool on rack.
Faye Levy is the author of 1,000 Jewish Recipes.