Hm, haven't seen all this challa discussion till just now...Dan my dear, that was another Miriam's recipe; mine is sans marg and with less sugar.
What the heck, here is my recipe.
The Mead Bubeh's Challah
1 cake of moist yeast
2 cups hot (not boiling) water
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
3 eggs, beaten (but undefeated)
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
1 kg. strong bread flour, and more if necessary
1 Tblsp. salt
1 more egg for glazing, likewise beaten
poppy seeds or sesame seeds or extra oats for sprinkling
1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in water; add a couple of pinches of sugar to encourage the process.
2. To dissolved yeast and water, add sugar, oil, and eggs. Mix well.
3. Mix in oats, blend them in well.
4. Add salt, mix, and start adding flour. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface when it gets too hard to mix with a spoon.
5. Start kneading, adding more flour if needed to keep the dough from sticking, but aim for a tender, moist dough, so just sprinkle your work surface with the flour every so often. Knead 10 minutes.
Let the dough rest a little while you wash the bowl out in hot water and dry it. Go back to the dough and knead again briefly. Oil the inside of the bowl and put the ball of dough in it, turning it around a few times so it will acquire a thin film of oil on all surfaces. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel and put it away in a warm, draft-free place for an hour, or until the dough has risen to doubled in size.
Knock the dough down and take challah...if you're Jewish (separate a piece of dough about the size of a walnut with the appropriate blessing and wrap it in tin foil to be burned later. Consult your prayer book or a Jewish site for more details.)
At any rate, cut the dough in half and fashion two loaves. Braid each dough half (you can find instructions online) or make two loaves as you wish. My husband finds it hard to slice the braided loaf because of arthritis, so I place balls of dough the size of half my palm close together in a row, in loaf pans, and they of course stick together slightly when baked. He just breaks the loaves apart to serve out at the table.
Place the the shaped challah in a greased, floured baking pan - actually I use baking paper - and allow to rise again for 1/2 hour.
Note: I've found that any bread will rise better if the second rising is done in the fridge. This takes longer, several hours or overnight, but if you have time and room in the fridge, it's worth it. You put the cold, shaped dough into the preheated oven and it rises amazingly.
Meantime, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Brush the challah with the extra beaten egg all over for a lovely brown glaze. Sprinkle with seeds of choice, or with some oats.
Bake 1 hour or until done.
We like our challah salty, as I said. But if you prefer sweet, use a neutral-flavored oil like corn, and increase the sugar to 1/2 cup. A nice addition is 1/4 cup raisins which have previously been soaked in hot tea or in wine...or MEAD.