2cupswarm wateryou can touch it without burning your finger
¼cupsugar
⅓cuphoney
8-9cupsflourif you have bread flour, cool. If not, cool.
5teaspoonssalt
3large eggs
½cupvegetable or olive oil
Stand-mixer with dough hook attachment or hand-held mixer with dough hook attachment or a good 8 minutes of patience to knead
Parchment paper
Basting/Pastry brush
Instructions
Put your yeast in the warm water. Add your honey to the water. Let it sit for about 6-10 minutes until the honey is somewhat dissolved and the yeast is nice and foamy at the top.
Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the yeast-water mix to the dry ingredients, give it a few stirs with a spatula, then get the bowl to your stand mixer and let the dough hook do it’s thing on a low setting for about 2 minutes. Add 2 eggs and 1 yolk, save the white for the wash. Add decent glug of oil, then let the mixer go for another 5 minutes, or until the dough has formed a supple ball that gives when you poke it. You should want to curl up on it and take a nap.
Lightly oil a large bowl, ball up your dough and place it in the center of the bowl, and cover it with some oil. Place a towel over the bowl, or a plastic bag or cling wrap, and let it sit in a warm place for 2 hours or until it is double in size. Then punch it down and let it sit for another 30 minutes.
On a floured surface, give the dough a quick and hearty kneading. Using a large sharp knife (or a pastry knife, but don’t go buy one just for this), cut the dough into two equal portions. Divide each portion into six equal portions. Roll out those portions into long, even ropes. Or snakes, as the kids call them, but most people don’t want to eat snakes.
Put three ropes next to each other going vertically. You will place three ropes going horizontally, weaving them through the vertical ropes in an over-under-over pattern for the first rope, under-over-under for the second, and over-under-over for the third.
Braid the tails of the ropes. Tuck them under the criss-crossed center area, round it out, and let it rest, covered while you repeat the process with the remainder of the dough.
Mix the egg white with a splash of water, then using the pastry brush, cover the dough with the mixture. Bake at 450 degrees for about 45 minutes on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet, flipping the sheet around halfway through baking.
Remove from oven, let the loaves cool, slice, drizzle with honey, and enjoy! Just be sure to save some slices to make french toast the next day.