My Delicious Experiment

So it was kind of cold out today. The kind of frigid cold that sends you straight home after work and makes you want to get into your most comfortable clothes and sip a warm beverage.
Well after I did that, I figured that the ambient heat created by baking couldn't hurt matters.
So I began an experiment I've wanted to do ever since viewing this video:


This woman is AWESOME! She sounds like Julia Child but she's making CHALLAH. What could be better? I loved her simple instructions and since I usually stick to the 6 strand challah and a 4 strand roll (different from what is demonstrated in the video above) courtesy of my friend Hadassah, I thought it might be fun to experiment with some of the other permutations.  My only complaint about this video is that she never shows the finished baked product. I set out to rectify this. I fashioned challahs using 5, 7, 8 and 9 strands. Here is what they looked like unbaked.

Maybe it's because I'm used to 6 strands and the 8 strand is just the 6 on steriods, but I far and away preferred the height that you get with that formation. While I found the 7 strand quite pretty, it was a little wide and flat for my taste. After baking, my preferences were the same:

They are all beautiful and they were quite enjoyable to make. Here is one last photo of 5,7,8 and 9 (from left to right) for better size comparison.