Hello! I am very new to baking, but have a fondness for (attempting to bake) challah for our Messianic Shabbat. The recipe I use from a former member of the congregation (which yields very tasty bread) calls for a cup of honey dissolved in the hot water and yeast, which makes the dough VERY sticky. I have baked the challah four times, but each time I have gotten so frustrated trying to knead the super sticky wet dough that I have inevitably added more flour in order to make the braids, so the finished result has been very dense and not at all fluffy. I tried the "slap and fold" (which I learned on another site) on my last attempt (which killed my arms), and it did improve the texture slightly, but I had never heard of the cutting technique. I want to try it for my next attempt which will be for the Feast of Trumpets, but I am afraid that I am still missing something and that again, the challah may not turn out quite right. Will the cutting technique work on challah dough? It is made with 5 cups of unbleached flour, and has two whole eggs and 1 yolk. Do you have any additional suggestions for a newbie like me? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Shalom!

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