Whole wheat challah

This was a very different recipe for me to try.  It was a yeast bread that used eggs.  I've just never made a bread like that before.  It had a different texture than I'm used to which made it hard to judge if I needed more liquid or flour.  I measured my pastry flour by weight and it was quite a bit different than by volume, so I was worried.  Add to that the fact that  it tried to totally flop on me because my yeast didn't work for some reason, and I'd say I was pretty lucky that I managed to resurrect it somehow and it worked.  I will write the original recipe with notes, but know that since the yeast didn't work at all the first time, I put a little bit of water (maybe 2 Tablespoons) in a bowl, added 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast, a dash of sugar, and let it bloom for a minute.  I added that and a little more flour to the bread after the first rise (or lack thereof in my case today.)  Luckily, that worked.  From there I just rolled it out and let it rise 1 time (pretending that it actually had it's first rise.)  It turned out fine.  It was a bit different texture than I'm used to.  A little spongier maybe?  I also didn't bother to tent the bread because I baked it directly on my pizza stone. I took it out a bit early, and it probably could have come out a minute or 2 earlier that I took it out, but it was ok.  It was loved by the family who ate all of it except about 2 inches.
Here is the recipe with my notes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 6 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (6 3/4 oz) whole wheat pastry flour **(see note below)
• 2 cups (8 1/2 oz) unbleached bread flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

**  I weighted out 7.15 (or so) oz. of wheat berries and ground them on the pastry setting on my wheat grinder.  It only measured around 1 1/2 cups, but weighted a bit more than the 6.75 oz. called for.  On the bread flour, I used 2 cups.  They weighed just over 9 oz.  I figured that would do since my wheat flour had measured so much less than 2 cups.  I also thought I'd add more water if necessary.  The dough seemed an okay consistency as it was. - But then again I've never made Challah or any other yeast bread with egg in it.  It may have been a little too much on the flour.   Either way,  I ended up adding more flour, water and yeast to get it to rise, so I guess it isn't such a great indication.  The recipe says it is supposed to be "feather light"  so maybe I should have gone completely by the weight. 

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients and mix and knead them until you have a soft, smooth dough.  Cover and allow to rise until nearly double in bulk (1 to 2 hours)
2. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.  (I just put mine on my pizza peel)
3. Gently deflate dough and transfer to a lightly greased work surface.  Divide into 3 equal pieces (around 10 oz. each for me)  Shape pieces into a rough log.  Cover the pieces and let rest for 10 minutes.
4. Roll each piece of dough into an 18 inch rope.  Place side by side and braid squeezing the ends together and tucking them underneath.  Cover and let rise until puffy, but not doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.  Near the end of the rise, preheat oven to 375.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until thermometer registers 190.  (Original directions say to bake 20 minutes and then tent with foil and bake 10 minutes more.  

Notes for next time:

Let eggs warm up to room temperature before using (wondering if this had any bearing on the yeast not working.)

Add water, then yeast and let bloom (only slightly) then add honey, flours, then oil, eggs and salt.  (Maybe that would help my first batch of yeast work.

Start by adding only the called for weight of flour - only add more if necessary.