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The weekly challah baking
Sep. 25th, 2008 10:39 pmI've been baking a challah every Friday (when we're all in town) for sister-in-law's Shabbat for quite a while now--I guess since I blogged about the decline in quality of the frozen-dough ones she'd been using. After a couple of experiments, I settled on a recipe I found on the 'Net, called Grandma Rosie's Fabulous Challah, and made it several times after modifying it to use instant yeast, be kneaded in my KitchenAid (I'm not one who finds hand-kneading soothing or stress-relieving), and cut in half. The original made 3 challahs, so this gave me one large challah. After that recipe and technique felt solid, I experimented with adding whole-wheat flour, and then cut the recipe in half again to get to the size loaf we want for 6 people some of whom try to restrict their bread intake.
I'm enjoying this regular bread baking--it gives me a much better feel for how the dough should look, and a better appreciation for the natural variations that humidity, room temperature, and such cause. And we're getting a pretty good challah, in my biased opinion.
The standard is now a mostly whole-wheat challah, braided with 6 strands. I was using 2 3-strand braids, one smaller and stuck on top of the other, but that seems to be a method to make the 3-strand braid look more complex, which is to say, more like a 6-strand braid. And given that my smaller braid would sometimes slide sideways as the loaf was rising, and given that I can now do the 6-strand braid without referring to my notes, 6 strands it is. Next week I guess I'll get to try my hand at a round challah for Rosh Hashanah.
( The recipe )
My habit now is to make the dough first thing Friday morning (I don't work on Fridays), around 8 or 9 AM. I may let it sit on the counter a while to start rising, but it soon gets stuffed into the fridge for the day. Around 4 PM I take the doubled dough out, braid the loaf, let it rise, and bake it so it's ready before our usual 6:30 dinner time.
I'm enjoying this regular bread baking--it gives me a much better feel for how the dough should look, and a better appreciation for the natural variations that humidity, room temperature, and such cause. And we're getting a pretty good challah, in my biased opinion.
The standard is now a mostly whole-wheat challah, braided with 6 strands. I was using 2 3-strand braids, one smaller and stuck on top of the other, but that seems to be a method to make the 3-strand braid look more complex, which is to say, more like a 6-strand braid. And given that my smaller braid would sometimes slide sideways as the loaf was rising, and given that I can now do the 6-strand braid without referring to my notes, 6 strands it is. Next week I guess I'll get to try my hand at a round challah for Rosh Hashanah.
( The recipe )
My habit now is to make the dough first thing Friday morning (I don't work on Fridays), around 8 or 9 AM. I may let it sit on the counter a while to start rising, but it soon gets stuffed into the fridge for the day. Around 4 PM I take the doubled dough out, braid the loaf, let it rise, and bake it so it's ready before our usual 6:30 dinner time.
