The Fresh Loaf

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challah

sharsilber's picture

Traveling with dough

November 19, 2008 - 9:45am -- sharsilber
Forums: 

OK - Crazy question, but I know that I will get some great feedback so here goes. I will be traveling by plane to Miami Beach, Florida from Baltimore, Maryland on Christmas day (Hooray!). I would love to bake my challah for my family and friends down there on Friday, but I dont want to mess up my host's kitchen and/or bring all my little helpful tools. I was thinking that I could bake the bread at home on Tuesday and carry it on the plane (though that would be bulky) OR - is there a way to make the dough, freeze it and then take it with me?

Eli's picture
Eli

Today had been planned to be a baking day since I have company this weekend. I made a preferment (sans commercial yeast) last night for some Challah, and realized I had more than enough. I decided to try Norm's Onion Rolls with a levain instead and the results are good. Great taste, however, I didn't deflate them enough.Then as I decided to look over at TFL this A.M. and I found Norm has done it again, another recipe. So, that said, I had to try the new rolls. Great and light,very easy and THANK YOU Norm, again!! You are an amazing baker!! Kudos and to eveyone reading this you should try them if you have the chance.

 Overall it has been a great bake day. I also made Mark's Sticky Buns which are great too! However, I didn't get a picture of them. Maybe Thursday I can bake some more.

New rolls are the knotted and the levain have the onion poppy seed

slothbear's picture
slothbear

We have a guest coming over tonight, so I went for my standard guest loaf.  1/4 King Arthur WW flour, 2 tablespoons of flax meal.  The six-strand braid is always a challenge for me, but I only had to do it twice today.  After the first time, I realized that some of the strands were too fat, so I cut them down and had enough for a baby challah, also six-strand.

Before:

 just after braiding.  I had a little extra left over for the baby sister challah.

 I baked a couple of flax sourdough loaves just before the challah.  And forgot to turn the temperature down.  What's 125 degrees between friends??

 After:

The baby challah turned out well.  We'll see how the guest likes Extra Brown Challah.  Yikes, from the other side of the room, it looks like some kind of dark Halloween trick or treat bread:

ejm's picture
ejm

challah

After seeing Eli's version of Maggie Glezer's sourdough challah from her book A Blessing of Bread, I really wanted to make challah. But this particular bread uses a firm starter. (Firm starter?! I don' know noth'n' 'bout makin' no firm starters, Mizz Scahlet!) I don't have A Blessing of Bread yet (I do have Glezer's wonderful book Artisan Baking though and it's one of my favourites). And my other cookbooks talk about how to make firm starters but, but, but... I need hand-holding with new techniques. ESPECIALLY where wild yeast is concerned.

So I did an internet search to see if anyone else had made Glezer's challah. And found yet another version of Glezer's challah on Tatter's blog, "The Bread Chronicle". This one is made with a liquid levain. Ah, that's what I like to see!! I'm familiar with liquid levains. Not exactly an expert with them but at least I've used them frequently.

I had fun braiding challah.

challah weavingchallah weaving

challah weavingchallah weaving

I'm sure that it's incorrect to have that little bit of whole wheat flour but I really like to add just a little (using Carol Field's idea of adding wholewheat flour to our highly refined white flour to mimic stoneground flour). I think the tiny bit of whole wheat adds flavour as well, making the bread seem not quite so much like "white bread" that can be so flavour-free.

Our challah was wonderful! Wonderful and flavour-full. I loved the honey in it. And it was really fantastic for breakfast with hard boiled eggs and strong coffee with lots of cream.

challah
  • semi-wild challah recipe based on the recipe for basic sourdough in Piano Piano Pieno by Susan McKenna Grant and a recipe for challah in Maggie Glezer’s cookbook A Blessing of Bread

And yes, Glezer's book A Blessing of Bread is now on my "wish list". I think I neeeeed to have it.

-Elizabeth

Eli's picture
Eli

I finally found time to make Maggie Glezer's levain challah, the taste is amazing, rich, creamy and seems the longer it sits the sweeter it becomes. I didn't get the crumb I had tried to achieve but this is the first attempt. The dough was easy to work with and it worked great with my motherdough levain. It has a very unique taste which I think may be a result of the sourdough and the honey.

This has to be my favorite for a natural levain Challah. The yeasted version is PR's Challah in Crust & Crumb.

 

Maggie Glezer Challah (all four photos)

Crumb

 

sharsilber's picture

Why does my loaf "blow up"?

October 8, 2008 - 7:59pm -- sharsilber

Made these crown challahs today that have an apple butter filling.  Taste wonderful, but look like they exploded.  Any suggestions on what is causing this?  Too much oven rise?  How do I avoid that?  It is a woven loaf not a pull apart bread which it looks like.

Challah

The one on the left is what it should look like.  I made all of these and do not know why some look good and others look like they exploded.

sharsilber's picture

Diastatic Malt Powder

September 21, 2008 - 5:03am -- sharsilber

I have been baking challah bread for about a year and am planning to make about 30 next weekend.  In order to bake a few a day ahead I have been looking into some natural products that extend the bread's shelf life.  Has anyone used dastatic malt powder in their yeast breads?  Does it really help keep it fresher longer?

I would love some input.

Sharon

www.thebraidedloaf.com

smartdog's picture
smartdog

Enjoying a nice piece of challah with a slice of swiss cheese and fresh tomato slices from our garden toms. Was a bit ambitious yesterday and made chocolate almond biscotti and a challah. :)Almond and Chocolate Biscotti Just another Challah

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