My first challahs of the '08 season! I went with the simple three-strand braid for these. Next up is six-braid, with dried blueberries and cherries.

I am preparing to give challah as Holiday house gifts in Spain, the three attemps have lacked the bulbous protuberances that I remember from Clevelands finest jewish bakeries.

What can I do to make the big bumps come out? They are theere when the bread is braided, they disappear upon baking with the oven spring

Can anyone advise on what the best way to store a braided challah or other softer bread?  I'm planning on baking it tomorrow (Tuesday) but would like it to still be edible on Christmas morning (Thursday).  I'm usually a sourdough baker and 2-3 days is no trouble for most of my loafs.

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?

I figure that I will be in transit for about 6 hours all told - what if I make my dough and then put it in a garbage bag and freeze it over night and then put the bag in my checked luggage? Then when I get there leave it out all night to come to room temp and rise and shape and bake?

Anyone have any experience traveling with raw dough? Would love some advice.

Sharon

www.thebraidedloaf.com

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

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:

 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:

the view from afar

way too hot.  way too brown.

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

So ... I got my long awaited Bosh Universal Plus.  I am so happy to assign the second hand Kitchen Aid to cookies and quick breads and make loaves and loaves of challah in my gigantic Bosch.  Thursday is my day to bake for my Friday "customers", but since I just got the Bosch I decided I would do a test run earlier this week.  I made 4 loaves of plain challah and they were wonderful.  I learned from others that unlike the food processor or the Kitchen Aid, it is best with the Bosch to add liquid first and then add the flour one scoop at a time.  SO last night I measured out my 5 pounds of flour, a cup of sugar and all the other ingredients that I need to make my first massive batch of dough (I had to do one pound at a time in the food processor and KA) so that I can hit the ground running this morning while I get the kids off to school.  First thing this morning I get my liquids in, I add my flour, sugar, salt, and vanilla but find that I need less flour than I thought, I figured that it must be the wonderful mixer doing its magic.  Anyway, I set the machine to speed three for ten minutes and start to get the kids up and ready.  My seven year old asks if there is time for eggs for breakfast.  EGGS!  I forgot to add the EGGS!  You can not have egg challah without egg! - No wonder the dough was so dry!  ARG!  Well of course in a panic I start adding eggs which of course just makes a yellow sloshy mess in the mixer AND all over the counter which is where it is all going since I have the lid off - throw some flour in on top as if that is going to fix anything.  It was as if I had flushed my wedding ring down the toilet and then just started flushing everything I own down with it -I was in such a panic that here I am adding 6 eggs to an already mixed dough! 

Well having already learned the hard way that flour can be replaced, but my time can not - I centered myself, tossed the entire mess into the trash and just started again.  I now have 6 lovely challahs cooling on the rack and a whole mess of rolls to give as samples.  I have to buy more flour as I only buy 10 pounds at a time, but I am happy that I was able to brush myself off and start fresh.

So the long and the short of it is that I LOVE my new Bosch - I just need to remember that it is only a mixer - I am still the baker.

Sharon

www.thebraidedloaf.com