My challah is dry!
I don't have the money to buy Rose Levy Beranbaum's Bread Bible, but I checked a copy out of the library and set out on my first loaf of challah. (If I close the book up tight, perhaps the pages will flatten out again and the library won't notice the flour smudges.) I had been invited to a friend's house for Shabbos and thought it would be nice to take challah.
I spent a day on it; the friend came down ill; I how have sole possession of a loaf of challah that looks wonderful but is too dry for my taste. I can make French toast out of it, so it's not a loss but ... that was a lot of work for a disappointing result.
This was the traditional challah, without any dairy. Perhaps if I made brioche (as Rose suggests as an alternative to the traditional loaf) I'd like it better.
I guess you were lucky you didn't take a loaf of dry bread to dinner! But that's a shame after all the work and good intentions.
You might want to check out Rose's website. The search feature on the left works well, and can take you to all the challah references. You can even ask questions directly of Rose, and she'll answer! Here's her "new favorite" challah recipe. She says it's more moist that the one you tried:
http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2006/03/my_new_favorite_traditional_ch.html
Challah also makes great bread pudding.
Bread pudding is a good idea!
Thanks for the link to the newer recipe. I see I'll have to try again. I hope that the "old starter" I'm supposed to use is my sourdough starter. However, it's fairly sour. I started it with a package of dried starter from a gourmet store, a package of San Francisco sourdough. I'll have to see how that puckery sour affects the challah.
(I had made an attempt to start my own sourdough, which produced something that just didn't smell right, so I tossed it. There are umpteen zillion threads here by people trying to make their own starter, and I get the feeling that it's not as easy as the books make it sound. I've never had any sort of struggle with my purchased starter.)
I've had great results with this recipe:
http://www.williams.edu/astronomy/kkwitter/challah.html