We 3 gmas baked Challahs - HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Once again... one idea... 3 great brains... all with a different take on the original idea. Barb's cinnamon brushed pumpkin challah leads in the discussion, here is what she sent as comment.
I made one from one long strip of dough with a folded strand coiled like the rose with cinnamon brushed onto the inside of the fold. In the picture it looks braided and the cinnamon doesn't show up hardly at all. The other one is strangely lighter in color. Maybe it steamed because it has golden raisins within the single strand. I coiled it like we did with the Danish. I used Maggie Glezer's Pumpkin recipe. It was a very easy dough to work with and I liked reading what i found online from it so I looked for her book - read about it on Amazon and found one on eBay for half the price! Once again, we baked the same thing in different ways. Fun baking project!
Here are more of Barb's pictures.
This is the one that led in... after it was baked.
This swirl looks amazing even though it is just rising.
As you can see it looks even better baked. Great job Barb! Nice rounds and great swirls and braids.
Helen used the Sweet and Rich Challah recipe in ITJB. She added a bit of saffron to ramp up the yellow coloring... very nice... She got very creative with her bird cutout and commented to me that she thought it looked like a bird in a nest... or a bird popover! I think it is a lovely work of art... too bad it is so deliciously it will HAVE to be cut! LOVELY!
Very nice color, with the saffron.
Very beautiful... here is a closer look at the bird's nest challah...
Quite artistic that Helen is!!! And as usual her braiding is very nice...
Every time I go to type the word braid... I type brain and have to correct it!!!
My braid really looks like a brain, I did a three strand, folded it in half and brought it around for the circle.
and then baked it!
and then cut it!
Mine is the Honey Wheat Challah from ITJB... it is very, very good. I loved working with this dough, it makes great toast... I put some poppy seeds on top, but went with the recipe as printed in Stan and Norm's great cookbook.
We had a good time, again... and look forward to what ever comes up next week...
Happy Baking,
The 3 gmas, Barb, Diane and Helen
Really beautiful Barb, Diane, and Helen! I especially like the bird decoration. A lot of challah will be eaten tonight! Happy and healthy New Year to you all.
Sjadad
for your kind comment. Beginning with ITJB, we 3 have enjoyed learning about bread as it has been through history. And now we have also learned the plural of challah!
When writing back and forth about recipes and the significance of the shape of the challah for the New Year celebration, Helen wrote this:
Very interesting! That's the same thing I like so much about making bread too especially the ones from ITJB because he paints such a clear picture of the history behind the bread. Its like you are sitting down at a table prepared at another time and it is nice to be able to explain to the family what it all meant. In hopes of course that someone will pick up the same interests and start to build new traditions.
Happy New Year
Barbra
are some spectacular Challah for Rosh Hashanah! So creative and well executed. that bird in the nest is so inspiring. coils, braids and bird nest works of art......all of it delightful.
Mine is still proofing..
Happy baking
Fantastic Challah for the new year. Great Job all of you in your creative breads. I love the bird idea...and it came out great. Thanks so much for sharing with us. I'm in China on business so no holiday celebration for me and no Challah to be had.
Happy New Year!
Ian
we can surely at least vicariously share our Challah with you. Happy New Year and safe journey home.
Barbra
Thanks Barbra! I have a ways to go before returning home on the 12th....
Regards,
Ian
Nice, creative baking ladies!
I baked ITJB Sweet and Rich recipe this past weekend.
I intentionally panned two loaves because we love to make french toast with day-old Challah, cut Texas toast wide.
David G
What did you do...varnish them Challahs? Those are some mighty shiny looking challah breads David!
...Stan and Norman's prescribed egg wash, applied twice just before loading into the oven. I've been doing that since I first tried Challah nearly four years ago.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/17347/another-first-challah
David G
Beautiful Golden Challahs, GMAs!
Happy new year to all three of you.
-Khalid
Thank y'all for the great comments... I think that a large portion of our enjoyment of sharing recipes with each other and results via photos and texts, is sharing them here and seeing what other Fresh Loafians are doing... David, I love the loaf pans for the challah... French toast is my favorite was to use challah breads. This is such a fantastic community of bakers. Floyd makes sure so many resources are available and all the bakers are amazing. Proud to be here.
The 3 gmas
There were so many recipes in ITJB that include MILK POWDER, something that no kosher baker would ever put in bread or sweet dough. Unless a baked good is specifically made for dairy on designated equipment, (pizza, cheesecake, or cheese-filled danish) regular kosher baked goods must be pareve (contain no meat or dairy ingredients).
Usually when I come across a recipe I will make the substitutions, but a book that calls itself "From The Golden Age of Jewish Bakeries" should not mislead readers.
I would recommend Maggie Glezer's "A Blessing of Bread" and "Joan Nathan's Jewish Holiday Cookbook" for traditional recipes that respect the kosher laws.
As far as I can tell the book isn't called "In the Kosher Bakery", n'est-ce pas?
Particularly during the so-called "Golden Age"
Otherwise they should have named their book "Hipster Recipes for Non-Authentic But Kinda Ethnic Stuff"
for a good book combining history and recipes. As you said Suave, it does not make any claim to containing methods or practices for keeping Kosher Bakeries. Not everyone liked the book it is true, but many others (my sisters and I for three) enjoy what we have learned from it. As you know, there were initially a lot of postings, particulary as the errata file was being built. We 3 grandma's survived the salt in the cheesecake error and came back to make some really great cheesecake for instance. The best advice that I recall from the pretty close to flaming posts was 'If you don't like the book take it back" and since that is what this person did, let's hope that is the end of it.