Sacrilicious Challah

There's not a lot to say, really, but the picture doesn't show the whole story, so I suppose I'll have to explain.

What you see above is a new rendition of Hamelman's Challah recipe, altered a bit. There's milk where there should be water, and butter in place of oil, honey instead of sugar, and a small amount of whole wheat flour, just for a little somethin'.

It's not what makes this bread significant, though. Nor the weaving of four strands of dough together, which went well enough for not having done it for so long.

No, it's the added fillings; into half of the strands are rolled generous handful of queso fresco, and the other half, spicy pork sausage.

It is the most non-kosher challah I have ever beheld, much less eaten. And it's pretty good, if I say so myself.

A few notes, should anyone else feel like trying their hand at this.

First, cheese selection: go for something either soft enough to be spreadable, or hard enough to be shreddable. Crumbly cheeses, such as the queso fresco I used, or say, feta, perhaps, will defiantly roll away as you try to wrap them in a sheet of dough, tumbling along and slipping out the sides, and spilling across everything, trying to be like the crest on the wave, when really you need it to be more like the fishes in the sea. It will mockingly end up on the outside of your strand, laughing at your feeble human attempts to detain it, shifting around and creating cavernous air bubbles that you can feel beneath your hands as you elongate the dough.

Melts nicely, though. Still might use chevre, next time.

Sausage selection: You won't need much, so get something nice, or at least something you know you'll like. I got some store brand hot italian and it was...okay. Not bad. Not particularly good. It was in casings, so I slit it open and smeared it across my rolled out pieces of dough and rolled it up without too much trouble. Had a moment of missing sharing a house with a canine when I threw the casings into the trash; dogs really do their best to reduce food waste.

I think I used maybe 4 ounces/113 g of meat for about 600 grams of total dough. So really, not much.

I opted to skip the tradition egg wash; it just didn't seem worth cracking open a shell for one little loaf. It doesn't need to be shiny to be tasty.