Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Challah - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - 46th installment. The recipe is Challah.

This recipe was very easy, and the bread is great.  We really love challah at our house. I don't know if there will be any left for any French toast!  I even prepared this after work yesterday evening.  I had a sudden panic during the day when I realized that it was time for the first recipe of the month, stopped to buy eggs on the way home, and although I did get to bed a bit late, the bread was done that evening.  What a wonderful aroma in the house. 

There were no real tricks to the technique, although I had one loaf that was smoother than the other.  It seemed harder to roll the smooth long pieces from the second half of the dough - maybe it was saggy from having sat while I rolled out the first one. There was a lot of yeast, so it rose well, even without any kind of warm spot to sit in as it rose.  I used my Kitchen Aid to do the kneading while I worked on other things in the kitchen.

Before braiding
Before rising - having short hair, I never have learned to braid very neatly :-)
My loaves look a little dark partly because of the lighting when I took the photo - I did let them brown before putting a foil tent over each while they continued baking.  It's tough to fit two loaves in my oven - it always feels like one is too high (and thus browning too much in the hotter part of the oven) and one is too low (and thus too close to the lower element and browning too much on the bottom).  I set the timer for smaller intervals and kept swapping the loaves top to bottom, and turning the pans back to front, to help them cook evenly.

I would definitely make this recipe again - very simple, and rewarding.

4 comments:

  1. I have the same oven problem! But it didn't matter, even the dark parts tasted wonderful, don't you think?

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  2. This was an easy recipe! I was so sure it was going to be complicated...but was happy when it turned out to be an easy one!

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  3. I have to give this one a go soon! Yours looks fantastic! I made a challah without dairy this time, it was good too.

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  4. Looks good! When it gets really cold, I will set up a little space heater in the kitchen - it seems to warm it up just enough. Or I will give a quick low-pre-heat to my oven, turn it off and it's warm enough to place the bowl in for rising.

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