Shana Tova from our Bayit to Yours | A New Round Challah Shape

Well hello there, little blog. Hellooooo out there in Feedly land. Anyone still following? I'm still baking, but my focus is elsewhere. Mainly it's on this little one.

...who's not really so little anymore. We've been cooking and baking up a storm. Earlier this week, I made a batch of challah using my trusty half-batch recipe and tried out a new round shape. This shape is from Maggie Glezer's A Blessing of Bread, one of my favorite challah cookbooks. Here's how it came together for me.

First, I rolled out my dough (about half of my batch), wide and round like a pizza. Once it was pretty round (not as round as the picture in the book, but oh well), I cut it using my pasta cuter.

Since I wanted to fill it, I melted a bit of margarine and brushed it over the top of each side. Then I added a 3-to-1 sugar-cinnamon/spice mixture. I ran out of cinnamon, so it was part pumpkin pie spice and part cinnamon. Sprinkle 1 gala apple, peeled and cut into small chunks, and roll up from the small side.

The next part was the fun part. Take those loooooong noodles and, one at a time, fold them up on themselves and twist them a la those old camp friendship bracelets. Magic, right?

Arrange them together circling each other, and ta-da! Another fun challah shape for a sweet new year (More shapes here, here, here, and here).

So, little blog, I miss you, and I'm glad you're still here, and I'm glad any of you readers are still out there. Wishing you all a happy, healthy, and peaceful new year, filled with lots of joy.

Maple Cinnamon Challah

I rarely make challah in loaf pans, but every so often, it seems like the right choice.  Since we're normally "tearers/rippers" in our family (as opposed to "slicers"), sliced challah only comes around when the loaf really necessitates a knife.  This challah is one of those.

For this challah, I used Trader Joe's Maple Sugar, which I have been wanting to try since I made Wisconsin Maple Syrup Challah back in March. Maple sugar is created when sap is boiled beyond the point of maple syrup and into a crystallized state. It's so sweet, and, when I opened the bag, I found out how wonderfully fragrant it is!

In this challah, I also introduced margarine into the baking process.  Margarine is not something I've ever used in bread before, and I think it does add something to the flakiness of the dough.  You could, of course, always use butter for a dairy challah.

3/4 c plus water
1/4 tsp plain white sugar
2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) active dry or instant yeast
2 eggs plus 1 more for egg wash (you can also reserve a little of the 1 egg in the dough)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) margarine or butter, at room temperature
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp maple sugar
3 - 3 1/2 c bread flour

For the cinnamon swirl filling, adapted from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook.

1 cup sugar
2 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp water

You can make this challah with or without the cinnamon swirl. If making without, simply proceed as normal with braiding. Conversely, you can simply substitute maple sugar into your own basic challah. Because maple sugar is very strong and sweet, I recommend 2 tbsp of maple sugar to replace every 1/4 tbsp sugar (about half the original quantity of sugar).

Before you start, take out your margarine and allow it to reach room temperature. Proof yeast in very warm water with the 1/4 tsp white sugar. Allow to rest about 10 minutes, or until foamy. Add the room-temperature margarine in small pieces (kind of like you would for a pie) and add the eggs. Mix gently to break the yolks and add the maple sugar, flour, and salt. I usually mix briefly before going to the dough hook on my KitchenAid.

   

I'm not sure if it was the margarine or just the humidity of baking the summer, but for this challah, I probably ended up ultimately using closer to four cups of flour. Add more as needed if you dough is not holding together. Once a ball forms, punch by hand a few times and place in an oiled bowl. Let rest for about an hour and a half until doubled in bulk.

While the dough rises, you can make the filling if you are doing a cinnamon roll challah. I've done challah with cinnamon several times before; it's definitely one of our favorite flavors. My mom's technique for cinnamon rolls is to use melted margarine or butter as a base for the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Here, I followed a recommendation in Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, where Martha suggests you simply mix the cinnamon and sugar together with a little water to create a paste. It worked really well! I think you could also sub out some of the sugar for maple sugar if desired. Definitely trying that next time!

Punch down the dough. Divide with a bench scraper (FYI: Up until just before publishing this, the recipe said "Divide with a bench press!) or sharp knife into two large pieces. Either braid as normal here or you can make the filled challah. I flattened each piece with my hand and then gave a quick roll with a rolling pin.

Add the cinnamon-sugar mixture and then fold over the two long sides. Remember, the longer your roll, the more coils of cinnamon you'll have but less soft dough. It's your preference.

Start at the top. Roll down toward you and place in an oiled loaf pan. I didn't seal my seams as good as I could have, so my cinnamon edges kind of leaked out. It made the whole loaf very sticky, but oh so crystallized and delicious!

Let rest an additional 20 minutes. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes, rotating halfway!

Slice and enjoy! (In the interest of journalistic integrity, I made these on Thursday night at around 10pm. The Hazz had already gone to bed, and I managed to eat about half of one of the loaves by myself. Then when I got home from work this afternoon, he had polished off the good portion of the rest. Yum! We're saving the other for Shabbat along with a Basic Challah.

Shabbat Shalom from our bayit to yours!

PS: Are you thinking about the High Holidays yet? I'm married to a Hazzan, so I'm already HEARING about them ;) But, I've got a few fun things in the works for Rosh Hashanah this year that I'm really excited about. Stay tuned and Happy Baking!

Hunger Games Challah: Capitol Rolls

Stop!  Before you do anything, go check out Leigh Ann's version of Peeta's Bread, my recipe which inspired Hunger Games Challah to exist in the first place.  Leigh Ann added millet and dried cherries in with the apples and ended up leaving out the cinnamon in a later batch -- she says she prefers without cinnamon.  She's even has a gluten-free version in the works.  Maybe we can get her to do another guest post.  You can see her other two guest posts - Blueberry Challah and Sufganiyah Challah.  Be sure to leave Leigh Ann a comment on how awesome her bread looks (and how much you like her WIP!).

So, are you soooo excited for The Hunger Games to come out in theaters???  We have our tickets for tomorrow evening after Shabbat, and boy-oh-boy am I excited.  The Hazz is even coming, although he hasn't read any of the books.  He's being a good sport.  Anyway, here we go.  It's Hunger Games Challah #2 - Capitol Rolls.

The moment I slide into my chair I'm served an enormous platter of food.  Eggs, ham, piles of fried potatoes.  A tureen of fruit sits in ice to keep it chilled.  The basket of rolls they set before me would keep my family going for a week...   

A rich brown cup of something I've never seen. 

"They call it hot chocolate," says Peeta.  "It's good." 

...When my stomach feels like it's about to split open, I lean back and take in my breakfast companions.  Peeta is still eating, breaking off bits of roll and dipping them in his hot chocolate.

I thought it fitting the second in my series of Hunger Games Challah be the Capitol Rolls.  But rolls are just rolls, right?  Not so... later in The Hunger Games, we learn a bit more...

Chicken and chunks of organs cooke din a creamy sauce laid on a bed of pearly white grain, tiny green peas and onions, rolls shaped like flowers, and for dessert, a pudding the color of honey.

Aha!  Rolls shaped like flowers.  That shouldn't be so hard.  I've done rolls before.  Using my basic 1/2 batch, I started out.

Really, though, they didn't look like flowers.  They just looked like knotted challah rolls.  Hmm...   

I even tried a new roll shape...

   

I though perhaps I could make some sort of rose out of challah.  Another failed attempt.
   

Nope, it looked wrong.  But then I got to thinking about it.  Basic challah dough doesn't really cut it. The Capitol is all about excess.  All about over doing it.  All about, well, lots and lots of butter.

My trusty Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook was my inspiration.  I decided that brioche rolls were the way to go.  Brioche is a French pastry that is sort of a cross between a cake and bread, hallmarked by lots of butter and lots of eggs.  Of course, it was now noon on Friday afternoon and I had a 1/2 stick of butter in the house.  So, I improvised.  Here's what I came up with.  I think you'll approve!

Capitol Rolls

These butter, eggy babies are darling.  This recipe will yield about a dozen.   If possible, you'll want to use shaped silicone muffin cups with a floral shape.  But really, a muffin tin would be just fine if you can imagine the floral shape.  Here's what you'll need...

1 tsp instant or active dry yeast
2 tsp sugar
1/2 c hot (but not boiling) water
2/3 c cake flour
1 1/2 c (or so... see below) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs plus 1 for wash
1/2 stick (1/4 c) butter (not margarine)


Mix together the yeast, sugar, and water.  Let rest for ten minutes until foamy.  Add the eggs and butter in small pieces.  I was having a hard time getting the butter to blend in, even after softening it a bit.  I ended up using my stand mixer with the spatula-beater handle on the lowest setting possible.  That worked pretty well.

Add the cake flour and 1 cup of the all-purpose flour and the salt.  (This weird combination comes from the fact that really brioche should have pastry flour which has a protein content in between that of cake flour and all-purpose flour.  The internet told me I could mix them ;) so I did.  Hey, I'm resourceful?)  At this point, the dough is going to look, really, really, really sticky.  Put it on the stand mixer anyway (with the hook) and mix away.

My stand mixer, I soon realized, wasn't doing much.  Okay, I took out my new mixing soon (isn't it so pretty) and started adding more flour until the consistency seemed like really floppy bread dough.  Like, extra floppy.  Have faith.  It will work out.

   

Form into a ball and let rest for about 1 1/2 hour or until doubled in bulk.

   

Preheat your oven to 350.  Form the rolls by making a ring with a little ball plopped on top.  If you're using silicone baking cups, you don't have to oil them or anything.  Egg wash right before baking.  (You'll notice I didn't let these have a rise once formed... I don't think they really needed it).

   

    

Bake 20-25 minutes or until the tops are golden.

So, they're not really brioche, but they're certainly brioche inspired, and they're not quite as flower-shaped as I would have liked... they're still super tasty.  And who knew that dipping bread in hot chocolate was so delicious!?!  Well, I guess Peeta knew.  What a guy.  *swoon*

Happy Hunger Games and Shabbat Shalom!