FREE Shipping from King Arthur Flour (and Happy Thanksgiving!)

The good people at King Arthur Flour contacted me about offering a special offer to readers of The Challah Blog... FREE SHIPPING TODAY ONLY!

King Arthur Flour normally reserve our best promotions for the folks signed up to receive our emails (which are AWESOME, and I totally recommend you sign up to receive them!), but this year they're letting you in on it! For one day only – Thanksgiving Day (until midnight) – you will receive FREE shipping on your $60 order. Please click on the picture below to access the sale!

In addition, you can enter KAF's Holiday Sweepstakes for a chance to win a $1000 King Arthur Flour shopping spree, or one of five $100 gift cards! Enter DAILY from your desktop/laptop: http://on.fb.me/RQKEII or from your mobile device: http://bit.ly/VthRdq

Happy Thanksgiving from our bayit to yours!!!
Oh, and don't forget their Baking Hotline, where KAF's experts are available daily to help with holiday baking crises!

Note: I was not compensated, and I did not receive any products from King Arthur Flour for hosting this sale on my blog... though I WILL be taking advantage of it myself!

Rosh Hashanah 5773 | King Arthur Flour Giveaway! {closed}

This giveaway is now closed.  Congratulations to the winner Comment #18 SARA from Saving for Someday!  Sara, please email me by Friday, August 31st at themrs {at} thechallahblog {dot} com to claim your prize!

Sara's daughter wants to make cinnamon chip challah for the High Holy Days. She's also experimenting with their Buttery Dough flavor (which I've also tried a few times!).

Hodesh Tov, blog friends!  It's Elul already.  Can you believe we're just a month away from the Yamim Noraim?  Rosh Hashanah is one of my favorite times of the year.  In our house, we're already preparing.  My dear husband, The Hazz, is vocalizing away on the special melodies and prayers for the high holidays.  This year, I'll be starting a doctoral program the day after Yom Kippur, so there's lots of planning there.  And of course, there's the food...

Last year, we experimented with Apple Challah and Pumpkin Challah.  Stay tuned this year... I'm refining both of those recipes a bit this year and am also working on some new recipes for Rosh Hashanah.  I can't wait to share them with you!

In honor of starting the new year of 5773 off right, I asked the good people over at King Arthur Flour if they would be interested in sponsoring a giveaway here on The Challah Blog.  My mother-in-law, who lives in Rhode Island, has visited their store and school in Norwich, Vermont several times.  Ever since she sent me a gift card for my first batch of King Arthur Flour, I've been hooked!  I love that the company was formed in 1790, has a strong committment to sustainability and social responsibility, and is employee-owned.

But really, I love King Arthur Flours because their flours are so AWESOME.  I've made sourdough, bagels, spelt and kamut challah, and every week, I use King Arthur Bread Flour in my challah.

King Arthur Flour Dough Whisk and Bread Flour Giveaway!

King Arthur Flour is offering YOU the chance to win this awesome Dough Whisk in honor of Rosh Hashanah.  I use this dough whisk every time I bake to mix my dough by hand before using the stand mixer.  If you don't own a stand mixer, this whisk will do the dirty work for you, getting that dough nice and blended.  Additionally, they'll send you a coupon for a FREE 5 LB. BAG of Bread Flour, good at your local grocery store.  (If the winner lives in an area that doesn't carry King Arthur Flour, the company will be happy to send you a bag.)

PRIZE: KAF Dough Whisk and Coupon for 5 lb. Bag of Bread Flour
TO ENTER: Leave comment with "SHANAH TOVAH" and visit King Arthur Flour's website and share with me which flour or other add-in you'd use to enhance your Rosh Hashanah challah! (If you're don't celebrate Rosh Hashanah, leave a comment with how you'd like to enhance your fall baking this year.)
BONUS ENTRIES: Leave an additional comment each time you do one of the following (you should have at most 4 comments if you do all ways to enter):
• Follow The Challah Blog on RSS or Google Friend Connect (on the left sidebar!)
•• Follow The Challah Blog on Facebook.
• Follow King Arthur Flour on Facebook.
GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Sunday, August 26th at 10PM CST.
NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
PRIZE SHIPS: The United States
OTHER DETAILS:  The winner will be selected using random.org and announced on Monday, August 27th as an update to this post and on The Challah Blog's Twitter and Facebook.
• The winner will have until Friday, August 31st to claim their prize by emailing me, otherwise a new winner will be chosen.
• King Arthur Flour has asked me to collect the mailing address for the winner of this giveaway.  Don't worry, I won't share your mailing address with anyone.

More cool things to check out...
Join King Arthur Flour's online community, The Baking Circle.
Follow King Arthur Flour on Facebook,  Twitter,  Google+, and Pinterest.
Sign for King Arthur Flour's special offers through their e-newsletter.

Note: I was not compensated, and I did not receive any products from King Arthur Flour for hosting this giveaway on my blog. I purchased my own dough whisk and flour; all opinions are honest and my own.

Rustic Sourdough Challah

I feel a little like sourdough is a baking enigma.  Or at least some sort of dreamy mystery for most amateur bakers.  I loooove sourdough, but was completely fearful of it.  The idea that you have this yeastless base in your fridge at all times, just waiting to be feed like sort of living being.  A little scary, right?  No?  Maybe it's just me.

But, I really wanted to make Sourdough Challah happen.  The idea that villagers could just pass on the sourdough starter from friend to friend.  It all seems very shtetl life to me, a romantically beautiful notion.  When I made my most recent bread flour order from King Arthur Flour, I decided to bite the bullet and try out sourdough.  So I ordered their Classic Fresh Sourdough Starter.  (A few weeks ago, I tried making my own sourdough starter using the method from A Blessing of Bread, one of my favorite go-to challah recipe books when looking for inspiration or to have a question answered.  Needless to say, I forgot about my starter and killed it before it was ever ready... so the KAF established starter seemed like a safer bet.)

When the starter arrived, KAF gave some pretty specific instructions on feeding the starter to reactivate it.  Then, last night I set to work on making it a 100% hydration starter for my challah this morning.  To do this, I halved my refrigerated starter and added the recommended water and flour to what was left.  Then I let it sit overnight.  12 hours later it looked like this...

Ready, bubbly and time for Sourdough Challah!

I relied heavily on Sour Salty Bitter Sweet's Sourdough Challah, though this recipe is quite similar in proportions to my Basic Small Batch Challah.

1 c hydrated sourdough starter
1/2 to 3/4 c tepid water (I was closer to 3/4)
scant 3 tbsp honey
1/4 c neutral oil like canola or vegetable
1 egg plus 2 egg yolks plus 1 more for egg wash
1 1/4 tsp salt
3 1/2 c bread flour

What you really need for this challah is TIME.  The sourdough starter needs about 12 hours to hydrate, and the dough rises really slowly.  If you're making this  for Shabbat, you'll need to start pretty early in the morning.  Yield is 2 medium sized loaves or 1 large loaf.

Mix together the wet ingredients: the starter, water, honey, oil, and 1 egg + the yolks.  (This challah is much more fool proof... it's basically a dump challah.)  Mix everything together with a wooden spoon or large whisk.

Add the flourand salt, starting with just one cup of flour.  The dough is going to be more stiff than normal, so I recommend mixing it by hand initially, and then using the dough hook for the majority of the kneading (you can of course knead by hand).  The dough will feel slightly stiffer than normal challah dough.

Here's where the TIME comes in.  You need it.  Loads of it.  Some recipes say let the dough triple.  Some double.  Some simply say 8 hours.  4 hours.  12 hours.  I don't have a really good recommendation for you.  I let mine rise for 6 hours, until it just started to touch the top of the plastic wrap in the oiled bowl.  (Usually, my rises look like this.)

At this point, take a moment and smell your dough. It should smell awesome. I just love that sourdough aroma. Yum. Braid as normal. And now for more TIME. Let rest at least two hours, preferably more.  I had a casserole baking in my oven at 450, so I put the pan on top of the oven, which rushed the braided rise a bit.  Eggwash and add poppy or sesame seeds as desired.  Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway.

When I'm trying a new recipe, I always like to make a few rolls so I can sample before Shabbat!  Wow.  These smell like deli sourdough; I'm so pleased.  The five-stranded braid isn't as pretty as I'd like, but the challah's didn't rip in the oven, so I think they're proofed enough.  On the whole, the loaf isn't as sweet as my challahs usually are.  However, this would make a delightful sandwich bread or dipping in soup... just what I was going for.

Have YOU ever experimented with sourdough?  Did I make any egregious errors? Shabbat Shalom from our bayit to yours!

Bagels!

We got a new oven right before Pesah!  It was really, really, really, really, really exciting.  (Did I mention I was excited about my oven?)  Our old oven was AWFUL.  It turned off regularly whenever programmed between 350 to 375 degrees... not helpful for a challah baker, right?  The temperatures were consistently uneven and the oven just didn't hold it's heat.

But our NEW oven came right before Pesah which meant... nooooo kashering!  What a relief that amongst preparing for a seder for 18 and deciding where to do my Ph.D. (!) I did not have to also kasher an oven.  Our new baby is pretty standard, nothing terribly fancy and really modest price-wise.  But it does have a continuous grate and FIVE (count 'em!) burners which is really handy.

 

So can I tell you how excited I was post Passover for our first bread baking!  Bagels!!!!

I can't take credit of this recipe.  It came straight off the back of a bag of King Arthur Sir Lancelot High Gluten Flour.  Here's a link to the recipe, and here are my adventures in making it! 

 

The dough is very tough. It almost feels too tough. But I just told myself to trust the recipe. Since I wasn't experimenting, it was my only option. This was one of the first times we actually used instant yeast as written... just mixed it in right at the beginning. I've been proofing my instant yeast for challah (basically just treating it like active dry). Anyone have any thoughts? 

The dough went around on the dough hook pretty well, and held together easily. I did take it off the dough hook perhaps a bit early. I had to knead a bit by hand, but the texture came out pretty smooth.  

There are several methods out there for making bagels. Most include rolling out long strands and pinching them together. I've done this before, but my bagels almost ALWAYS come apart in the boiling process. I like King Arthur's method better... roll out "rolls" and let rest for a half hour. 

When the half hour is nearly up, I put the water with sugar and malt powder on to boil (love my power boil on the new stove!). Then I poked holes into each of the bagels (carefully!) and let rest another ten minutes. 

The boiling process is fun, but a bit scary. I also found it very interesting to see the variety of all the different boiling times. Some recipes say 30 seconds per side. Others 2 minutes each side. This recipe said 2 minutes on side one and 1 minute on side two. That's what I did. 

 

We topped with cinnamon sugar (yum!), sesame seeds, and onion flakes. The onion flakes got a bit burnt, so I'm not sure if powder might have been a better option. We would definitely do poppy seeds in the future, but we were out this time. Also, sea salt or parmesan cheese are great options! 

 

It was hard to keep The Hazz from eating the entire plate. 

 

What did YOU do to celebrate the return of Hametz to your Post-Passover selves? 

Best Practices: What We Use

I've been wanting to write this post for a long time.  And while it might not be one of our most interesting posts, I think it's information worth sharing.  WHAT do we use?  HOW do we bake?  What about the rest of the stuff... the oil, the eggs, etc.

The moral of the story (which you're reading before you even hear the story) is use the best you can.  I'm not advocating becoming a baking snob and spending a fortune on all your ingredients.  But find the best product for your challah.  Challah is special, and Shabbat is a special day.  Don't go crazy, but find things that make a flavor difference for you... and enjoy them!

Flour
I've blogged before about flour.  My mother-in-law, who lives in New England, is completely sold on King Arthur Flour which is made in Vermont.  And... she completely sold me.  It's wonderful.  The challot we make with it really, really, really turns out better.  Right now, I'm still buying Gold Medal Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, for things like cakes, scones, and muffins.  But for Bread Flour (which I use exclusively for my challot), I always use King Arthur.

I strongly suggest getting on the KAF mailing list.  They have great sales (recently 29 cent shipping on February 29th) which make the product just as cheap if not cheaper than your grocery.

PS: King Arthur has compensated me for writing the above.  They probably don't really know that I exist.  I just really, really like their product.

Eggs
We always buy cage-free eggs in our house.  The Humane Society of the United States states that... "while cage-free does not necessarily mean cruelty-free, cage-free hens generally have significantly better lives than those confined in battery cages. The ability to lay their eggs in nests, run and spread their wings are tangible benefits that shouldn't be underestimated."


Yeast
I go back-and-forth on yeast. I really, really, really like fresh yeast. Honestly, quite recently I've been back on using active dry and/or instant yeast. Our grocery store had a few particularly bad batches of yeast that were either moldy or just didn't rise quite right. If you're a newbie, active dry or instant are your best bet. And if you're a purist, active dry or instant might be your best bet. One thing I do really like about fresh yeast is how quick it works. My initial rise time can sometimes be as short as an hour.


Oil
Oil extraction is actually a sort of interesting and scary concept that I don't completely understand.  In regards to neutral oils like canola or vegetable oil, it doesn't matter that much.  In general, cold pressed is idea, expeller pressed is a lesser but still okay option, and oils extracted through chemicals are the worst.  I don't really get it, and reading about it kind of freaks me out.  Oil is not good for you.  Use it sparingly.  That's all I got, folks.


Salt
We sometimes use sea salt and sometimes use table salt.  Make sure to always pre-mix your flour and salt together.  Salt kills yeast, so you don't want to add it directly to your yeast slurry or as the first dry ingredient after the oil and eggs.  At the very least, plop in a cup of flour in your bowl and then add the salt on top.

Toppings
This is a complete personal preference. One thing we found that we really like are toasted sesame seeds. One can definitely toast their own sesame seeds, however we really like these from the Asian food aisle at our local grocery store. The toasting really makes a big difference.


Baking Tidbits
I LOVE my insulated baking sheet.  I find it keeps the bottom of the challah from getting too dark, and the rise is all-over great.  I always use parchment paper because I like lots of honey drizzled on my egg wash.  Clean up is a breeze, and you don't have to scrub at the crystalized honey.


Baking Methods
You can read about some of my adventures in oven-temps here.

Hunger Games Challah: Peeta's Bread

When I passed the baker's, the smell of fresh bread was so overwhelming I felt dizzy.  The ovens were in the back, and a golden glow spilled out the open kitchen door... There was a clatter in the bakery and I heard the woman screaming again and the sound of a blow, and I vaguely wondered what was going on.  Feet sloshed toward me through the mud and I thought, It's her.  She's coming to drive me away with a stick.  But it wasn't her.  It was the boy.  In his arms, he carried two large loaves of bread that must have fallen into the fire because their crusts were scorched black... 

The boy took one look back to the bakery as if checking that the coast was clear, then his attention back on the pig, he threw a loaf of bread in my direction.  The second quickly followed, and he sloshed back to the bakery, closing the kitchen door tightly behind him... It was a good hearty bread, filled with raisins and nuts.

This is a bread that I've been mulling over in my head for a while and have been trying to figure out the best combination of ingredients.  I actually did two versions of this bread.  The first was sort of a Peeta's bread inspired challah (basically my 1/2 Batch with some mixed grains and other stuff thrown in).  I experimented with using applesauce instead of oil, and I really liked the result.  I'd like to try it again on a regular old challah just to see what the result is.  Stay tuned.

So here are the necessity's for Peeta's bread (in the book and in my humble opinion)...

• Raisins or another Dried Fruit.  (I hate raisins.  They ruin everything.  I should have this shirt. But Peeta's bread is supposed to have nuts and raisins. Oh dear. Well, I thought I'd compromise and find some sort of other dried fruit. I came across some dried cherries and decided on them instead. It was a pleasing overall result. The toasted almonds and cherries work well together, but perhaps would be even better in a completely white flour challah. The wheat kinda brought them down.)
• Nuts - I tried both almonds and walnuts
• Some portion of Whole Wheat - I figured that, while the bakery bread would not necessarily have to have the mealy Tesserae grain that Katniss talks about, it wouldn't be Capital bread either.  So it would have some darkness to it.

So, without further ado, I bring you the first (in a series!) of Hunger Games Challah!

Peeta's Bread - Challah Version

I'm luke-warm on this bread.  It's fine.  But it's nothing special.  And I feel like the Boy with the Bread's bread ought to be something really special.

I'm going to share what I did with you anyway.  But, it's not all that special.  Here's what I used...

3/4 c water
.6 oz (1/3 block) fresh yeast or 2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp honey
1/2 c dried fruit (see note above)
1/4 c chopped toasted almonds
1 egg
1/3 c applesauce (I used natural chunky because it's what I had)
1 1/2 c bread flour 
1 c white whole wheat flour (I LOVE this so much more than regular whole wheat)
1/4 c mixed grains (I used whole flax, kamut, and wheat gluten, though I think I'd used millet next time)
1 tsp salt

The result is just kind of lame.  I braided it, because Peeta might have braided it, I told myself. But I think I was stretching here.  It's not challah.  It's bakery bread.  And this was challah trying to be something it couldn't.  So, I moved on and tried again...

Peeta's Bread - No-Knead Version

I've read a little about no-knead overnight breads, and I've tried doing french baguette once before.  I'm not ready to publish the baguette recipe here, because it's still in the works and still largely a conglomeration of a few other recipes but not really my own yet.  But for this loaf, I got creative and tried out my own.  Here's what you'll need...


1 1/2 to 2 c water (NOT hot)

1 tsp active or instant dry yeast

1/2 c dried fruit (see below... oh boy)

scant 1/4 c chopped walnuts

2 c bread flour 

1 c white whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp cinnamon

TIME (about 18 hours...)
A baking crock or Dutch Oven

About the Dried Fruit:  Okay, I'm going to eat my words.  I used raisins.  I had some lying around from an Iranian Haroset I made during Passover (Still good, right?  They last, right?)  So, I used them.  But not a ton.  I added some chopped dried apples too, because I thought Peeta might have used those too.  Maybe?

What's really neat about no-knead bread is how you just toss it all together.  As I was making this, I commented to The Hazz who has never read The Hunger Games how much I liked to the idea of a long-rising bread.  A bakery would have the time, because they'd just start loaves as others were finishing and being sold.  But in District 12, they wouldn't have stand mixers.  So I opted not to use my lovely Kitchen Aid.  Instead, I just dumped all the ingredients except for the water in a bowl and pulled out my wooden spoon.  Once everything was all incorporated, we started adding water, mixing first with the wooden spoon before just going in with my hands.

Once everything is incorporated, leave covered in at room temperature overnight for 12-18 hours (longer is better).  I read a few places about 70 degrees is preferable, but it's winter here, so I'm sure it's not that warm in my house!

Turn the dough out on a lightly flour surface and form into a shape that fits your Dutch oven or baking crock.  We don't have a baking crock (but now I want one!), so I used our LeCreuset Dutch Oven.  However, keep in mind that the standard knobs aren't oven safe to high temperatures (I think it's 325...?).  You can buy a replacer knob.  For the meantime, I took out my knob and flipped the screw so it was sitting on top.  Just make sure it doesn't fall in your oven and get lost!  (Note: I started with my 5 quart LeCreuset in red, but decided to switch to my purple 3 1/2 quart because Mark Bittman recommends a smaller size for an ultimately higher loaf.)

Form into a log.  I tried to kind of tuck in my fruit and nuts so they were sitting at the bottom of the container (trying to prevent too much stuck to my pan).  Flip the log or round and lay on an oiled baking sheet on a lightly floured surface. (I messed this step up.  One site recommended oiled, but MANY, MANY others recommended floured bowl, cloth, or countertop.  After beginning to worry about my loaf sticking to my LeCreuset, I changed over to a floured surface.)  Let rest an additional 2 hours covered in a clean cloth.

After 1 1/2 hours have passed, place your heavy baking dish (Pyrex, ceramic baker, or cast iron pot) in a cold oven and preheat.  For my cast iron pot, I preheated to 425, but you could preheat higher.  When the last 1/2 hour has passed, remove pot from the oven (carefully!) and plop in the dough in the pan (make sure to check one last time for any sticky parts and flour as needed).

Bake with the lid on for 20-30 minutes, checking to make sure it doesn't rise too much or brown too much.  Remove the lid and bake another 15-25 minutes.  I did 30 minutes with lid and 15 without.  Tip your bread out of the pan and let cool on a wire rack.

The result? OM NOM NOM, you guys.  Wow.  Like, seriously, this might be the best thing I ever made.  It's soooooo rustic.  The crust is delicious and crumbly.  The inside is chewy just like what you would imagine from a bakery.  In fact, The Hazz said, "It's like REAL bakery bread."

Would the Boy with the Bread be proud?  Is this his bread?  I like to pretend this is what it would have been like.  I'm not about to start burning this bread.  It's deliciously awesome just as is.  It takes time, but it's not time consuming.  You just have to wait.  It might actually be less hands on than most of my challot.  But the result is so, so, so worth the wait.

Next up, well there are lots of breads in The Hunger Games.  I think next up in the books are rolls from the Capitol dipped in hot chocolate.  I'm game, are you?

May the odds be EVER in your favor! (and Shabbat Shalom!)