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!

Wisconsin Maple Syrup Challah

Did you know that we live in Wisconsin?  I don't know if I ever mentioned that.  Well, we do, and we love it here.  When I was seven, our entire second grade (also including my mom's second grade class -- she's helping me remember this story) went to a nature center to learn about maple sugaring.  The two highlights of the trip were putting your tongue right under a tapped tree to taste the raw sap and eating pancakes with real maple syrup.  If you didn't make sure your plate was completely clean, the lumberjack who served you up your pancakes (perhaps I'm exaggerating on the lumberjack part) would make you lick your plate clean.  Yum!

Anyway, my mom recently pointed me to an article in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on how terrible the maple sugaring season has been this year.  We've been enjoying unseasonably warm weather reaching as high as the 80s a few days this week.  Buds are opening on trees, and we're all excited for this early spring.  Unfortunately, is that maple syrup season has suffered tremendously.

When the buds open, the sap turns bitter, ending the maple syrup season. That's happened already in some parts of Wisconsin, though hard maple trees bud later than soft maples. Some sugar bushes - forests filled with maple trees - still may have a chance, but only if nighttime temperatures fall below freezing again, and the buds don't open first. {source: jsonline.com}

The fragility of nature is amazing. It takes a whopping 40 gallons of sap to make only one gallon of maple syrup.  Wow.

Now that you know why maple syrup (the pure stuff, the good stuff, the only stuff you should ever purchase) is so expensive and so precious, I present to you Wisconsin Maple Syrup Challah!

2/3 c water
2 1/4 tsp active dry or instant yeast
1/4 c pure maple syrup plus about 1 tbsp more for egg wash
1 egg plus 1 more for egg wash
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 c bread flour
1 tsp salt

I recently switched to a new brand of yeast that is store in the freezer and instant.  I realized this morning that I've been treating it like active dry yeast and proofing it, but now I'm second guessing whether I should be doing that.  Do I still have to proof it?  Am I wrecking it by proofing it?

Proof the yeast with the hot water and maple syrup.  Let rest 10 minutes or until foamy.  Add the egg and oil, mixing gently.  Add the flour and salt.  For some reason, my dough was extremely, extremely tough, so I added a little more oil and water, but then needed a bit more flour.  Use your judgment.  Knead by hand or with a dough hook until a ball forms.

Let rest in a covered, oiled bowl for about 1 1/2 hours.

(In the interest of full disclosure, we did a refrigerator overnight rise this week... and I hated it.  It was a logistical thing, because today I'm writing this post away from home and will likely not be home until this evening right when Shabbat starts.  So I wanted to bake the bread this morning.  But it took FOREVER for the dough to reach a workable temperature when I took it out of the oven.  Any tips on refrigerator rise?)

Braid as normal.  Mix the beaten egg with a healthy dollop of maple syrup (about 1 tbsp) and brush over the dough.  I added sesame seeds to one loaf, but I think cinnamon might be great!  I also think I might try maple chips in this dough to really sweeten it up.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until internal temperature reaches at least 180 degrees.

How do you show YOUR home state/town pride in your baking?  Shabbat Shalom!

Eggs, Eggs, Everywhere... but not a drop in THIS challah!

This past Shabbat, we had a small group of 6 adults and 1 child.  I got into my head that it would be awesome to make the flourless chocolate cake we love so much from Pesach it shouldn't be relegated to one week a year.  6 eggs.  Carrot Kugel, another egg.  The Hazz asked for Matzo Ball soup since we have fresh garden basil.  4 more eggs.  A half batch of challah.  2 eggs plus 1 for the egg wash.  Are you with me, that's 15 eggs.  I just COULDN'T BRING MYSELF to crack two more into the second batch of challah.  (I actually also altered the chicken recipe and found an olive oil instead of egg method for getting bread crumbs to stick to chicken.)

In April, I made an eggless challah for a friend who is vegan.  At the time, I wasn't sure if she ate honey, so I opted for sugar to proof the yeast.  But, really, I don't like sugar-sweetened challot.  I find they always fall a little flat, don't have the luxurious texture I'd like my challah to have.  So, here's what we did on this eggless version.

3/4 c water plus about 1/4 c more
2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 tbsp honey
1/4 c vegetable oil
3 c flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
small amount of (real) maple syrup for wash

It's essentially the same as my regular half-batch, but I added the extra water (around 1/4 c) while mixing.  Then it was too sticky, so I sprinkled more flour.  Wash, rinse, repeat, until the texture I wanted.  As with the other eggless challah, I used MAPLE SYRUP for the glaze and it's SO TASTY.

We didn't have any fresh yeast on hand this week (all the stuff at the grocery store was expired boo hoo!), so we were back to active dry but it worked well for us.  I needed a slower rise anyway on Friday afternoon due to what-was-going-in-the-oven-when and fresh yeast rises OH SO FAST.

Egg-y on the left, Egg-less on the right!

Eggless challah is so different from regular challah.  It's MUCH lighter... in both color and texture.  The flavor seems less sweet, even though it's the same amount of honey.  It's a good alternative and  also seems to last a little bit better (for noshing on Sunday mornings!).

Shavua Tov, chaverim!  I hope you have a great week!

View of Shabbat - August 19

I'm running late (haven't showered yet, haven't set the lights, blah blah), so I promise to make a REAL post later this weekend... I already have a great title for it. But, here's a teaser for you.


Shabbat Shalom from our bayit to yours!

Eggless Challah

This week, we're having dairy Shabbat and guests.  Several are vegetarian and one is vegan.  So, what better time to try out an eggless challah.  I'm making one with egg and one without.

Here's the egg-less ingredient list...

3 C flour
1/4 cup plus 1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 C natural oil (vegetable or canola)
1 1/4 C Water
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) to 1 Tbsp dry yeast
Optional: Maple Syrup for an egg-free shine

Place warm water in mixing bowl.  Add yeast and 1/4 tsp sugar, mixing gently.  Let yeast proof for about 10 minutes.

Add vegetable oil and mix with wood spoon.   Add flour, sugar, and salt and beat with dough hook on a stand mixer or knead by hand.

If the dough is not holding together as a ball, add a bit more oil or water.  If the dough is very sticky, add more flour.  Turn the ball out onto a floured work surface and punch a few times until very smooth.

Place in oiled bowl and cover in plastic wrap or a towel.  Allow to rise at least one hour, preferrably more, until dough has doubled in size.

Punch down the ball in the bowl and remove.  Punch out all air bubbles.  Braid in your preferred method.  Allow to rise 20-30 minutes.  Eggless Wash: I just used maple syrup.  I read it somewhere online, and it works really well.  I totally recommend it if you run out of eggs and just need a shine.  It's not too sweet at all!

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.  (You can read about my oven temperature methods here.)

Enjoy!  Do YOU have a preferred method for eggless challah?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!  This challah is a bit on the lighter, fluffier side.