Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Challah

One of the first "fancy" challot that I ever made was a Parmesan Roasted Garlic Challah.  It was really, REALLY garlicky... and delicious.  This challah is a variation off of that very recipe.  I love savory challot, especially when they involve herbs from my garden, like Rosemary Olive Oil Challah, Pesto Challah, and Pizza Challah (the Hazz's favorite).

This challah takes a bit more time because you have to roast the garlic in advance before preparing the dough, but trust me.  It's worth it.

3/4 c water
2 1/4 tsp active dry or instant yeast (1 packet)
2 eggs plus 1 more for egg wash
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil, plus more for roasting
3 to 3 1/2 c bread flour
1/4 tsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 head of garlic
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

First, you'll roast your clove of garlic.  I run the clove under water and pull off any skin with dirt on it.  Then slice off the top of the head, drizzle with a little olive oil, and wrap in foil.  Bake in 425 oven for 20-25 minutes.  When your garlic is roasted and cooled to handle, squeeze out the garlic with a tongs or by hand and mash with a fork.

When your garlic is ready, start with very warm (but not hot) water in mixing bowl. Add yeast and 1/4 tsp sugar, mixing lightly. Allow to sit for 10 minutes or so, until yeast is foamy. Add 2 eggs, 2 tbs olive oil, and garlic in the bowl and mix with wood spoon.

Add flour, salt, and finely chopped rosemary and beat with dough hook on standmixer or 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. The dough is ready when it sticks together as a ball and is not sticky to the touch when you poke your finger in (5-10 minutes of beating). 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, preferably more (usually about an hour and a half), until dough has doubled in size. Punch down the ball in the bowl. Braid in your preferred method. Allow to rise 20-30 minutes. Top with an egg wash and a little more olive oil and a few sprigs of rosemary if you like.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, rotating 180 degrees after the first 15 minutes. You can use a bread thermometer (180-200 degrees) or poke at the seams. Foil if browning too quickly on top.

I just love how aromatic and savory this challah is. Yes, I'm usually a sweet challah gal, but I love variety now and again! The olive oil also makes the dough light and fluffy.


Shavua Tov from our bayit to yours!

Fig, Olive Oil, and Sea Salt Challah from Smitten Kitchen

This is just a review.  I didn't make this challah.  In fact, for the first time in my adult life, I followed the recipe faithfully.  Usually when a recipe says "use one clove of garlic," I'll use three.  Or "use 1/4 tsp of cinnamon," I'll use 3/4.  But I have wanted to try this recipe for a while, and it seemed like the perfect option for last week's Shabbat which coincided with Tu Bishvat. 

Why figs for Tu Bishvat?  From about.com...

1) Unusual among fruit trees, the fig can produce fruit over a long season, from Shavuot to Sukkot (late May to early October).

a) You cannot pick all the figs at once, but only gradually, over a long season. Similarly, you cannot learn the whole Torah at once, but only gradually, little by little, over an entire lifetime. (Midrash Numbers Rabba 12,9; 21,15)

b) Whenever you go to the fig tree, you are likely to find ripe fruit to eat. Similarly, whenever you go to the Torah, you will find nourishment for the spirit. (Babylonian Talmud, Eruvin 54a, b)

2) Most fruits have inedible parts: dates have pits, grapes have seeds, pomegranates have skins. But every part of the fig can be eaten. Similarly, no part of the Torah is without value; all parts of it provide sustenance. (Midrash Yalkut Shimoni, Joshua 2)

So, why NOT figs for Tu Bishvat?

Smitten Kitchen is one of my favorite food blogs.  So when I saw the Fig, Olive Oil, and Sea Salt Challah this past fall, I immediately knew that I had to try it.  The recipe is pretty straightforward.  The dough has a much higher quantity of honey that what I normally put in my own challah, however the sweetness balances the aromatic olive oil and the sea salt.

To be honest, I nearly messed up the fig puree by adding too much orange juice. I ended up pouring out all the liquids and starting over. Oh well. I ended up slightly short on fig puree for my second challah (which I made a standard long braid in stead of a round... but even though it was Rosh Hashanah, we did enjoy the round for Shabbat).

The verdict: We liked it, but we didn't love it. It didn't get finished before it became stale. That said, I would definitely make this for a crowd. The dough is very lightly salty, but aromatic from the olive oil. The orange juice really came through in my fig puree. And the challah simply baked up in such a lovely way.

Rosemary Olive Oil Challah

Thanks to everyone who sent messages and comments about last week.  While I cannot say things are great, they are better.  It was important for me to be away from home and from fancy challah baking.  That said, we made basic challah, and it was delicious and loved by all.  It was exactly the Shabbat we needed.  I promise, I'm working on getting a Rye Challah recipe for you.  So, stay tuned.

This week, since I couldn't find any rye flour at my local grocery store, I decided to go with the garden again.  We have two beautiful rosemary bushes in our garden--one regular and one creeping.

I've used rosemary in challah before, but for this challah, I wanted to experiment with a pretty high content of olive oil.  We use Trader Joe's extra virgin, and we're very happy with the flavor and the price!

I was inspired by A Hint of Honey's Rosemary Olive Oil Bread, which uses a mixture of white whole wheat and bread flour.

1/2 c plus 2 tbsp water
1/4 tsp raw sugar (white sugar is fine if that's what you have)
1 1/2 tsp active dry or instant yeast
1 egg plus 1 more for egg wash (you can also reserve a little of the 1 egg in the dough)
1/4 c olive oil
2 1/4 - 2 1/2 c flour (I used about 3/4 c white whole wheat and the rest bread flour)
3/4 tsp salt
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

This recipe is on the small side, and will yield one medium-sized loaf or two quite small loaves. Perfect for dinner for two!

Mix very warm but not hot water together with the yeast and sugar.  Let rest for about 10 minutes.  During this time, you can go out to your garden and harvest some fresh rosemary!  I chose to use the creeping rosemary for this recipe, because the leaves (are they leaves?) are smaller and I think the flavor is a bit more delicate.

Add egg and olive oil and mix with a wooden spoon.  Add the flour (use any combination of whole wheat, bread flour, or unbleached all-purpose), salt, and 1 to 1 1/2 sprigs of rosemary, chopped.  Knead by hand or on a stand mixer until a ball forms.  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, preferably more (usually about an hour and a half), 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. Top with an egg wash (I use the yolk and white) and the remaining rosemary.

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

Can I just say how much I love garden-season Shabbatot?  Oh, I've already said that?  Well, I'm  saying it again.  This Shabbat, it's zucchini and patty pan squash soup, beef and tofu with garden oregano, rosemary olive oil challah, stuffed garden tomatoes, and kale salad with garden cucumbers.  We made extra, so come on over!


Shabbat Shalom from our bayit to yours!!!

Pesto Challah

I love garden season!  Our basil has been going a bit crazy lately, so the thing to do is... of course... make homemade pesto.  And when one has fresh pesto, the thing to do is... of course... make pesto challah!

For this challah, you can use your own fresh pesto or store-purchased pesto.  When I make pesto at home, I leave out the cheese to make it parve and then freeze it.  Then I add parmesan later.  It's really up to you, but keep this in mind in case you want to serve your pesto challah with a meat meal.

 

3/4 c water 2 1/4 tsp active dry or instant yeast (1 packet)
1/4 tsp sugar
1 egg plus 1 more for egg wash
3 tbsp olive oil
3 c flour (for this recipe, I used 1/4 c white whole wheat and the rest a mixture of bread flour and unbleached all-purpose flour because that's what I had... you can use any proportion to your taste)
1 tsp salt (you may want to omit this depending on the salt quantity in your pesto, especially if it is store-purchased)
2 tbsp prepared pesto

For the homemade pesto, you'll need...

2 BIG handfuls of fresh basil
Pine nuts (about 2 tbsp)
2-5 cloves of garlic (we like it garlicky)
olive oil
pinch of salt
parmesan cheese (if desired)

To prepare the pesto, wash the basil and place in food processor. Peel and roughly slice the garlic and add with the pine nuts. Add a pinch of salt and pulse until finely chopped. You may need to wipe down the sides of the food processor with a spatula. Through the feeder tube, add the olive oil slowly to your desired consistency.

I'm always blow away that two huge handfuls of basil produce such a small amount of pesto. My yield was this little teeny tupperware full... which I divided into a mere 6 ice cubes (freezing is a great way to get just the right amount. You can freeze in ice cube trays and then pop out and put into a plastic bag).

For the challah, add the yeast and sugar to warm (but not hot) water in mixing bowl. Allow yeast to proof about 10 minutes. In the meantime, you can retrieve your pesto from the freezer and thaw it in the microwave if need-be. I used two ice cubes which was equivalent to about 2 tablespoons of pesto.

Mix the pesto into the proofed yeast. Add the egg. Since the pesto already has olive oil, I went easy on the amount of oil in this challah, adding just 3 tablespoons.

Add the flour and salt (if using). At this point, you can also add parmesan cheese if you want to make your challah for a dairy meal. Mix by hand or on a stand mixer until a ball forms. This dough is a bit more relaxed than most of my other doughs.

Place in oiled bowl and cover in plastic wrap or a towel. Allow to rise at about an hour and a half, until dough has doubled in size. Braid as normal.

Allow to rise an additional 20-30 minutes. Top with an egg wash and parmesan cheese if you like. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Surprisingly, the flavor of pesto challah is milder than the taste. You do get your garlicky goodness (which we luuuuurve!), but you can add more or less pesto to your own taste. The result is really fun and the color of the pesto plus the additional olive oil, gives the bread a lovely shade.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE garden season?

Shabbat Shalom from our bayit to yours!

Vacation Challah: Herbed Challah Revisited

After our adventures in Cinnamon Sugar Challah, we also tried a return to Herbed Challah while we were on vacation. For this challah, I chopped up some fresh sage and rosemary quite finely.

The Hazz then made a mixture of olive oil, garlic powder, and the herbs. Using a pastry brush, he covered a rolled-out piece of dough with the mixture.

The whole process then get, as one would expect, a little oily. After some slip-sliding and quite a bit of additional flour on the strands, a coil we achieved. Of course by then we had over-floured the strands and couldn't get the bottom to stay tucked in.

Regardless, success was achieved!

This challah was delicious and quite surprisingly flaky. I'm so glad we tried making herbed bread again. I think savory challot may be the way to go for us for a while. There are a lot of options to match with a meal.

What recipes are you returning to this week?

Midweek Loaf: Olive Oil Bread

It's times like these that I realize how lucky I am to have a huge kitchen, a nice oven, and husband who doesn't mind that I cut into a fresh loaf of bread before he came home.  Yeah, I couldn't wait.


Olive Oil bread was inspired by a recipe in my favorite book, Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook.  However, the recipe calls for fresh yeast, which I didn't have (it's been out at the store the last few weeks... boo hoo), and I wanted to make a slightly smaller loaf.  In the end, that didn't happen because the heavy dough was so oily, I kept adding flour and ended up close to Martha's proportions.  But here's the proportions I used.

2 tsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp honey
1 c warm (but not boiling) water
2/3 c extra virgin olive oil (I used Trader Joe's because it's what we had on hand)
about 4 cups of flour (I used 2 c unbleached all-purpose and 2 c bread flour)
2 tsp sea salt
cornmeal, for dusting


Mix the yeast, water, and honey together and let rest until foamy, about 10 minutes.  Add the oil, flour, and salt and mix well by hand or with a stand mixer.  Let rest until dough has doubled in bulk (for me, it was about 2 hours).

Form into a boule on baking sheet or wooden peel sprinkled with corn meal (I sort of winged it, but I wish I'd look this up beforehand).  Sprinkle entire boule with cornmeal.  Let rest an additional 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, place pizza/baking stone in oven and preheat to 450.  Score top of boule is square shaped pattern.  Transfer to stone and bake 35-40 minutes.


I'm so in love with this bread. It's very crusty but totally moist inside.  It doesn't even need topping like butter or olive oil, obviously because it's so delicious inside.  And, I'm loving the baking stone method.  The crust is so nice.  Tastes like real bread :) From a store!