Monday, September 15, 2008

Maggie Glezer's My Challah

It's that time again.. my weekly Challah post. I haven't yet made my way through the book, so it seems like you'll keep hearing about my weekly loaves. A couple of challah posts back, I wrote about Maggie Glezer's "My Challah" recipe that I had made using sugar in place of the recommended honey. Well this week, as my sweet challah loving brother-in-law was over, I decided to try the recipe again using the honey. Honestly, it didn't add that trademark honey flavor that I was looking forward to. So although it was good to try it again to get a feel for it, they really are interchangeable here. That's not to say that the crust wasn't beautifully brown and the crumb nicely yellow from the eggs. They were. But, for some reason, I wasn't sold on this challah. And so, my quest continues!


My Challah
Maggie Glezer

2 tsp instant yeast
3 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup warm water
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup mild honey
1 egg. for glazing

Place the eggs, yeast, water, honey, and salt in a bowl,
and whisk to combine.
Begin adding flour..
...until the batter starts coming together.
Here's the dough having its autolyse, while I went to go do some other things. Turn the dough out and knead it until smooth.
Because I was I had so many things to do to prepare for the weekend company, I decided to give the dough an overnight rise in the refrigerator. This is the risen dough I woke up to.
Shape your breads. The dough braided, from left to right: six braid, five braid, four braid.
Proof the loaves. Towards the end of the proofing time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Egg wash your breads.
Bake around half an hour, more or less depending on the size of your loaves. Cool on a wire rack. Stay tuned for the next installment of my Challah Chronicles.

No comments: