Czernowitzer Challah

Another week, another Challah. This is Maggie Glezer's Czernowitzer Challah from her book, you guessed it, the wonderful A Blessing of Bread. This dough is of Eastern European origin and "generously enriched" with oil. This yields a dough that is easily kneaded, by hand of course, and beautifully braided. The dough rises like a dream as well. This challah is not to sweet but has wonderfully light and airy texture. While my sister and mother enjoyed this challah, my father who has the biggest sweet tooth ever (he eats candy in his sleep!) thought it lacked flavor but agreed that the texture was great. I'm not sure how I felt about it. But next week is another opportunity to try again!

Citrus Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies

Ever put a cookie in your mouth that melted on your tongue yet was simultaneously crisp? Softly crunchy? Alright, I know I sound like a walking oxymoron but I am simply loving these cookies. These Citrus Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies are so darn good and addictive. They have that lightly sweet orange and deliciously buttery flavor. For some reason they are very reminiscent of cookies that I've had as a child, minus the orange. The recipe comes from Martha Stewart's Cookies, a book that I seem to keep returning to.. I have a couple more cookies to bake from there before it takes a backseat on my shelf. A few things I should say; I'm not sure that the cornmeal rolled onto the sides really adds anything; perhaps my cornmeal wasn't coarse enough. Next time I will either leave it out or switch it up as well as trying to swap a different citrus zest for the orange...Grapefruit sounds bold. Secondly, I made two logs and froze one for future use. The dough is soft-ish but malleable when chilled. These are a wonderful cookie to be eaten beside tea or coffee, or just because they're lying around. They're simple and delicious, but simply delicious.

Granola

Oh, granola. The whole grain, crunchy, sweet breakfast treat that you just can't stop nibbling at. Who needs to buy storebought when homemade is equally as good, if not a million times better? Add to the fact that you can easily customize it to suit your own tastes- more nuts, less fruit- and you have a winner that goes great with milk as a cereal, or sprinkled on top of your morning yogurt. It's just plain good to have around for a quick and healthful pick-me-up. I personally don't like to add dried fruit to mine. Something about the soft texture of the dried fruit contrasting with the crunchy oats is off-putting to me. But don't mind me-- do as you please! Recently, I have been enjoying my own freshly made batch with non-fat vanilla yogurt, dinosaur plums (sooo good) and a drizzle of honey. Mmm mmm good. Unfortunately, I prematurely deleted my granola photos, but head into the kitchen to see for yourself just how quick, easy, and good granola really is.

Glorious Apple Pie

Here is the apple pie that I promised you. This was my other labor of love that I made on behalf of my sister for the weekend. Unfortunately, I wasn't there to taste it, but my sister insists that it was amazing and that my brother-in-law had a slice every day until it was finished. Not to toot my own horn, but I kind of figured it would be delicious and I'll tell you why. First of all, the pie dough that I used was a pleasure to work with and a nibble that I took told me that it was indeed very good. For those interested, I used the King Arthur Flour guaranteed pie crust recipe. I think that one is here to stay. (Initially, I had added too little water, making it hard to roll. So I took the liberty of breaking up all the dough in a small bowl and adjusting with water. It worked like a charm!) As for the filling, I used Granny Smith apples and added, without a recipe, apple juice, sugar, vanilla, salt, flour, lemon juice, and cinnamon. I tasted of course to make sure it had enough of all the above. After I filled the pie shell with the apples, I reduced the left over liquid to an apple butter consistency and spooned it over the apples. I know I'm not the first person to do this, but I thought it was brilliant, as did my sister, and I'm sure it was this flavor element that took it over the top. It was a quick and easy way to add another dimension-- another trick I'll be sure to repeat over and over. After that, I pieced some margarine (I was doing parve baking here) over the top, covered it with the remaining dough, made some slashes, egged it and popped it into the oven until it was golden brown and beautiful. Making pies is a little labor intensive, but the result is so worth it. There's something about them that just makes me so... happy!

Doris Koplin's Sweet Challah

For better or for worse, my week babysitting my nieces is over. It was a long week but in the end I'm glad that I was able to help and bond with my sister and nieces. I spent the weekend with my parents in upstate New York but not before baking some challah (don't worry, I stole some to try!) and apple pie for my sister. I told you this wouldn't be the last time you saw challah on my blog, and this probably isn't either. As for the apple pie, that's for an upcoming post. I frequently like to experiment with new recipes and I decided to oblige my brother-in-law MD this time who likes his challah on the sweeter, eggier side. Of course I turned to A Blessing of Bread (and you should too), my challah bible, if you will. This recipe I'm referring to is Doris Koplin's Sweet Challah. I doubled the small batch as a five pound recipe would have been way too much for her small family. I made the dough Thursday night and allowed it to rise overnight. I got up early Friday morning to braid and bake, which worked great as the dough rose perfectly and I didn't have to worry about it. The challah ended up being a lovely shade of yellow from the yolks, with a nice, soft, golden crust and a nice crumb. I was won over by this recipe even though I'm not much of an egg challah girl. It was sweet but not too sweet, eggy but not too eggy. I kept marvelling about how good it was. A great balance, really. A definite keeper for me. I made three large breads, two four stranded and one five, and four rolls, but the yield all depends on how you choose to shape them.