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Food Friday–Challah Anxiety edition

I am feeling a bit of uncharacteristic challah anxiety today. Tonight we are invited to a friend’s house. One of the other guests is my friend Alan, a serious cook. Alan has been playing, (actually that’s the wrong word, when it comes to food Alan doesn’t play, he works seriously and analytically at food) at making sour dough challah.

Alan’s challot are great.They are very different than my challot and they are fabulous. I have been playing with my rough approximation of sour dough. My version of sour dough is basically letting a loose wet dough hang out for a few days in the fridge and then using that as the leavening agent instead of dry yeast.

 

I have enjoyed doing it. It has been a nice lazy way to bake. Each time I want to bake bread I take a slobbery plop of the stuff and use it to start my dough. I thought I had the magic touch, until today.

 

These are my challot before baking.

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They haven’t risen all that much.  I am feeling challah anxiety.

 

I had made a caraway flavored corn bread, like the kind they serve at old Jewish bakeries, that rose well.

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I think the challot needed a longer rise. But Shabbat starts early and they just won’t have enough time to fully rise.

I just pulled them out of the oven.

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They are smaller and denser than usual. I assume they will get eaten anyway. I also assume that Alan and I will have a long discussion about rising times and how much honey and oil I had in the dough…

 

Shabbat Shalom!

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Comments

  1. Betsey KuziaNovember 20, 2015 at 8:38 PM

    I haven't had goo challah in years!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. SandyNovember 21, 2015 at 3:51 PM

    Yes. how much honey and oil do make a difference.
    I like hearing about your bread escapades.
    Your cornbread sounds good. If you have a somewhat follow-able recipe, I'd love to have a go. I am pretty good with flexible measurements, so it doesn't have to be precise.
    Sandy

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sarah JacobsNovember 22, 2015 at 3:59 PM

    An update. The challah was actually yummy, even better my friend Alan loved it, and we had a good time at dinner discussing sour dough bread.

    Sandy, I threw in some cornmeal. I will actually pay attention the next time I make a corn bread and tell you how much I put in. My breadmaking methods are kind of wild and wooly. I will try to actually pay attention next time.

    ReplyDelete

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