Challah!

The other day I discovered my favorite grocery store ever; Harmons. They have so many different organic foods, a cheese island, (with samples), and yummy bread made with organic flour. That's where the Challah comes in. They sample out their bread, which is pretty good marketing since the bread is so yummy. And the first time we went there, the super nice lady at the bakery counter was giving pretty good sized samples of Challah. (pronounced "holla!", but maybe without the exclamation mark) It was so delicious that we immediately bought a loaf even though it was $4. Like I said, allowing me to sample yummy bread is pretty good marketing. I can't resist bread.

So, I decided that maybe, just maybe, I can make it at home for cheaper. Granted I don't have organic flour (yet), but I DO have organic sugar. So there you go. I looked it up and found several praises for this recipe: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/09/best-challah-egg-bread/ And today I dove in and gave it a go.

 

It's pretty cool, this bread only has 6 ingredients, so it's pretty simple.  The main ingredients?  Flour and egg.  This dough has 4 eggs in it, and one egg slathered on top.  PLUS, it calls for 8 1/2 cups of flour.  Sheesh.  But, one thing that I've learned is that here in Utah, at least for me, I should always use 1/2 cup to 1 cup LESS flour than what is called for.  Otherwise my dough is dry and unworkable.  So I used 7 1/2 cups of flour and that was perfect for me.

 

Here's Calvin marveling at our mountain of flour.  I like to measure and put all of my flour in a big bowl, and then I give Calvin a tablespoon to use to help put flour into the mixture.  It's a fun (kinda messy, but not as messy as it could be) way for him to help out.  And he loves helping out :)

After we got everything mixed, we let it rise for 2 1/2 hours.  First I let it rise for an hour, then I punched it down and let it rise for another half an hour.  Then I braided it (which I have to say I was pretty excited with how it turned it.  Though I did have to look it up on YouTube to understand how to do it correctly)  Since this recipe makes two big loaves, I made one a straight braid and one I put into a circle.  The straight loaf I put in the fridge since I read that doing that for one of the risings makes for a better tasting Challah.   

 

But the other one I let rise for another hour, sprinkled some sugar on top, and then stuck it in the oven.  I'm not too patient.  ;)   

 

Isn't it beautiful?  I am so proud of it.  Not too proud that I didn't dig right in, though.  Then I remembered that I should share with Calvin and called him in from the yard so he could enjoy it too.

 

 He loves it! Look at all those crumbs around him.  Though Challah does kind of produce a lot of crumbs because of the crispy, oh so yummy top. 

 

I am really happy with how this bread turned out.  It is very yummy.  Though I do think that next time I will use canola oil instead of olive oil.  You can definitely taste the olive oil, which makes it pretty savory.  But I'm not the biggest fan of olive oil in baked goods.  I think that's because of the fact that before I knew it had such a strong flavor, I substituted it for regular oil in a batch of brownies.  YUCK.  I will never do that again.  So I'm going to be interested to see which way I prefer Challah.

As you can see from the picture above, it didn't take that long for just Calvin and I to eat half of the first loaf.  Maybe, 10 minutes? I don't know. What can I say? This girl likes some Challah! (with or without the exclamation mark)