Six Word Saturday: 30 Shevat, 5770
Baking maven Paula Shoyer declares war on kichel. This killer recipe proves her wrong.
Know what the most popular post on this site is, right at this very moment? By far? It’s a post called “ Mmm… kichelicious .” I adore kichel, the dry unsweetened European cookie that has been a staple of Jewish life since… well, probably since someone’s Bubby needed to make cookies and discovered that she was out of sugar. Apparently, thousands of people out there on the Internet love kichel and want to know how to make it well at home. But celebrity kosher baker Paula Shoyer does not. Which is too bad, because in every other way, she’s absolutely perfect. I enjoyed a baking demo she did yesterday at the home of the U.S. ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro. She did a really great job of preparing a couple of basic recipes that I hope to share with you very soon. But the real reason for her crusade to bring simple, delicious pareve baking recipes to home cooks is because, as she said yesterday, “in the U.S., pareve desserts… are absolutely horrific.” Foremost among
Yum...that bread looks good!
ReplyDeleteI think you're right, it's the temperature. Too cold to get the dough going as written in the recipe.
ReplyDelete1. Don't refrigerate this dough at any stage.
2. Make a proofing chamber out of your microwave as I mentioned on the last post, or:
A. Preheat your oven for about 1 minute at 300 degrees, shut it OFF and proof your dough in there.
B. Heat up a cup of water in the microwave. Place it next to the dough and cover them both with either a cheapo styrofoam cooler placed upside down or a big plastic storage box upside down. Or, warm up a beverage cooler you use in the summer with the cup of water or a heating pad and put your dough in there.
C. Or, put some warm water in the bottom of a deep bowl, place the sheet pan with the braids on top of the bowl and cover the braids with a piece of oiled plastic wrap and a towel to hold in the heat.
In the "old days" nobody bought packets of yeast--almost everything was leavened with starter or old dough, and nobody had central heating, either. But they still had bread. So try again but keep it warm.
I use my microwave as a proofing chamber all the time. As long as it has been in there for a decent portion of the proofing time (at least 1/2 an hour), it's OK if a family member has to take it out to use the microwave. I just warm up the microwave again (with a cup of hot water) for the next stage.
I'll still eat it!!! Thanks for playing 6WS.
ReplyDelete