Fast becoming a family favourite, so I thought I’d post a step by step.  Dunno why; it really is just mix and pour! But first, you’ll need the recipe .  It’s here .   Instead of sifting, sifting, sifting like the author suggests, I just whirred everything together in the food processor with the steel blade.  And instead of measuring out 3 cups of flour, I used (note added 11/30/11:  I think this 305 is meant to be 405g - oy) 305g of all-purpose.  The whirring accomplishes way  more than sifting anyway… blends all the dry stuff together so you are guaranteed no lumps! Once the dry stuff is whirred, toss it back in a bowl and add the beer.  Stir, stir, stir, until it is uniformly wet.  I don’t get a “pourable” consistency as the recipe suggests.  It is thick and sticky when ready. Plop it into a baking pan.  Don’t worry; you oil the bread so much it won’t stick.   Pouring oil over.  The recipe calls for butter, ...

Vanilla challah? Breadsmith:  “Sure!”  Us:  “Nope.”

Mostly just the pics this time, continuing with this week’s Breadsmith Challah, courtesy of Maggie Glezer .  Couldn’t find the recipe online, so I guess you’re just going to have to buy the book – or borrow it from my mother, like I did! Naomi decided to get in on the action, which is great… I haven’t baked with the kids in a VERY long time. This dough is perfect for working with kids.  Gorgeously silky and well-developed, as opposed to my usual no-knead wet dough, it feels almost plasticky, like chewing gum.  No flour needed on the table, and it leaves just the slightest oily sheen on everything it touches.  My hands actually feel nice and soft after working with it for a while! Divvying it up:  exactly the same weight, but even after seeing that, Naomi chose the one on the left because “it’s bigger.”  Thank you, Piaget!   Here she is, “smoothing” it out and getting ready.   Scaling her own little bits and pieces.  Mostly readi...

Being Canadian, I have never heard of Breadsmith.  Apparently, it’s a chain of artisan bakeries in the US which have many kosher locations.  Yay!  Nothing like that here, though. Still, Maggie Glezer speaks fondly of their challah in her book, The Blessing of Bread, so I decided to tackle it.  In fact, she says it was so good she made an exception to her no-bakery-challah rule for the book.  I hope she’s right!  At least, the ratio of sugar to flour looked good (1/3 cup to 4 1/2 cups, which is about what I like; maybe a little sweeter than I like), and it’s not too eggy (one egg plus one tablespoon of beaten egg), which sounds good after months of pretty eggy challahs. Funny:  I just came across this list of “You know you’re a true breadmaker when…” and one of the items on the list is “.... you think making a 4 hour yeasted bread instead of using your starter is ‘cheating’.”  Because that’s what I was thinking as I threw this together in ...

  I love that bread is vegan…           (Taken on Vegan Vursday, a tradition I am trying to create by committing to ONE meatless-dairy-free-egg-free supper each week.  Shown here:  pan-fried frozen-tofu cutlets with braised veggies and mushroom sauce, alongside super-easy super-yummy no-knead focaccia .)

  Hmm… the spell checker is telling me it should be “boccaccio” but I really don’t think that’s right.  What do spell checkers know about bread, anyway??? This rosemary-olive-oil focaccia is apparently swiped directly from “No Need to Knead” by Suzanne Dunaway, courtesy of this site . (phew!  now I can close the window that’s been sitting open all day) It looked  slightly more impressive before I drenched it with too much olive oil and decided (dumb!!!) to gently “pour off” some of the oil.  The dough LOOKED like it was seated firmly in the pan, but of course, being a soft, wet dough on a well-oiled cornmealed pan, it basically sloshed off the pan, folded itself in half and chucked itself right back into the bowl. Fortunately, I was able to unfold it all very quickly so all the cornmeal stayed on the bottom.  It was still drenched in olive oil, but most of it soaked in as it rested on the table after baking. Will report back later with The Flavou...

This Challah has a secret:  keys! I don’t usually explain myself when I do these six-word things, because brevity – as they say – is the soul of 6WS. But this one’s kind of neat:  the Shabbos after Pesach (sorry:  the Sabbath following the holiday of Passover), it is customary to hide a key in the challah. The Yiddish word for key is schlissel , and the challahs this week are known as schlissel challahs .  Some people also (or instead) have the custom of making the challah in the SHAPE of a key – kind of a neat thing, but I decided against that. Actually, when I was making the challahs, I wrapped the keys up in parchment paper but forgot to put them in.  Doh! So I had to gently roll two of the challahs over, slice open the bottoms, stick the keys in and pinch the bottoms shut.  (sounds rude when I put it like that, doesn’t it?!) So what’s the symbolism of the key?  I believe it’s considered a segulah (sign, omen?) for prosperity:...

Are brownies cake ? I feel like I haven’t posted here in forever. I do have a batch of challah on the go, but I decided that because cakes fall within the mandate of this blog, and because this is a super-easy no-mess brownie recipe, I can make a home for it here. (Along with a bit more reminiscence than I usually include on this blog, so I have moved that stuff over to my regular Adventures in MamaLand blog so as to keep this blog entirely baggage-free. Click here if you love the baggage!) These brownies are adapted from a recipe I originally found at jeanfarish.com, a site which has since vanished, so I thought I’d memorialize it here. Note: Decide ahead of time if you’re using solid chocolate (unsweetened, bittersweet or semi-sweet are all fine) or subbing cocoa and oil. Either way, the recipe will be fine; you just have to plan ahead a bit! You will need ONE baking pan; one teaspoon measure and one half-cup measure. That’s all! Nothing else to wash! Preheat...

Sorry, cannot post:  abstaining from leaven!  :-)))