One reason I’m philosophical about making the Hated Challah is because it’s not our ONLY Yom Tov bread option this time around…!  Yup, I’m making Roasted Garlic Potato Bread.  Just ‘cuz I love it so.  Love love LOVE the idea of swishing up a potato with yeast and flour, then tossing it into my brand-new economy-sized (aka tiny) cast-iron dutch oven (no brand name, which is a bad sign:  $30-something at The Bay). I also wanted to metricize / weigh-icize my favourite / easiest recipe for this bread. By the way, if you’re hesitant about making something with this much garlic, don’t be.  The garlic is pre-roasted, which mellows it, and it really is barely discernable in the final flavour of the bread.  On the other hand, if you want a REAL hit of garlic, consider roasting TWO heads of garlic to double the garlicky goodness.  Or roast some garlic afterwards and slather it on top! No-Knead Roasted Garlic Potato Bread Originally from Artisan Bread ...

Why did I decide to make a NEW challah for Yom Tov? Am I asking for problems??? This is Aliza Sussman’s challah , the second-prize winner in the ChallahCrumbs.com challah contest. To begin with, the recipe reads weirdly: I had no clue what Shtybel #2 flour is (Israeli bread flour, as it turns out), or how much was in “2 bags” (2kg). Then, she also asks for “1 pack of fresh yeast”… umm, how much is in a pack? (50g, which seems like a LOT for the proportions here) Finally, she says, “Add the ingredients one at a time and mix by hand after each ingredient is added.” Mix by hand after adding four eggs to over 2kg of dry ingredients?? That is a LOT of work. The water called for is only “1 ½ - 2 cups of warm water,” with the comment “want good consistency.” Gee, thanks. I shouldn’t have taken it on, and definitely shouldn’t have dived in no questions asked. Actually, I did ask a few of these questions in the comments field below the recipe, but they have since been delet...

Full description, steps and product mini-review at my regular blog .        

Why the weird dates? Click here to find out! OMG, fresh naan on Yom Tov! Nothing fancy at all. Basic batch of AB5 no-knead “boule” dough, stirred up on Tuesday. Oh, wait, not so basic… in place of all-purpose flour, I substituted half chapatti / durum atta flour. Anyway, I mixed it up, then stuck it in the downstairs fridge. Hauled it upstairs on Thursday morning, when I had the good sense and timing NOT to make the naan immediately, but instead condition it slightly with a stretch and fold operation, then let it rest another 45 minutes. Finally, rolled out the basic recipe into 20 about-equal circles (yom tov: kneading, yes, weighing, no, even with a non-digital balance). Pan-fried dry on my new teflon pan – they DO work if you fry them on a regular pan, but I got lazy and didn’t want to take the chance of sticking. They almost all puffed up beautifully – the gorgeous “full balloon” look I love so much. Served still-warm, our guests quickly gobbled them up with two ...

This recipe jumped out at me the other day while flipping exhaustedly through my mother’s well-thumbed-by-me copy of A Blessing of Bread :  Pan de Calabazas – Sephardic Pumpkin Bread.   The book describes it as a sephardic Rosh Hashanah bread, but I figure with pumpkins just coming into their own right now, it’s perfect for Sukkos.  Plus, Ted loves anything with pumpkin! I am reminded of the Ashkenazi custom to dissolve a few threads of saffron to give your challah a lustrous yellowy-orange colour (perhaps in times and places when egg yolks were not as plentiful?).  In this case, though, the pumpkin (she says you can also use a sweet potato) also adds moisture, hopefully making for a long-keeping bread. Here are the steps to creating this gorgeous orange challah. Autolyse/slurry:   Fold laundry, come back 1/2 an hour later.   Add in all the other liquids… (nice and sweet, but light on the egg; my favourite!)   Then dump in the ...

At Elisheva’s special request:  everybody knows the best part of honey cake is the sticky top layer.  So what better way to bake honey cake than in a muffin-top pan??? Ahh… perfection.  Honey cake …that’s only an inch thick!   (I’m also baking regular-sized cakes for Yom Tov tomorrow night!  These really just used a bit of “spare” batter.)

Why the weird dates? Click here to find out! Twenty-five hours without bread?  Oy! Believe me, only when I’m fasting… and the fast itself was actually bracketed by a) a yummy challah, and b) some yummy Dempster’s parbaked baguettes, heated up quickly on my stone after the fast.  So it was probably not much MORE than 25 hours without bread. And we’ll definitely make up for even that 25 hours with all the festive meals in the coming two weeks, just begging for really special sweet challahs…