Baby's first Challah.

As congress killed the economic package, and then dismissed for Rosh Hashana, it seemed only appropriate to make my first attempt at Challah Bread... bread baking being a good skill to have when the American economy collapses and we all return to a primitive bartering system as the Dollar becomes more useful as kindle than currancy.


I took the bread making class at the Yuppy Food Store last week. Primarily because of the four breads being discussed, two were Challah and Cinnamon Rolls... and yeah... can't pass that up.

However - the recipe we did for Challah doesn't make it the way I like it best... so I'll need to play with the recipe as I make more. Tonight however, was just to prove to myself that I could, in fact, make Challah bread in our house.

Adding all the liquids to the starter, with the flour on the left...

I intended to essentially* double the recipe, except then I accidently added to much water - so then, I quadruppled the recipe... four loaves. Lots of flour.

*I say essentially, because you don't just double everything and go to town, not everything gets doubled... when you're baking.


Time for the big bowl...


D took some action shots of me kneeding the dough, prior to it's first Rise.


Oh my gosh - so much dough - so much stiff dough that is hard to kneed.



After the first Rising. Which took longer than it should have, due to a less than ideal temperature in the kitchen. It was find after I put it in a puddle of sunlight by the door for an extra hour.


Time to shape.


Cut and rolled into equal lengths.

Got to squash the top ends together to get started.

Braiding.

And you finish off by pushing the three ends together, then tucking the top and bottom underneath the braid.

Three good lookin' loaves - starting their 2nd Rise.


4th Loaf in a pie plate.


2 hours later.

Having risen again, the third loaf had to be moved to it's own pan. And so it was the first to go into the over.

Above it goes in, below it comes out!

Within not even two minutes, D had already stolen a chunk.



D trying to catch the Steam coming off the chunks... not sure how he thought he'd do that.


The Pie One - alright, but not perfection.

Last two. Perfectly golden - not too dark.
All done.
The prettiest two.