LarryG on 23/12/2015 at 04:18

---

I thought I would take a picture before cutting it, but when I came back with the camera, this is what I found:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2251[/ATTACH]

Well, you can now see how fine textured the bread is.

Challah Recipe

Dough Ingredients
1 cup lukewarm water (around 120° F)
1/4 cup honey
1 package (1 tbs) active dry baking yeast
2 large hen eggs (or 1 duck egg I suppose)
1/4 cup melted and cooled unsalted butter
4 1/2 cups bread flour (all-purpose flour will do if you don't have bread flour handy)
1 tbs salt

Garnish Ingredients
1 large egg beaten with a tsp of water
poppy seeds to sprinkle

Directions

* In a large mixing bowl combine the honey and warm water. Stir until well mixed
* Sprinkle the yeast over the liquid (you can stir in the yeast if you wish; it should dissolve and get frothy as it rests) and set aside to proof (5 mins or so).
* Beat the eggs with a whisk until they get light.
* Add the 1/4 cup of butter and whisk in.
* Mix the egg-butter with the proofed yeast-water & add 2 cups of flour.
* Mix with a wooden spoon until smooth and sticky.
* Stir in the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time.
* If you have a dough hook for your mixer, use it to knead the dough for about 5-10 minutes. The dough should clean itself from the sides of the bowl. Otherwise sprinkle some flour on a board and hand knead it for 10-15 minutes. The dough should become smooth and elastic and not very sticky. Add tablespoons of flour as needed (as kneaded).
* Shape the dough into a ball by tucking the ends under, coat lightly with oil or butter, put into a bowl with plastic wrap over the mouth of the bowl, and refrigerate overnight.
* When you get up the next morning, the dough should have almost doubled in size. Take it out and place it somewhere warm for an hour. It should get up to room temperature and rise a little more.
* Take the dough out of the bowl and beat it down to its original, pre-risen size, and let rest for 15 minutes.
* Divide the dough into four equal pieces.
* One at a time roll each piece on your work surface using the palms of your hands, forming each piece of dough into an 18 inch long rope.
* Lay the four ropes on a cookie sheet right next to one another.
* Take the uppermost (if you have the long side of the cookie sheet towards you) rope and bring it over the next two strands, then back under the strand just above it.
* Take the lowermost and bring it over the next two strands, then back under the strand just below it.
* Repeat until you have braided the whole loaf. This will result in a high tight braid, thicker in the middle than the ends, and about 12 inches long.
* Tuck the ends under.
* Loosely cover with plastic and a tea towel on top to hold it down, and put into a warm spot to rise for an hour.
* When risen to double in bulk, preheat your oven to 400° F.
* Make up your egg wash and gently brush the braided dough with it.
* Sprinkle with poppy seeds to taste (or sesame seeds or finely chopped onion bits or ... )
* Bake for 15 minutes.
* Reduce the temp to 350° F and continue baking for an additional 10-15 minutes. The internal temperature of the bread should reach 190° F and the loaf should be a deep brown and sound hollow when tapped.
* Take it out of the oven and transfer to a cooling rack.
* Guard carefully. Otherwise bits may get cut off before you have taken a photo of your accomplishment.

heywood on 23/12/2015 at 12:51

---

My wife tried to learn how to bake bread for a while, and I was into pizza dough. We were never really satisfied with the results from hand kneading or bread machines. The bread machines didn't produce dough with enough structure and resilience. The result was appropriate for making dense breads only. With hand kneading, I always seemed to end up over-working the dough before reaching a uniform consistency. It's possible I just suck. But from what I've heard, you really need a good mixer, which we didn't get because it seemed like too big of an investment.

nickie on 23/12/2015 at 23:48

---

Is that really 'banking' powder, Sly?

I'd quite like to know if these recipes are going to be organised at all in the OP. I still haven't got around to doing more than the baked risotto but I know I'll want to.

SlyFoxx on 24/12/2015 at 23:06

---

Yep...Garrett stole tons of it.

faetal on 25/12/2015 at 14:33

---

Because there are only 2 of us, I'm making roasted chicken rather than the traditional goose or turkey. Not doing anything special with it, just rubbing some butter on it, sprinkling some salt and pepper on the skin and roasting it filled with my maternal family recipe stuffing.

The good part, which I'll share, is the carrots. I peel them, cut them into thick cross sections (about 1-2 cm) and place them in the roasting dish with 1 or 2 chopped onions (I usually do 1 red and 1 brown - shallots are also nice), sprinkle over a couple of table spoons of balsamic vinegar and them liberally sprinkle a fine layer of sugar. Then I place the chicken on top and roast the whole thing like that, while basting the chicken with the liquid every 20 minutes so the carrots get roasted into a sweet balsamic taste with the chicken juices and the chicken skin has a twang of sweet balsamic (faint, but there) flavour. For the final 15 minutes of roasting, I transfer the carrots and onions to their own tray so they can get crispy. Final product, sweet balsamic roasted carrots and onion.

Bellissimo.