T's "Challah (at your girl) Bread"

This post is horribly, horribly delayed. My cousin T came to visit me in February of 2014. I took a day off work, and we baked. She is an excellent baker, and has been covered in many prior posts, I am not. So she took mercy on me and tried to teach me not only to bake, but to BAKE BREAD. The best kind of bread. CHALLAH BREAD. 

For those of you uninitiated in to the ways of Judaism, this is the type of bread traditionally eaten every Friday night/Saturday morning in Jewish homes. It's sometimes referred to as "egg bread" because there are eggs in it. It does not taste like egg, but has a wonderful, light, doughy texture which is sweet, and a perfect vehicle for things like hummus, schnitzel sandwiches, Thanksgiving leftover turkey sandwiches, and also makes delicious french toast and bread pudding. For those of you who have been initiated--this is a GREAT recipe. No joke.

What you will need (makes three medium sized challot):

Note: If you double the recipe, you will end up with four LARGE challot

-2 cups of 105-115 degrees water (to activate yeast) Water is 111. Just right.-1/8 c. Fleishmann's Active Dry Yeast (also known as "yeasties")-1/2 tbsp. white sugar-1/2 bag of King Arthur's flour (2.5 lbs) - 7 cups-1 c. white sugar-3/4 tbsp. kosher salt-3 eggs -3/4 c. Canola oil

Total Prep Time: 3.5 hours (this includes 2.5 hours of proofing time, so you can get other things done)
Total Cook Time: 35 minutes

First step: Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Open the oven door when it gets there. Bonus: If you make this during "actual winter" it will heat your kitchen for you. 

Combine water and yeast in a medium glass or metal bowl. Stir in 1/2 tbsp sugar. The sugar acts as food for the yeast, who are just waking up from their slumber in the glass jar/packet.

Place the mixture on the open oven door and let stand for 10 mins. The mixture should be bubbly, that's how you know you properly activated the yeast. They are now awake and snacking. Turn off oven.

Place flour in a large bowl; remove 1 cup of flour and set aside for other uses. Stir in 1 cup sugar and 3/4 tbsp salt, mixing well. Push the flour against the sides of the bowl, leaving a well in the center.

Pour the yeast mixture, 1.5 eggs (you can mix all 3 eggs together first in a bowl--we will use the rest of the egg later),  and 3/4 cups oil into the well; mix until you can no longer stir it.

Knead the dough with your hands until it no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl. The dough should be smooth and springy. If the dough is still very sticky, knead in a small amount of flour until it is smooth.

Fun fact: My cousin has a nice manicure at all times.

Brush the top of the dough with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and a dry towel. Let rise for 1.5 hours in a warm room.  (If your kitchen is cold, preheat your oven to 200 degrees, turn the oven off and allow just enough heat to escape so that the oven isn't hot. Place the dough in the oven to rise).

During this time frame, you can do many things. We were industrious and baked other things, but my vote was for a mid-day Mimosa. You only take a stay-cation once in a while, right?

After 1.5 hours, take the dough out and see what a fluffy monster you've created.

Roll the dough out on to a floured surface and begin to punch the sticky mess down. This is a very therapeutic part of baking. 

We're punching.....

It's beaten. It's cowering.

Now, you divide the dough int the number of challahs you want. We made three, so we had three lumps of dough.

Then, you take ONE lump of dough, and you separate it out in to three long strands.

Then, here comes the part where summer/cheerleading/dance camp will affect your ability to be a master challah baker. The braid.

Yup. You braid that bread. I'm waiting to see an "Elsa Braid Challah" but I'm pretty sure my cousin can manage it. I'm going to one day sponsor a "braid" competition with some carbs. Sounds like a fun competition to me! 

Here's the point at which you have to decide HOW MUCH challah you really need immediately. For example, we decided to bake all three challahs (I think my gluttonous reasoning was something like,  "T, I will not share my challah with you, and I will not share my challah with J. Better we make three challahs so everyone has their own.") But a more prudent decision would have been to make one challah and see how we felt. Two if we were feeling risky. If we had made more prudent decisions, we would have wrapped the doughy challah braids in plastic and foil and frozen. Then we could have thawed and followed the rest of these directions.

Once you have decided you want to BAKE a challah, brush the challah with the remaining egg wash. Everywhere you put the egg, it will turn a delightful golden brown, so make sure you aren't sparse with your egg wash.

Then, you let the challah rise for 45-60 minutes, uncovered. This is another good opportunity for a mimosa.

Now, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and put the challah in for 25-35 minutes. Watch the top, and watch the bottom. When they are golden brown and sound "hollow" if you thump the bottom, they are ready. Let them cool, then serve them and see the amazement all of your guests have when you say "yes, I made this from scratch!"

Thanks T for the recipe and the fun! 

Bubbe Elaine's Honey Cake (as modified by Dr. Carol)

This past week marked the beginning of the year 5775 for members of the Jewish faith. The Jewish New Year, known as "Rosh Hashanah" (literally, Head of the Year), is celebrated in Jewish homes with sweet foods, traditionally sweetened with honey, to help us with our hopes for a sweet new year. Fortunately, weight loss is not typically a "Jewish New Year Resolution." 

This honey cake recipe was created by my grandmother, Bubbe Elaine, and was so good that it appeared in her Sisterhood's cookbook up in Syracuse, New York. The recipe was subsequently handed down to my mother, Dr. Carol, who makes it every year. However, in the time that she has had the recipe, its been modified to include substantially more liquor than Bubbe Elaine's original...

This is the version of the recipe that my mother taught to me. It requires you to have a good collection of liquor, but can be easily modified if you don't want to fail a breathalyzer after eating a slice. Best part of this post? Dr. Carol is actually making the cakes in the pictures. She has great jewelry.

One recipe makes 4 medium-sized cakes baked in loaf pans. 

Prep time: 30 minutes

Bake time: 50 minutes

What you will need:

3 1/2 cups flour (note: we needed to add a little more flour...perhaps because of how much *liquid* Dr. Carol put in the mixture...)

1/3 cup coffee

1/3 cup pulpy orange juice
3/4 cup canola oil (or other vegetable oil)

1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

3 eggs

1 lb. orange blossom honey (an extra little dollop won't hurt either)

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. lemon peel (dried, found in the spice department)

1 tsp. orange peel (dried, found in the spice department)

1 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. ground mace

Slivered almonds to top the cakes (not pictured--I forgot about them until the end)

1 "cup" Southern Comfort brandy (Note: This is the only liquor that appeared in Bubbe Elaine's recipe)

B&B (or any other type of Brandy you prefer)

Triple Sec

Cointreau

Wild Turkey American Honey (or other honey liquor)

Canadian Club whiskey

Preheat your oven to 350. Spray four medium sized (Dr. Carol likes the disposable kind the best) loaf pans with Baker's Joy or some other non-stick baking spray and set aside.

Pour the honey into a large mixing bowl. 

Then, add the coffee, oil, sugar, orange juice and eggs. The next step will be adding the "cup" of Southern Comfort. This is Dr. Carol's version of a "cup" when it comes to Southern Comfort:

I'm pretty sure there was an extra slug added after I took this picture, too.

Start mixing on a low-medium speed (my Kitchen Aid stand mixer came in very handy for this recipe, especially with the pour shield, since there was quite a bit of splashing at the beginning). Add the flour to the mixture as it mixes, about a cup at a time.

Once the flour is mixed in, add the rest of the dry ingredients (baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, lemon peel, orange peel). This should all keep mixing on a low-medium power.

Next, it's time to add the rest of the liquor. I can't give you exact measurements for this; it's really how alcoholic do you want your cake to be. Dr. Carol gives each bottle a good splash. I personally like the taste of the honey liquor the best. 

Let the mixture continue to beat for another few minutes and scrape the bottom with a spatula to ensure the sugar and flour are not sticking. The batter is ready when it's slightly thick. If you find that the batter still seems very runny (as in, it drips right off the spatula), add a little more flour (1/2 cup or so) and continue mixing until it seems more like a cake batter consistency. My mother claims that the reason her measurements were off were because I had a different brand of flour than she uses at home; I contend that it's because she put more Southern Comfort in when I wasn't looking.

Once your batter is the right consistency, pour into the readied loaf pans. You want to pour until each loaf pan is about 1/3 of the way full.

For toppings, pour sliced/slivered almonds down the center of each loaf pan. If you don't like almonds, you can use other types of nuts, or even raisins or other types of dried fruits.

Pop the loaf pans in the oven at 350 for about 50 minutes. Depending on your oven, you'll want to check them at around 40-45 minutes with a toothpick/testing device to see if it comes out clean in the middle. Once it does, remove from the oven and transfer to cooling rack.

Let the cakes cool in their pans for about ten minutes before transferring directly to a cooling rack. Continue to let cooling for about 20-30 more minutes, then serve and enjoy!

World's Best Hamentaschen

The Jewish holiday of Purim is coming up in mid-March, and one of my favorite cousins is visiting me to escape the "thundersnow" occurring in Chicago, where she lives, so we decided we would bake. Her mother (my aunt) happens to be the creator of the "World's Best Hamentaschen" and she has so graciously provided this recipe to my cousin, and by proxy, to me. These are delightful shortbread/butter cookies that are triangular shaped and filled with things like apricot, raspberry, and nutella. What's not to like? They're traditional for this holiday and people go nutso for them!!! So without adieu...The World's Best Hamentaschen:

Total Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Cook Time: 20-25 minutes

What you will need:

5 cups all-purpose flour (in red mixing bowl)

1 tbsp baking POWDER

1/2 tsp salt

4 eggs

1 tbsp lemon juice
1 and 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup canola or vegetable oil
a little extra flour to flour your rolling surface
a rolling pin
whatever fillings your heart may desire (examples include Nutella, Apricot pie filling, raspberry pie filling, cherry pie filling, prunes, poppy seed filling for the old school bubbes out there).
A cup with a 3" diameter opening, or some other round cookie cutter that is 3" in diameter

A brief digression about the fillings for these hamentaschen: My cousin swears that if you are going to use a fruit filling, Solo is the best brand to use. However, we could not find Solo raspberry filling, and I really wanted raspberry. So we tried the Duncan Hines "Comstock" brand of raspberry filling. We found it to be a bit runnier than the Solo, but otherwise, just as delicious. So don't be afraid to use the alternate brand.

Preheat oven to 350.

Ok, first step is mixing your flour with the salt and baking powder in one mixing bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon.

In a separate bowl, mix your four eggs, sugar, lemon juice and vegetable oil.

Next, add the egg/sugar mixture to the flour mixture, and mix well. NOTE: Although this turns into a sticky dough, do not be tempted to use a stand mixer or hand mixer. I have been instructed that this "over mixes" the dough and turns your hamentaschen into mediocre cookies.

At this point, go preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Come back to your cooking surface and lightly flour the countertop.

Pour the hamentaschen dough out on to the floured surface and begin rolling until it is approximately 1/4" thick.

Use your 3" diameter cup to make circles in the dough. Try and fit as many on the dough as you possibly can, but don't kill yourself. We'll do this several times.

My aunt sent along my very own "hamentaschen cup" for this demonstration

Remove all of the excess dough between the circles and toss it back in your mixing bowl. We're going to roll it up and roll it back out to re-circle cut after we make the first round of hamentaschen.

On each of your circles, take about 1/2 of a small spoon's worth of filling and place in the center of each dough circle.

You don't want to "overfill" because they will become runny and leaky, which does not qualify for "World's Best Hamentaschen."

Then, here comes the tricky part. You will pinch the corners of the circles together to make triangular shapes. My cousin instructed me by telling me that you don't want to "smash" them together, but rather, you just want the edges to meet. Like this:

Continue filling, squishing, and re-rolling your dough until you've gone through as much as you can, and place cookies on ungreased baking sheets.

Put in the oven for approximately 10 minutes, then switch racks so the cookies get a chance to bake evenly. Cook again for another 10 minutes, then check on them. If you have a lot of hamentaschen in the oven at once, you'll need a little more time (just a few minutes), but if there are only a few, 20 minutes can do it, depending on your particular oven. Just know that at 20 minutes, you better watch 'em like a hawk. Then, when they are lightly golden on the edges or creases, you know they are ready. Take them out of the oven, place on cooling racks with a spatula, then serve and enjoy!