A Bread By Any Other Braid

Don't ask me what called to me about this one.  I just woke up in the morning, sort of tired and was struck by a great desire to bake bread.  And, wouldn't you know, the library brought that baking book back to me.  Finally and at last!  I can make some progress through that darn book!

But what sort of bread should I craft?  Sure, I could make plain white bread and not buy it at the store.  Actually, that would be quite a good move for me.  But what if I end up with air bubbles everywhere?  That would be extremely sad.  Taking a flipping roll through 'The Art and Soul of Baking', I landed on Challah.  It’s a beautiful, braided, golden bread that I have seen so many times in the bakery and, though it has aroused my curiosity, I have only had it once at Christmas dinner when one of my zias brought it over.

So I broke out the eggs to get started... And dropped them on the kitchen floor.  I stood in the kitchen looking down at that egg and was quite beside myself with a quite temper.  I cleaned the darn thing up (not quite broken everywhere for the membrane on the inside had not given way) and heaved a heavy sigh. 

The grocer was pretty kind about giving me more eggs to use and laughed with me about my clumsiness.  That made it feel much better.


Baking 101 with 'Sur La Table'
Chapter 1: Yeast Bread and Rolls
Dairy Challah Bread

I did not follow Kosher law in that I used milk in place of water to activate the yeast.  I did, however, still use oil.  I'm pretty sure it was canola, but it might have been extra light olive.  What can I say?  They sit all cozy next to each other on the shelf and look sort of the same.  Mind you, I am running a little low on olive oil lately... Still, I'm pretty sure that it was canola oil.

Whatever.  That's probably not all that important at the end of it all.  I can be a real stickler on the details sometimes.  Just ask my boss - takes eternity to get any writing out of me because I continually hate everything!  Honestly, it’s a miracle I can turn a recipe and a picture or two into a blog.

Activating the yeast with warm milk and some honey
I have to say that any occasion to break out the honey is a fantastic adventure for me.  I warmed the milk in a glass measuring cup using short bursts with a microwave.  I don't have a thermometer, so I did this until it felt warm to the touch and tasted a little creamier.  Also, I used skim milk because that's what I drink.  (That, and soy milk.  Right, not so important that one.)  Mix the milk and honey in a mixing bowl and then sprinkle in the yeast.

I didn't take a picture of this because, at the time, the yeast didn't seem to be going off like gangbusters in the milk with the frothing and so forth.  I didn't quite think this would be successful... So I didn't take a snapshot for you.  I didn't really think that this post was even going to happen.

Swamp-fingers and the First Rise
Not much to say here besides the fact that the swamp fingers made a triumphant return tour.  Despite oiling of the hands, the dough was still quite loving.  Unlike the last time, however, this one just gathered into a pretty complete ball.  After some delicate massaging to knead the dough, I dumped it in a plastic tub and let the sucker rise.  Thank goodness for plastic bins with lids.  (Go Rubbermaid!)

No Knead, The Second Rise
No kneading the second time around (thankyouthankyouthankyou)!  Lightly flouring a working surface, plop the dough and smack it down to release the air bubbles but, as the book says, don't knead it (or you'll make it much harder for yourself and you'll have to wait for it to rise again).  You split the dough into three pieces and roll it out into even strands.  For me, this was a combination of rolling it against the counter with flat palms and also by squeezing along the length.  It isn't too tricky if you flour your hands first because then it won't stick to you too much.

Pinching at one end, you braid down and pinch the other.  Tuck the pinches underneath and cover it with plastic and let it take a deep inhale.  Second Rise!

After braiding the bread, you cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit for 40-50 minutes.  My oven was making my tiny kitchen quite warm so it took a little less time.  And I was scared that I had killed the yeast... They came through for me all the same! ^__^

Glaze and Bake
Beat an egg briefly in a dish until well mixed.  Using a gentle brush, brush the entire surface of the loaf with the egg wash.  Be careful that it doesn't go pooling in the braid because that is quite a trick to even out (paper towel helps but not much).  Sprinkle the top with poppy seeds or, if you're like me and you don't have poppy seeds (read: I have poppy seeds and was unable to find them on wanting to sprinkle), I used chia seeds for the same effect. 

Chia seeds are pretty similar except that poppy seeds are globular and Chia seeds are very slightly elliptical.  Also, Chia seeds are slightly lighter in colour with a brownish tint and the odd one is an off-white.

Bake it in the oven until it’s a deep rich brown (even on the bottom).  Seeing if the bottom is brown is a little tricky.  I baked on parchment paper so I just lifted up one of the corners to look through it for a darker brown colour.

Cool it entirely on a wire rack (on the windowsill if you want to show off just a little bit more) and the nom it down!

Fresh baked bread on the windowsill.  The window was, however, closed because it was blinking hot outside and it wouldn't have served me any good.  Plus, I couldn't have a mischievous imp running off with it!

I have to say that, all in all, this bread recipe was definitely much higher on my list than the previous bread recipe.  I'm not sure why exactly.  No, that's a lie.  I liked this recipe more because I didn't have to knead the bread a second time and have it stick all over my fingers... again.  I also love that braided look and the deep brown colour.  Given, bread doesn't smell as awesome as cookies in the kitchen.  It does, however, taste awesome with butter, jam... almond butter, Nutella  (They had samples at Costco.  Brilliant!).

Next time I make this bread, there will be bread pudding... Oh, yes.  There will be bread pudding.

Enjoy your baking and keep on being awesome.

I wish you peace, I wish you love and I wish you lots of awesome baking in the kitchen!

Get Into The Groove

Okay, before we get into the experience here, can I be frank with you?  I can't afford a stand mixer.  For this reason, when recipes say:

"Place [insert ingredients here] into the bowl of your stand mixer and mix on low for [insert number here] minutes until light and fluffy."

I respond with a little bit of envy for people who have stand mixers and... a whole lotta resentment because, if they're telling you to do it in a stand mixer, it’s going to be tricky doing it by hand.

With that out of the way, I made bread for the first time ever.  It was hard.  I cursed a lot, especially when I took my hands away from kneading and I looked like the Swamp Thing.  Multiple times.  Wash hands, re-flour hands, dive back in.  Got over the kneading with more flour (be forewarned, you might need more flour!).

With bread, the rising of the yeast is something I always found pretty fascinating.  When I was a kid, I talked my mom into making sourdough.  Turns out, at that age, I hated sourdough bread.  It was not, however, the end product that I was interested in.  I was fascinated by the starter; I had seen it on the tv on some program.

So, let's rehash about baking up some bread.  'Cause I totally took pictures during each stage.  One thing though: the initial mix before the 'resting', I took a better picture without the flash and it came out really nicely.  Then I accidentally deleted it off my camera.  I cursed, I cried and then I felt incredibly silly about the whole thing.



Baking 101 with 'Sur La Table'
Chatper 1: Yeast Breads and Rolls
Nine-Grain Whole Wheat Harvest Bread

I was attracted to this one first because my parents are trying to eat healthier and I wanted to see if I could make them better bread than the stuff that they can buy in the store.  Don't get me wrong; I love my Dempster's rye bread just as much as the next guy, but sometimes a switch up is nice too.

Fascinating detail about this recipe is the use of 9-grain hot cereal mix to get that grainy goodness.  When I went to bulk foods, I could only get 6- or 12-grains.  So I flipped a coin and it came out 12-grains.  So, while this is called 9-grains, it actually should technically have 12-grains.  Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say 12-grains-and-seeds mix.

Activating the yeast with warm water and a bit of sugar
Throw these three together and let the mixture sit for a bit and you get something foamy and bubbly.  It smelled a little bit like when my dad used to make wine in our cellar.  I'm not sure if that's right, but it was certainly bubbly and foamy.

It's alive!  *Insert maniacal laughter here*

Swamp-Thing fingers, the first time 
Yeah, this is the photo that I accidentally deleted so you can only have the flash version.  Sorry, my bad.  Color is a little bit washed out, but it was incredibly sticky and you can see that in the picture.

Yeah, this doesn't make bread look too appealing, but don't lose heart!  It gets better. ^_^

Return of the Swamp-Thing fingers
Kneading by hand the first time was even more frustrating than the first amount of kneading.  What is one to do?  It leads to first rise, however, which is incredibly sweet.  Shown below are before and after photos, just like a dough makeover!

For some reason, the rising of dough like this is something that I find absolutely fascinating.  I am an adult and every time that I watch bread rise I feel like a child seeing something for the first time.  It is sort of an amazing feeling.

Abusing the dough
Turning it out onto a well-floured (and naked) countertop, you smack it down into a disk.  Working carefully (or, in my case, with a little bit of an edge after kneading sticking dough), you bring the edges to the centre and pinch.  You then pick the ball up, turning it over so that the tuck-side is away from you, and continue to tuck under.  Cindy says this is 'creating tension' because, if you don't do it, the shape will be wonky when it rises.  If you like classic movies, you can skip this and you get a blob.  I did not know this.  See, mum, I'm learning!
After that you let it rise again so that it puffs out.

See previous caption.  Needless to say, I really had to resist the temptation to touch it and poke at it!

Bake the bread, baby!
Okay, so the dough takes a breath and then it gets baked.  Below is my loaf that came out as a result of everything.  I was wigging out (in the "I can't believe THIS is what I get for trying SO hard!" kind of way) because my loaf came out a few shades darker than 'golden brown'.  I swear, it’s my oven’ fault for the dark colour.  As further proof of my innocence in the matter, note that the loaf is darker at the back end despite being in the middle.  Anyway, rest assured, it came out okay!  The dark stuff you see is a layer smaller than half of a millimetre (sorry, I don't know the inch conversion! x_x;; ).  My mum described it best as being like the shell of an egg; the darkness that you see is like a very, very thin shell and then the inside emerges evenly and the bread has a nice taste.

This experience has taught me that baking bread doesn't smell quite as awesome as say Banana Quick Bread when it bakes.  The awesome smells come afterwards as it cools on a wire rack in your kitchen!

All in all, props for a great recipe!  It was definitely a great learning experience.  I think one more lesson in bread might be instructive before moving on to the next chapter.  All considerations aside, I'm terrified of layered pastry!

Dear Canadian buddies, I'm sorry its Monday already, but hopefully your long weekend allowed you to bake some awesome or catch some zzz's.  Both are equally awesome activities.

To my American friends, Happy Independence Day!

p.s. I definitely was rocking out to the Madonna song while typing this up.  I figured if I was going to make the reference, I might as well go the whole nine yards about it.  And not in the Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry way. ^_~

Losing The Blog Game

Oh, man.  Where have I been?  It feels like ages since I've posted and it feels good to be back here once again!  I'm hoping that you can overlook this bout that I've had with falling off the face of the earth.  It happens sometimes, particularly when life gets a little bit crazy.  And, for clarification, I mean planet-falling metaphorically; I've not yet been able to master the entire defying gravity scene quite yet!

These past few weeks have been a little nuts.  Firstly, I'd just like to say that - in between reading 'The Girl Who Played With Fire' - I finally got through all the introductory information in my CIA baking textbook.  Yes, its printed by Wiley.  That definitely makes it a textbook.  (Brief aside: What don't they publish?  I mean, really...).  Plus, too, it’s published by the Culinary Institute of America (you know, the other CIA).  I have to say that it was extremely information dense, but I learned some pretty useful stuff.  Like why I've been sniffing honeydew melons since I was six.  Apparently, my dad isn't as crazy as I had initially surmised.

When it came down to baking though, I'm afraid I had to shelve this book.  It is certainly designed for an industry baker.  After all, what does a home baker do with six loaves of bread?!  I believe in generosity, but if I'm baking my way through a book, I think people are eventually going to catch on that I've baked oodles.  And oodles.  And, for emphasis, even more oodles.  I could do the math, of course, but even their own introduction states that simply cutting ingredients in half is not sufficient for recipe success; the recipe must be tested several times.  That would result in even more bread... Yeah, that wasn't going to work.

So I heaved the brick back to the library and set off into the baking/cooking section once more.  Perhaps, when I am old and retired, I will finally own a bakery and I'll return to this book.  Or, in all likelihood, a succeeding edition.  That's right, I dream about owning a really tiny bakery in some small town.  With a really nice ornate store-front like the one in the following picture that I passed while driving to a rented cottage with my parents in Canada!

Isn't it awesome?  I mean, maybe a fixer-uper, but the windows are simply darling!

Anyway, back to baking.

Round 2 of self-teaching is going to be conducted with Sur La Table's "The Art and Soul of Baking" (conveniently located also at the bookstore and! on Amazon => linkage!).  I've read through the introduction and, so far, I have to say that I'm a little more at ease with this book in hand.  The introduction makes the baking seem just as serious as the CIA, but has a more approachable method of communicating as much.  Plus, the recipe yields seem a little more manageable!

Can I confess something else?  I haven't been entirely faithful to baking chastity.  Actually, I've failed horribly and completely!  While, yes, I did break a promise to myself (bad news bears), it resulted in some yummy things!

First off, I didn't eat my bananas fast enough one week.  So I had to selfish-bake - not my first SB and won't be my last - to make sure they went to better use than padding the bottom of my green bin.  What sort of selfish bake, you say?  Banana Oatmeal Cups with Dark Chocolate (I used 80%.  Its pretty bitter, but very satisfying.).  Thanks, GreenLiteBites!

I locked myself out of my apartment and my mom had to drive over with the key.  That, in itself, wouldn't be so bad if she didn't live so far away.  So, in an attempt to demonstrate great gratitude, I whipped up a batch of Lemon Poppyseed Madeleines using not a madeleine sheet but a slightly different one that my mom inherited from her mother.  They turned out nicely, though I have yet to master the art of keeping them slightly crunchy.

Secondly, it was Martin's birthday.  I had no idea what to get him.  Guy friends, I've decided, are impossible to shop for.  "I don't want anything special, really."  Gee, thanks. =/

So, what was I going to do?  What does any sane person do when they don't know?  They ask more questions.  This didn't occur to me until much later.  I baked.

I whipped up Joy The Baker's Browned Butter Strawberry-Banana Loaf in a 9-inch cake pan.  This made me incredibly anxious, which resulted in my hanging out for the entire baking time with a book in front of the oven during a heat wave.  Crazy?  Probably.  But this is one of my bff's we're talking about and, for a birthday, you better believe this thing was going to be better than perfect before I was actually happy about the whole thing. 

The baking didn't stop there, though.  Everyone gets cake on their birthday, don't they?  Even if its Black Forest Cake (which, in theory, sounds like a good plan but I, for one, am not a fan.  Chunks of cherry?  Where does that get fun?).  Decidedly, I had to change the game.  I also baked something a little more experimental on my part.

Ugh... okay, so sugar cookies aren't really all that 'experimental' per se.  I used Emily's awesome recipe for sugar cookies from her blog (which you ought to check out, for serious).  I know, not really all that racey and awesome.  I tried to bump it up a notch with some red food colouring, but ultimately they turned out vaguely more orange.  You can't really see it in the photo, however, I think that might have more to do with my camera.  I'm going to have to pillage my sister once again. 

But, you're right, the cookies.  I used coconut extract instead of almond, which makes them smell amazing!  So my slightly pink, coconut-ey sugar cookies hung out in the fridge while I contemplated how to make them a little more exciting.  Until I noticed an uneaten dark chocolate orange from Christmas.  Brilliant.  I broke it up into small pieces and folded the dough around it.  The result?  Awesome cookies (thanks totally to Emily!) with a dark chocolate surprise on the inside.  Score!

The Great Blog Round-Up: Showing you pictures of the trouble I got up to because when I said I failed at keeping away from the oven, I failed in a major way.  Okay, clockwise starting at top right:  Lemon Poppy-seed Madeleines for the mum who will drive miles just to let me back into my apartment because her daughter forgot (repeatedly) to stash a second key elsewhere; the SB Banana-Oatmeal-Chocolate muffins (even better when frozen and then thawed in the micro); the Brown-Butter Strawberry-Banana Loaf in a cake pan (my first time browning butter!!!); and, lastly, the evolution of the sugar cookie (from harmless blob, it crawled from the watery depths and devoured some chocolate).

Bff's birthday.  Awesome.  Wicked mum?  Well, there's just no topping that.

p.s. The cake went over amazingly.  Millions upon millions of thanks, Joy! <3

Temporary Loss of Groove

I've been gone a while, its true.  I had high hopes of not slacking on my commitment to delivering some sort of recipe every little once in a while, but I've let that one go in a major way.  The fact of the matter is, well, I've lost my groove.

The cake you saw in the previous post just passed the border into the realm of success.  If you believe it, I nearly tossed it and made box-mix cupcakes instead.  Yes, I nearly did.

Since then, I attempted to make Sophistimom's Cherry Panettone (with other dried fruits like sultanas and cranberries because my relationship with candied zest is tart at best) and they dried out in a major way.  My mom told me they were supposed to be that way.  I'm still not so sure about that one.

I did Whole Food Market's Carrot-Walnut Cookies (except I used almonds instead because walnut are not my favourites).  Those turned out great for the oven but, as time went by, they got moist again.  Not a deal breaker, but my kitchen is a little on the warm side and, after a week of baking, they started to grow again and needed to be tossed.

Feeling more than a little bit defeated, I fell back on the tried and true.  I baked up Baking Bite's Lemon Poppyseed Mini Muffins (yum! ^_^) and, feeling a little bit better after that, I baked a batch of Smart Cookies (Alton Brown's The Chewy - baked previously - with Smarties substituted for chocolate chips! ^_~)

All of these haphazard events in the kitchen and I got to thinking about what I know about baking.  I mean, what I really know about the topic.  Turns out that I figure I know nearly almost absolutely nothing!  Not a shock really,  since most of my fav. recipes have been found by trial by fire sort of deal.  Nearly literally.  Well, with the exception of the open flame.

So!  As a student, what is the one thing I know how to do to get knowledge?  Use the bibs.  I got myself down to the library and am now sitting pretty with a copy of 'Baking and Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft'.

Courtesy of Amazon.com (There is also a link above in the text!)

Written by the CIA (the Culinary Institute of America, silly you!), the first five chapters are all about laying some ground rules.  Looks to cover just about everything from the mix to the bowls, so we'll see just how much of this knowledge my brain can soak up and how much of it is going to come through experimentation.  Either way, this should be pretty sweet.

My original plan was to sit down, read, and then bake a few recipes from each chapter as I go through the book.  The problem that arises is that the recipes are provided in weights and not cups.  Weight can be a little touch and go depending on the ingredient so I'm going to read through those first five informative chapters and then make the call on whether to bake or not.

To bake or not to bake?  The true question to ask is 'To bake now or later'?

Keep smiling and stay safe with the oven!


p.s. The 'About Me' page is proving tricky.  Plus, I'm trying to talk my sister into taking my picture.  I think its going to require a batch of Chai Snickerdoodles.  Coercion con cookies?  Yes.  Definitely, yes.