Baking. Sigh.
A few weeks ago, I talked about how my wife went through a local at the food co-op to custom order a few loaves of Challah Bread, which is The Best bread for french toast. The bread was very good, but the punch line was that she forgot to ask price prior to ordering, and in the end she got two small loaves and two larger loaves, with the average per price loaf being $7.50.
Ouch. Hey...the bread was good, it was a custom order the baker doesn't usually make. I have since been to the co-op and seen the price of this guys other breads, and...I guess the organic baking business is not a cheap one to be involved in. Not so much 'angry' and 'taken back and slack-jawed with surprise'.
So...I'm sitting around on a Saturday night with a bee in my bonnet, and I decide to start looking at just how tough challah bread is too make. The answer is...not too tough. Really, braiding the dough ropes appears to be the toughest part of the job. I'm willing to at least give it a try.
To save time Sunday, I made up the dough before going to bed Saturday, and placed it in the fridge to rise overnight, which is EXACTLY what I did the night before Christmas to save time on making some of Brigid's Best Rolls in the World.
The frustration comes from the fact that when I woke up Christmas morning there was a wonderfully raised bowl of dough in my fridge, while this time around, nothing had happened.
Grrr. Now...they are different doughs. I'm not enough of a baker to know if maybe the eggs in the challah dough would mean no risey-risey in the fridge, but...the end result is, since I told my wife what I was doing, I'm not forced to make up a 2nd batch of dough and wait for it to rise on the counter like NORMAL folks, which further means I will frantically be trying to braid it during half-time of the Patriots game later.
I never had any real luck with Challah. It does look really easy when you look at the recipe, but somehow it never turned out no matter what I tried.
ReplyDeleteI have a tough time with bread here because our house is so cold it takes forever to rise and then it dries out as a result. I need to start using a heating pad I suppose.
ReplyDeleteYeah...the rising. Like I said, at Christmas I had not problem getting bread to rise in the fridge overnight. Something about this challah though...I had to sit it on top of the oven and turn the over on low a few times to convince it to rise. Your idea of a heating pad is probably more energy efficient.
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