Challah Back Girls!

Sorry, couldn't resist the cheesy title.  After posting my first blog on Challah,  I was asked by one of my fellow Goddess, also named Sarah, if I could show her how to make this delicious bread.  Wow!  How cool!  Someone wanted me to show them how to make Challah!  I was flattered and excited to share the experience and to also do some catching up on girl talk.  So last Friday Sarah came with her flour and yeast in tow and we got down to business.  It was a rocky start as neither of our yeasts rose to the occasion.  I learned that yeast is like Mama Bear.  The water cannot be too lukewarm or too hot.  Ours was too hot and dead in the water.  Thank goodness we had exactly enough to re-do. Yeast can be finicky so it's always good to have extra on hand.   Half cool and half hot water works like a charm.  Once we overcame the yeast scare we mixed in our other ingredients and went straight into the arm workout, kneading.  Here are our perfectly round kneaded doughs.  Mine is on the left and Sarah's is on the right.  

Another interesting discovery I made was that the textures of our doughs were different.  Mine had a consistency more like play dough (not as thick of course) and hers was a bit more soft and pliable. This was due to the flour.  Here is a link from Cooks Illustrated that delves into the subject of flour provided by my super smart and beautiful Aunt (although 4 years my junior) Cassie. I was using the Trader Joe's brand whole wheat flour and Sarah used a different brand I can't remember the name, only that it started with an H.  When sifted, more of the wheat bran of my flour went through the sieve and less of the bran from hers.  

Never the less they turned out spectacular!  Sarah's Challah is on the left and mine is on the right.  Beautiful right?  So the moral of the story is:
1.  Make sure the water temperature for your yeast is juuuuust right
2. The brand of flour you use can make a difference in texture
    and
3. That making Challah for the one's you love always makes them feel special and gives you the  warm fuzzies inside. 


Thanks Sarah A. (omg she has the same last initial as me too! haha) for coming over and kneading bread with me.  I felt like a proud Mama.  Keep up rollin' out the dough!


Challah!