Cinnamon Raisin Challah

I was feeling cold and sad yesterday and I wanted to make something that smelled like cinnamon. I decided to make some cinnamon raisin Challah for toast and whatever. I used half wheat flour. I altered my usual recipe only slightly.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups whole milk
8 tablespoons (1 stick) sweet butter
1-2 teaspoon of cinnamon (I used freshly ground)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 packages active dry yeast
4 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons salt
3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
3 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup raisins (or more if you like)
1/3 cup cornmeal
1 tablespoon cold water
sesame seeds

Directions:
1. Bring 6 tablespoons of butter (I browned the butter and added the cinnamon before pouring in the other ingredients), milk and sugar to a boil together in a medium-size saucepan. Remove from heat, pour into a large mixing bowl, and let cool for 15-20mins.

2. Stir 2 packages yeast into the milk mixture and let stand for 10 minutes (I think next time I make this I may add the raisins at this step to let them plump up a bit).

3. Beat 3 of the eggs well in a small bowl, and stir them and the salt into the milk-and-yeast mixture. I added the raisins here.



4. Stir in 5 cups of the flour, 1 cup at a time, until you achieve a sticky dough. Flour a work surface lightly and turn the dough out onto it. Wash and dry the bowl.



5. Sprinkle additional flour over the dough and begin kneading, adding more flour as necessary, until you have smooth elastic dough.

6. Smear the reserved 2 tablespoons of butter around the inside of the bowl and add the ball of dough into the bowl, turning to coat it lightly with butter. Cover the bowl with a towel and set aside to let dough rise until tripled in bulk, 1 hour.






7. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and cut into halves. Cut each half into 3 pieces and then cut those in half. Roll the pieces out into long "snakes" about 18 inches long. Braid six of the snakes together into a loaf and tuck the ends under. Repeat with remaining snakes. I should make a video of the six strand braid. It's tricky at first but easily learned and looks impressive.



8. Sprinkle a large baking sheet with the cornmeal, and transfer the loaves to the sheet. Leave room between the loaves for them to rise. Cover loaves with the towel and let rise until nearly doubled, about 1 hour.

9. Preheat oven to 350° F.

10. Beat the remaining egg and 1 tablespoon cold water together well in a small bowl. Brush this egg wash evenly over the loaves. Sprinkle immediately with sesame seeds to taste.



11. Set baking sheet on the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when their bottoms are thumped. Cool completely on racks before wrapping. Makes 2 large loaves.

Hen and Corn Soup

I am been taking out baking books from the library. I am trying to find a pastry to impress my mother-in-law without repeating the same Challah. I wanted to make something with an oxtail but I'm not sure I can make something interesting that isn't gross.

Tonight I threw together a soup:
Need:
Cornish game hen (I used frozen)
1 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 diced red pepper
1 large or 2 small carrots cut into coins
2 stalks of chopped celerey
1 chopped fresh jalpeno pepper
3-4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 ears of corn (kernels removed from cob)
salt
fresh cracked black pepper
2 bay leaves

1. Heat 1 tbs of oil oil in a dutch oven. Once the oil starts to sizzle add a chopped yellow onion and cook until tender (3-4 mins).
2. added diced red pepper
3. added carrot coins (from one LARGE carrot or two smaller ones)
4. 2 stalks of celery chopped, salt and pepper occasionally
5. add 1 chopped fresh jalepeno pepper
6. Once everything is seared and tender add some chicken or vegetable stock (3-4 cups)as well as the corn and 2 bay leaves.
7. I dig out a little spot for my cornish game hen and cover and cook on low for about an hour.
8. I removed the hen and separate the meat from the carcass. I use the carcass to make a chicken stock and mix the chicken meat back into the soup. Taste the soup and salt and pepper to taste.
8. You can add noodles, dumplings, rice or whatever starchy thing you like to put in soup. I used left-over bread <3

I wanted to make some variations of dutch crunch so I need to go buy some rice flour. I will take pictures next time.

Quail Egg Russian Orthodox Challah (?)

I think I was beamed here from the distant Barcalounger star. I am, a sloucher who loves to bake. It's tricky because baking is really labor intensive. It requires the kind of commitment and patience that I have never had. Whenever someone praises my baking I simply cannot accept the compliment without feeling like a fake. I am not really the type of person who bakes her own bread. I'm the kind of person who doesn't make her own bread, who made some bread once.

All of that being said, my most impressive baking endeavor must be the Challah loaf: It has the esoteric tribal appeal of a golden-colored Adrian Brody. It just looks pretty darn impressive. It tastes tender and eggy and is wonderful for sandwiches. It can be frozen and mailed. Everyone loves it.




So, this is my usual Challah recipe. I decided one night that I wanted to add dyed quail eggs to make it resemble Russian Orthodox Easter Bread that my grandmother makes with regular eggs:



*Challah*
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups milk (I use whole, or the fattiest stuff I can find)
8 tablespoons (1 stick) sweet butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 packages active dry yeast
4 eggs, at room temperature (Important, take your eggs out of the fridge now)
2 teaspoons salt
6 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1 tablespoon cold water
sesame seeds

Directions

1. Take your eggs out of the fridge if you haven't already. Boil milk, 6 tablespoons of butter, and the sugar together in a medium-size saucepan. Remove from heat, pour into a large mixing bowl, and let cool to lukewarm (105° to 115° F).

2. Stir yeast into the milk mixture and let stand for 10 minutes.

3. Beat 3 of the eggs well in a small bowl, and stir them and the salt into the milk-and-yeast mixture.

4. Stir in 5 cups of the flour, 1 cup at a time, the dough will still be sticky.

5. Sprinkle flour onto the counter. Add additional flour over the dough and begin kneading, adding more flour as necessary, until you have smooth elastic dough.

6. Smear the reserved 2 tablespoons of butter around the inside of the bowl and add the ball of dough into the bowl, turning to coat it lightly with butter. Cover the bowl with a towel and set aside to let dough rise until tripled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.

7. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and cut into halves. Cut each half into 3 pieces. Roll the pieces out into long "snakes" about 18 inches long. Braid three of the snakes together into a loaf and tuck the ends under. Repeat with remaining snakes.

8. Sprinkle a large baking sheet with the cornmeal, and transfer the loaves to the sheet. Leave room between the loaves for them to rise. Cover loaves with the towel and let rise until nearly doubled, about 1 hour.



9. Preheat oven to 350° F.

10. Beat the remaining egg and 1 tablespoon cold water together well in a small bowl. Brush this egg wash evenly over the loaves. Sprinkle immediately with poppy seeds to taste.

11. Set baking sheet on the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when their bottoms are thumped. Cool completely on racks before wrapping. Makes 2 large loaves.

Momofuku Milk Bar Blueberry-and-Creme Cookies

I got the September issue of Bon Appetit in the mail around August 15th. I was really taken with the article about the milk bar pastry chef--well not so much with her but with the recipes. Blueberries really knock me out in just about everything starchy.

This should give you a pretty accurate idea of how I operate: If I'm really interested in something I will get around to making it about a month later. Also, I boxed these up and sent them to my grandmother before I remembered to take pictures.

So this recipe is fairly complicated for me. There is actually another recipe, for "milk crumbs," you need to prepare first to add to the next recipe. Like a story within a story! Not always fun...The milk crumbs are also used in a few of her other recipes so you could double or triple the amount and keep them in the fridge. Bon Appetit recipes are usually all-day affairs for me. I'm not a very experienced cook.

This is the recipe(s) I followed (my notes are in parenthesis):

***

"Milk Crumbs"

Makes enough for 14 cookies (ORLY? My cookies must have been smaller because I got a ton of cookies and I still had extra crumbs left over--not a bad thing.)

* 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon nonfat milk powder (It took me quite a while to find this--the BIG Safeway had it though).
* 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 1 tablespoon cornstarch (I didn't have it, nor did the Safeway, so I used a simple syrup recipe of equal parts sugar to water on the stove for 5 mins. I ended up making this twice. Please reserve another 1/4c. for the cookie recipe below).
* 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
* 1/4 cup white chocolate, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (I just used foil because it still works); set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons milk powder, flour, cornstarch, sugar, and salt. Stir in melted butter until well combined.

3. Spread mixture on prepared baking sheet and transfer to oven. Bake until dried and crumbly, 8 to 10 minutes.

4. Remove milk crumble from oven and let cool completely.

5. Transfer milk crumble to a large bowl and fold in remaining 2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons milk powder and white chocolate (I melted the white chocolate in a double-boiler situation. It didn't turn out quite as liquid-y as it looked in my head when I first read the recipe, but I just smashed it into the crumbs and broke it apart with a spoon and it worked--Definitions of "worked" may vary).

6. Use immediately or transfer to an airtight container and keep refrigerated until ready to use.


---


Blueberry-and-Creme Cookies

Makes 14 cookies (I used a heaping tablespoon of dough this made 3 dozen smaller cookies for me--go figure).

* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 1 cup (8 ounces) Plugra European-style unsalted butter (um, err?)
* 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
* 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons light-brown sugar
* 1/4 cup glucose (I used the simple syrup)
* 1 large egg
* 3/4 cup dried blueberries
* 1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup Milk Crumbs

Directions

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (or foil sprayed with pam, hah!); set aside.

2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment mix together butter, sugars, and glucose until well combined. Add egg and mix until well combined.

4. Add flour mixture and mix until well combined. Add blueberries and milk crumbs and mix until well combined.

5. Using an ice cream scoop about 2 1/8 inches in diameter, scoop dough into balls and place about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.

6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Transfer baking sheets to refrigerator until dough is chilled, about 15 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to oven and bake, rotating pans halfway through baking, until cookies are golden brown and tops begin to crackle, about 15 minutes (pain in the ass).

7. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.

***

They came out pretty crunchy on the sides and bottom and chewy in the middle. They had the salty kind of strudel thing going on with the crumbs and the tart blueberry to break up the sweet. Hubs was impressed with the test cookies. I would make again for special occasions or for a fellow blueberry fetishist. *Thinks about sexy blueberries for a while*