Ciabatta and Challah

Well, I got confused on the order and ended up making the Ciabatta bread first and then made the Challah. Not sure why.

So, first with the Ciabatta. I made this when my mom was out to visit. It was record low temps so perfect weather to fire up the oven. We looked at the picture of the Ciabatta and our mouths watered. It would go perfect with the Baked Ziti the next night. So we were off to make our Ciabatta. Um, well we attempted to make the Ciabatta. Buffy, I had the same problem as you. Not a hole to be found in the bread. The taste was excellent but it tasted and looked like a dense Italian loaf. I think I know why. Humidity, or lack thereof. It is extremely dry in our house because we have the heater and fireplace on. I didn't compensate for this. For the first time in this whole bread baking venture, my dough passed the windowpane test. Unfortunately, it wasn't supposed to pass the windowpane test. The dough was too dry and not wet enough especially when he says "when dealing with wet dough..." I needed to add more of the liquid. My suggestion would be to use all the liquid that it asks for and maybe then some? Especially if we are doing this bread in the winter. The summer when the humidity is 90% may be another story. I am even tempted to make it again and see if it would work out since I did it so far in advance. Teacher's pet? ;)

My "slippers" proofing on my floured dish towels:

My trusty sous chef (my mom) waving a towel at the smoke alarm for every time I had to open the oven to spray the oven walls with water. Not a bread to make at naptime or late at night!

The finished product (doesn't look a bit like the picture in the book):

The Challah experience was pretty uneventful. We liked the bread and it reminded me a bit of Brioche, maybe because of the amount of eggs in it. We had it for dinner one night with soup and then the kids and I had French Toast the other night. For French toast is was excellent. Nice and dense...it held up to the eggs in the French Toast. As for bread alone it was o.k. Dan said it kind of left him hanging. When he bit into the bread it was like great things were going to happen and then nothing. The bread was dense but the flavor was too light. It was just so-so.

Alright, so there you have the Plain Life's attempt at some Ciabatta and Challah, both of which left me wishing for some Brioche. Mmmm, now that was some good bread!

Holla for Challah!

I'll call it my first "botch"

Ciabatta gone bad is what happened. Very disappointing, but I guess this was bound to happen. It mixed, stretched, rested, fermented, proofed and baked just fine, however it was as dense as Italian white bread without any of those beautiful gaping holes in the piece being dipped in oil on pg. 137. My family ate it up, but it clearly wasn't ciabatta.

What went wrong........here are a few theories but I can't really pinpoint it.

• I mixed my poolish together rather quickly and perhaps I miss-measured?
• I went against my own theory for this book and used my mixer (with breaks for my lovely pink Kitchen Aid so I didn't burn her out)
• Perhaps something went wrong with my modified hearth baking. I used a steam pan and sprayed the walls of the oven for 3 intervals, but maybe it was not enough?

And I was so disappointed, I didn't even take a picture. My husband and daughter have been enjoying it for eggs in a basket. It's been good toast, but again - not Ciabatta. Anyone have success? I want to see those gaping air pockets!!!

Shame on Me

So the 15th of the month has flown by and your untrustworthy moderator has been MIA. I apologize and I hope you all moved to the next bread. If not, quick, you have 4 days to make it! It's (it was) time for some Ciabatta. And apparently I've Americanized this word and have been mispronouncing it. Cha-batta is the correct pronciation. There are three versions that can be made - poolish, big or wild mushroom. And don't forget to read your commentaries on the side.

Next bread.....February 1st!

Stretching It

After taking a three hour nap yesterday, I felt motivated enough stay up a little late and make Challah. This was a relatively easy bread to make. I wish I had read all of the directions before I started. I threw out the egg whites when I used the yolks in the dough only to realize later that I needed those egg whites. After I applied the egg wash I threw out the remaining only to realize that I needed to apply another egg wash right before baking. I skipped the second egg wash.

I did all the mixing and kneading in my Kitchen Aid and it worked great. The dough was a little short of the desired temperature but it passed the windowpane test.

I know I said that I refuse to weigh the ingredients because that reminded me of organic chemistry lab (which I hated with a passion) but when it comes to dividing dough into equal amounts for braiding or bagels I can see the value of a scale. I gave it my best estimate and tried to roll out the three boules. This was harder than I expected. I thought it would be like rolling out playdough. You know, you roll into a ball and then into a log. Instead my dough was very stretchy. It actually reminded me a little of Stretch Armstrong expect it quickly snapped back.

I did get it braided. It was a little fatter in the middle but it looked alright. Since I skipped the second egg wash, I also skipped the sesame seeds.

My bread baked in 40 minutes. I think I baked it a little too long. Usually I have to bake everything near the longest time recommended. The bread was 196° in the center after the minimal recommended time.
This morning we had some delicious French toast with maple syrup. I liked the bread but not enough to make it a second time. I have already made the bagels twice and I plan to make them again. My 4 year old son asked me twice in the last week when we were going to have cinnamon rolls again so I think I will be baking those soon. I also hope to get back to the anadama bread.

I can’t wait to make the ciabatta!

Challah Back

I can't say the word "Challah" in my house with out my husband yelling "Holla back". After about 10 times, I just called it "the braid" in order to save my sanity. Oh these men are so cute and yet...so funny.

I truly enjoyed making this bread and everyone enjoyed eating it. I have to say of the breads so far, I've been most proud of the Bagels and now the Challah. It was a great feeling of accomplishment when I took this beauty out of the oven last night. And like the previous half-baked beauty said...it was so refreshing to have all the ingredients in your house. And just simple and delicious - eggs - flour - yeast - oil - salt and just a little bit of sugar. Love it!


I did stumble a bit at step #2. I've taken a personal oath to knead all my bread the old fashioned way in this book. Silly, but I've enjoyed it. However as hard as I tried, I could not get the bread to register at 80 degrees. 79 was my top and that was quite a workout. Now granted I was on Day 4 of P90X, so perhaps I'm a bit fatigued. But regardless it turned out ok. It was very fun to braid and my 6 year old had fun helping. She also loved how much it grew on the counter before going in the oven and then again in the oven. We had some overnight guests for the Challah debut and it made amazing French Toast this morning and then we had it again with soup this afternoon. EXCELLENT and definitely reminds me of God's Goodness!


(If you haven't made yours, make sure you use a thermometer when baking. Mine was done about 10 minutes early)

Can you say, "Challah (Holla!)"?

So, this is my third bread and my first time to post. Lemmeexplain...I just forget, or maybe I just put it off because it means that I have to write about my experience and to be honest, I'm out of the habit.

I'm amazed that I had all the ingredients in my house, no running out to get some random spice. It was great fun, although I worked through two naps and a lunch and just finished in time for "afternoon tea" with my neighbor. It was a busy day, but I reaped a great reward!

Sorry, no picuters of the process. My excuse: I'm so worried that I'm gonna mess something up that I have tunnel vision and completely forget to take pictures. I even got the camera out and put it next to the "formula book" but I repeat... I was seriously focused.

This is my stellar braiding job. It was a bit challenging; I had to braid and unbraid a couple of times but once I finished... viola! I had to stretch the bread while braiding, otherwise we'd of had a very large bun-like Challah roll.

I've always had trouble with the "window pane test." The dough really didn't pass the test but I've heard over kneading isn't good... it makes the flour angry. So, after 12 mins of my Kitchen Aid working overtime and the dough not passing the test, I decided to get on with it.

Take a blind eye to my dirty oven door; apparently I don't use a streak free cleaner. But my comment to the above picture is, "Don't you wish this picture was scratch and sniff." My house smelled amazing for the rest of the night, even our bedroom smelled like bread.

Mmmmm... I can't believe I actually waited one whole hour until I sliced into this. It's wonderful bread. Although, it's thicker that I've had it... say, from professional bakeries. Apparently, they are masters at the window pane test. It doesn't matter. It's still just plain yummy.

Oooops....next bread

Sorry folks for the delay on the posting of our next bread. Drum rolll......Challah - pronounced "Hallah". Luckily since I'm posting late, this is a straight forward formula with low maintenance ingredients. Challah has some amazing history as you'll read on page 133. It should be inspiring as we knead away....to know this is symbolic of God's goodness. AMEN to that!

Our family often buys Challah on the weekend at a local bread store specifically for the great French Toast it makes. Sure seems like our group likes French Toast so I thougth it would be fun to read about the etymology of the word. Not so much on tradition like some of other breads and good to see that IHOP has input on this history. Oh my!

Happy braiding and baking friends and I hope to post our next regularly scheduled bread on the 15th!

Brioche and Buns

Nothing like a 2 hour school delay to help me catch up on my baking blog! Hip hip hooray for snow! OK so now where was I - oh yes November.....

BRIOCHE
I let hubby choose which brioche he would like to visit our Thanksgiving table. I was surprised but he chose the Rich Man's Brioche. I thought my Italian stallion would go for the meat filled bread - Casatiello. As some of you have mentioned in previous blogs, I put butter on the table and it wasn't even touched. I did buy a six pack of those cute little tart pans to make buns for dinner and with the remaining dough I made two smaller boules. One of our guests for Thanksgiving appreciates food more than your average Joe so I was very excited when he took one bite and said it was the best bread he's ever had in his life - WOW! Now Peter Reinhart was not sitting at my table, but still, I'll take the compliment! Needless to say I sent him home with one of my proud boules and froze the other one for Christmas dinner. FYI - it didn't freeze great, it was almost below average for bread. But I'm looking forward to adding this to my Thanksgiving tradition!

CINNAMON ROLLS
I had hopes and dreams of making these for Christmas day, but the busy season got the best of me and I resorted to the traditional Monkey bread we usually make. It's very simple and low maintenance, which was what I needed Christmas Eve morning as I was looking at my list for the day. So I saved the Cinnamon rolls, as a lot of you did, for New Years Day. I have a recipe for cinnamon rolls that I have made several times in the past from our trip to Hawaii (pre-children). We were in Maui on a catamaran going from Maui to Lanai and they served us these AMAZING gooey cinnamon buns. They had a sweet citrus flavor to them and you definitely needed a few napkins. The captains wife was so kind and e-mailed me the recipe. Now it's actually on their website if you'd like to try it! For many years I had made these to bring to my in-laws house for our Christmas celebration. They live 7 hours up north so traveling with dough for 7 hours is not always easy. Needless to say, I haven't made them since the Cinnamon Bun Tragedy of 2002. Just this past Christmas holiday we were reminiscing on the tragedy of 02. The story goes.......I had diligently made two large trays of cinnamon buns at home. Husband packed them gently in a cooler and off we went on our 7 hour drive. It was Christmas morning and my sister in law gleefully went to the garage to retrieve the buns we had enjoyed for the previous several years to put in the already preheated oven. My poor sister in law walked back in with a look of tragedy on her face. Apparently when they were packed (ahem) they were tilted sideways. AND the ice packs some how melted (by the way they live in upstate NY so I'm still not sure how this happened in December) and the water leaked into the sideways dough balls (is the best way to describe what they looked like). Wow was that a buzz kill or what! We pulled out some Pillsbury (is that a bad word on this blog?) canned rolls and sulked over the loss. And that my friends is the cinnamon bun tragedy of 02. I haven't made them since - recovery I guess.

So after 7 years, I was ready to conquer this new recipe. I was very surprised at the lack of butter in this recipe and actually found a lot of the cinnamon sugar to fall out when I was cutting the buns from the log. I sprinkled it back in as much as possible. Did anyone else have this problem? I liked the dough. It was light, with a sweet taste but just not enough goo in my opinion. Perhaps next time I will make Peter's sticky buns. Oh and instead of using the fondant icing, I used the Hawaiian icing which has lemon and almond extract in it with macadamia nuts. It was nice and light and brought back the memory of sailing on the sea. We taped the ball dropping on New Year's Eve and on New Year's Day at noon we toasted with fresh squeezed OJ and the cinnamon buns with the kids. My six year old was sad she couldn't stay up till midnight and welcome 2010, so we did a reenactment for her sake....highly recommend this! So my overall review - so so - and I'll try sticky next time.

Sweet and Sticky Resolutions

“Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.” — Mark Twain

Like many people, after the gluttony of the holidays, I resolved to eat better and exercise more. But on the second day of 2010, I decided to make cinnamon buns.

They were supposed to be baked in December, so really, I was just upholding an outstanding resolution. Right? Does this mean I’ve already broken my new year’s resolution? Perhaps. But I think I’ll just redefine “eat better” to mean eat quality, homemade foods lovingly prepared. Sounds good to me.. anywho, let’s see how it went, shall we?

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