Cause I Ain't No Challah-back Girl

For some reason recently I've been fighting the urge to make bread. I've always been a little... intimidated, perhaps, of yeast. It seems so finicky, and that scares me. However, I found a recipe in one of my Martha magazines from last fall, and it was always hanging in the back of my mind. It was this beautiful circular loaf of bread, and it had apples and honey kneaded in. So delicious. Cut to last week, and I can't hold back any longer. I need to knead. I remember the recipe, and decided to give it a chance. Or, rather, decided to give myself a chance to make it. I made 2 loaves and gave them to neighbors. Of course, that didn't stop me from trying it. I made a tiny loaf for myself to try. I quite liked it! It's a Jewish bread, called 'Challah'. The apples are sliced with a mandoline, and provide a bite of sweet tartness to the bread. The honey is used as more of a glaze, and brings a beautiful color to the load. Now, this is time consuming, but solely because of the letting the bread rise. You can do your normal daily tasks while letting the bread puff itself up. I will tell you that the picture makes the bread looked burned- which it wasn't at all. It was a deep golden brown. Eh.



Recipe: Apple-Honey Challah Bread

Makes: One 9-inch round loaf

Recipe originated from: Martha Stewart Living (http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/apple-honey-challah)

Compliments: Early morning and coffee

Ingredients:
- 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter or nondairy margarine, plus more for bowl, pan, and plastic
- 3 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour, plus more for surface
- 3/4 cup warm water (100 degrees)
- 2/3 cup honey
- 2 large eggs plus 3 large egg yolks
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast (from one 1/4-ounce envelope)
- 2 teaspoons coarse salt
- 1 1/2 tart green apples, preferably Granny Smith, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices (about 1 3/4 cups)

Directions:
1. Butter a large bowl, and melt 4 tablespoons butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat; let cool. Combine 2 tablespoons melted butter, the flour, water, 1/3 cup honey, the eggs and yolks, yeast, and salt in a large bowl. Mix until dough forms. Turn dough out onto a floured surface, and knead until smooth, about 10 minutes.
2. Transfer dough to buttered bowl, and brush with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Cover with plastic. Let rise in a warm place until dough almost doubles in volume, about 1 1/2 hours.
3. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Pat into an 8 1/2-by-14-inch rectangle. Top with apples; knead to incorporate. Return to bowl. Brush with remaining tablespoon melted butter; cover. Let rise again in a warm place until dough almost doubles in volume, about 1 hour more.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, with rack in lowest position. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan. Roll dough into a rope (about 24 inches) on a floured surface. Coil into a circle, and transfer to pan. Butter plastic wrap, and cover dough. Let rise again until dough almost doubles in volume, about 45 minutes more.
5. Heat remaining 4 tablespoons butter and 1/3 cup honey in a saucepan over medium-low heat until butter melts. Brush dough with half the honey-butter. Bake until golden brown and firm, about 35 minutes.
6. Brush challah with the remaining honey-butter. Let cool in pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Turn out loaf from pan, and let cool.

If you don't have a mandoline (which a lot of people dont) then just slice the apples as thin as you can. Grab a hunk of this for breakfast, and drink it with your piping hot coffee. Doesn't get much better than that.

Abby xx

.:EDIT:. I feel like I need to say that this bread isn't hard. The yeast actually is very easy. Just make it happy. Let it rise how much it wants and put it in when it says to. I'm not so scared/intimidated by yeast so much anymore. You shouldn't be either. Lets face it- it makes some delicious things!

Once you warm up to me, baby, I can make you feel hot

Wow! Its been a while since I've been here!

But have no fear- I'm back. I won't waste time on excuses for why I stopped posting- it's irrelevant and won't change that I did stop. Just know that I'll give any warning if there will be a break from now on, and I probably won't post as frequently as I did. Closer to once every week. Still, it feels good to be back.

So! Lets kick it off with a new recipe for me, shall we?

_______________

I should say I feel ashamed of what I did to make this recipe. Except... I'm really not. Let me start from the beginning:

I honestly haven't baked anything for about a month. I've been trying to save money, busy, and whatever other reason. Except suddenly today I have this fire in me- the fire I had all through school. I just wanted to bake. I think my inspiration came from a trip to WalMart earlier today, actually. Rebekah and I sat in the car while my Aunt and Uncle ran in. I noticed while parking-lot-people-watching that everyone was dressed like it was summer- I suppose because of the 70 degree weather we've had the past few days. 'It's winter!' I steamed, irritated that people would wear shorts and flip flops in mid February. But I found myself wishing for summer as the day went on. And then that little nagging voice in the back of my head, urging me to bake. Peaches. Thats what I wanted to use. However, we dont have any fresh peaches (and who would at this time??). So I did the unthinkable. I used canned. Yes. I used canned peaches to make Peach Cupcakes. It's absurd, if not a little gross. But we had them (quite a few cans, actually, as we use them to top pancakes thanks to a tradition started by my DD). So I grabbed a can of peaches and went on a search for a recipe. I found what I was looking for on the Smitten Kitchen blog. So, take that Winter! I can still use a summer fruit, and make a light, warm weather dessert and enjoy it on Valentines Day.

Before I put the recipe in, I also decided to try a new way to line the muffin tin. Parchment paper. I had seen several photos of cupcakes with strips of parchment as the cupcake tin. I looked up how to do it (finding out Martha Stewart was the one who taught everyone online how to do it- surprise surprise). So let me pass the knowledge on to you. Cut parchment into 5 in x 5 in squares. Spray your muffin pans. Squish the parchment paper into said pans. You may have you use something to get them to stick. As you will see from my photos, they don't lay exactly flat on the sides, which is irritating to me. Alas, they aren't supposed to be perfect.



Still, a cute idea. So here are the pictures and recipe for these yummy, summery cakes.







Recipe: Peach Cupcakes

Makes: ~ 24 cupcakes

Recipe originated from: Smitten Kitchen Blog (http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/08/peach-cupcakes-with-brown-sugar-frosting/)

Compliments: A hot summer day, Vanilla ice cream

Ingredients:
- 3 cups cake flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Pinch of nutmeg
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks or 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup dark or light brown sugar, packed
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) buttermilk, sour cream or full-fat yogurt [I used Sour Cream]
- 3 large peaches, peeled, cored, and chopped smallish (I went for a 1/3-inch dice)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 28 muffin cups with paper liners.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg and set aside. Cream the butter and sugars together, beating until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl between each addition, and then the vanilla. Gently mix in the buttermilk, sour cream or yogurt. Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the peach chunks.
3. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes for five minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Since I didn't have fresh peaches, I used just one can. Then I stuck the leftover "juice" on the stove, and let it quietly stew on 'low' while putting the cupcake batter together. After I pulled them out of the oven, I took the juice, which was now a glaze, and brushed it on top of the cupcakes. And THAT is why I'm not ashamed to say I used a can. That glaze is going to make sure the cupcakes are moist, and it adds that extra little peach flavor. And let me just say, these cupcakes are so yummy. They're light, and gooey, and exactly what I needed to bring a little sunshine into my life today. Not to mention, they're easy!

Abby xx

P.S. I realize they're bald- working on that as we speak!