Bread

Feathery Challah

A challah with milk bread texture.

This recipe makes 3 small loaves as written, one of which can be finished by us in an evening. You can also create 2 medium loaves for a larger group and/or French toast leftovers.

Once I figure out how much flour I'm adding by weight, I'm intending to try tangzhong with this recipe as well.

Ingredients	Step
¼ c. water 2¼ t. yeast 1 t. sugar	Proof the yeast by stirring together in bowl of stand mixer. Let sit 10 minutes, until activated and foamy.
1¼ c. water 1 large egg, room temperature 3 large egg yolks, room temperature (reserve 1 egg white for egg wash) ⅓ c. honey 2 T. oil 2 t. salt	Add to the proofed yeast and whisk together thoroughly.
4½-6 c. flour	Add flour by half-cupfuls, mixing by hand and then kneading together by hand or by machine. Stop adding flour when the dough is soft like a marshmallow, sticky like a Post-It note, and has more structure than a batter. It's better to err on the side of a softer dough rather than harder, since the gluten will have time to develop and we'll have a chance to add more flour while working the braids.
	Boil a saucepan or kettle of water, of no particular volume.
	Grease a bowl with oil. Drop the dough in, then flip it so that all surfaces are greased.
	Cover the bowl with a clean, damp kitchen towel. Place dough in turned-off oven. Place boiled water beneath the dough bowl.
	Let dough rise in warm, moist oven until doubled (roughly 1 hour).
	Punch down the dough. Let it rise again in the oven until doubled (roughly 1 hour). Retain the warm, moist environment for the braid to rise!
	Lightly flour a surface. Remove the dough from its bowl. Divide the dough into 3 even parts. Grease two freezer bags and store one dough part in each, then freeze the two bags for another day.
½ c. raisins or chocolate chips (optional)	Knead the third of the dough you're baking today by hand for a few minutes, possibly kneading in ½ c. of mix-ins.
	Line cookie sheet(s) with parchment.
	Create strands. Flour the outside of the strands. Braid challah on cookie sheet: For a tall six-stranded braid: - Far right, move over two - Second from the left, move over all - Far left, move over two - Second from the right, move over all
1 egg white or egg 1 T. water ½ t. salt	Beat until smooth. Use a pastry brush to apply a thin layer to the braid. Reserve the leftover egg wash!
poppy seeds (optional)	Sprinkle on top, if using. Then cover braid with greased plastic wrap. (If the braids are well-floured, a cloth might be sufficient.)
	Let braid rise (in the warm, moist oven if available, otherwise on the countertop), until the bread keeps an indent when you poke it rather than popping back (30-45 minutes).
	At around 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
	Once the bread keeps an indent when you poke it, bake challah for 12 minutes, apply another layer of egg wash, return the challah to the oven with the opposite side to the back to encourage even browning, and then bake for another 10 minutes. For bigger braids, increase the time. The target internal temperature is 190 degrees.

To work from frozen dough, move the dough from the freezer to the refrigerator the night before you want to bake. The next morning, it should be thawed. Continue the recipe from the point of turning out the dough onto the floured surface and braiding it. Fry the egg wash for breakfast or a mid-morning snack.

Source: Tori Avey; six-strand braid instructions from Lindsey in the Smitten Kitchen comments

Cornbread

A sweet and moist cornbread (that is, a cornbread that we actually eat more than 1 slice of).

The original recipe calls for ½ c. white sugar, but we found that version was too sweet to stand up to butter and a drizzle of honey, so I cut it in half.

Jalapenos and cheddar are welcome additions!

Ingredients	Step
	Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
¾ c. yellow cornmeal 1 c. flour ¼ c. sugar 2 t. baking powder ½ t. salt	Whisk dry ingredients together in a bowl.
1 c. milk ¼ c. oil 4 T (½ stick) butter, melted 2 T. honey 1 egg 1 egg yolk	Whisk wet ingredients together until incorporated.
	Pour wet ingredients into dry, then stir until just incorporated. Let sit 5-10 minutes to hydrate.
	While waiting for the ingredients to hydrate, butter an 8x8 pan.
	Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake 17-30 minutes, until starting to turn golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Don't overbake.
	Cool 10 minutes, then slice. Serve with butter and honey.

Source: Melissa Stadler at Modern Honey

Pan de Cristal

Very similar to the ciabatta recipe -- but this recipe does not require preparation the day before, and it uses a slightly different folding method.

Between starting and being able to cut into the bread, you're probably looking at about 8 hours, with the first 2 hours of that period requiring regular but brief attention. You'll need to be home to pay a few minutes of attention to this bread every 20 minutes, so it fits into a Pomodoro workday best (just like the ciabatta).

This bread goes well with broccoli sandwiches and with basically any soup.

If the bread goes stale (it is such high hydration that it is likely to go stale easily), reheat at 400 for about 10 minutes to recover it.

Ingredients	Step
500 g. bread flour 500 g. warm water ¾ t. yeast 2 t. (10 g.) salt	Mix until homogenous. You want the (extremely slack, pourable) dough to have an internal temperature of 72 degrees.
olive oil 2 rectangular baking dishes	Oil a rectangular baking dish. (It does not need to be oven safe.) Pour dough into the oiled pan and cover it with the other pan. If it seems cooler than 72 degrees Fahrenheit, put it in the oven with the light on. Let it rest 20 minutes.
	Bowl fold: Using wet hands, fold the dough from the edges to the center repeatedly, until it can't take it anymore (8-12 times). Cover and let rest 20 minutes.
	First coil fold: Using wet hands, reach under the middle of the dough and lift it until it no longer touches the dish. Fold it in thirds (there's a video on the KAF site). Rotate 90 degrees and repeat, until the dough won't take it anymore. Cover and let rest 20 minutes.
	Second coil fold. Cover and let rest 20 minutes.
	Third coil fold. Cover and let rest 20 minutes. (Or, if it's already extremely tight, skip the fourth fold and move directly into resting for 80 minutes.)
	Fourth coil fold. Cover and let rest 80 minutes.
	Flour the surface, and very gently turn the dough out onto it, trying to not deflate it and trying to maintain the rectangular shape. Divide the dough into 4 pieces. Place each piece of parchment. Let rest at room temperature, uncovered, for 2 hours. (You can rush this, but if you can wait 2 hours, you'll get the most open crumb.)
	At least an hour before baking, place two cast iron skillets on the bottom rack of the oven and place the other rack toward the top of the oven. Then preheat to 475 degrees.
	After about 2 hours, when the loaves are light and airy and you can see some large bubbles on the surface, transfer 1 loaf to each cast iron skillet. Bake them for 15 minutes, ignoring the other 2 loaves for the moment. They should see some nice oven spring! After 15 minutes, transfer the loaves to the top rack to bake for another ~10 minutes (this lets the cast iron heat up again for the next round).
	Repeat with the last two loaves.

Source: Martin Philip at KAF

Pretzel Bites

From nothing to pretzel bites in under 90 minutes.

Some people think these deserve beer cheese....

Ingredients	Step
300 g flour (2½ c.) 6 g salt (1 t.) 1 t. sugar 7 g yeast (2¼ t.) up to 1 c. warm water, depending on ambient humidity	Combine all ingredients. Knead until normal bread dough texture (sticky like a post-it, soft like a marshmallow). Cover the mixing bowl and let rest for 30 minutes.
3 c. water 3-4 T. baking soda	While resting, prepare the baking soda bath. In a very large saucepan, heat and stir until the soda is totally dissolved. Set pan aside to cool to room temperature (no warmer than lukewarm).
	Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a work surface.
	Prepare a baking sheet. Because of the baking soda bath, the pretzel bites really like to stick and to overcook on their bottoms. I've had the best luck with a well-oiled silpat mat on a light-colored air-gap baking sheet. Ungreased parchment paper produces papery bites.
	Divide the dough into 6 pieces. Roll ropes and cut pieces. Drop the pieces into the baking soda solution, swish them around, and let them sit for a few minutes. The longer they sit, the more they'll lose their integrity and the darker and more "pretzel-ly" they'll cook up.
coarse salt	Transfer the bites to the baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt.
	Bake 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.
3 T. butter, melted	Brush with melted butter, then flip the bites and brush their bottoms too. Transfer to rack to cool.

Source: Charlotte Rutledge (KAF)

Wool Roll

I keep making this one. It's so pretty...

It takes 4-5 hours start-to-finish.

Sometimes the bread filling gets a chemical flavor, and I suspect it's the cream cheese. Next time I make this bread, I want to try a savory filling that I know will bake well to check this flavor source hypothesis. Getting a higher end cream cheese that isn't stretched with filler might also help.

Other filling ideas: use jam instead of freeze-dried fruit; cinnamon/sugar/butter/raisin; coconut/cream cheese/chocolate chip; Nutella/cream cheese; garlic butter; onion/garlic/sundried tomato; basil/garlic/parmesan; hatch chilis/Colby Jack

Ingredients	Step
3 T. water 3 T. milk, whole preferred 2 T. bread flour	Combine in a small saucepan. Whisk until lump-free. Then cook over medium heat, stirring, until thickened and paste-like (~2-4 minutes).
tangzhong ½ c. milk	Transfer tangzhong to the bowl of the stand mixer. Stir milk on top to help cool it.
2½ c. (300 g) bread flour (often I need to add more) 1 egg 4 T. butter, softened 1 T. (9 g) yeast ¼ c. (50 g) sugar 1 t. (6 g) salt	Mix to combine, then knead until soft & smooth (tackier than a post-it, sticking somewhat to the walls of the mixing bowl, but not a batter and not sticking to oiled hands).
lightly greased bowl	Shape the dough into a ball. Let it rest in a lightly greased bowl, covered, for 1-1½ hours, until puffy. It won't necessarily double.
4 oz. cream cheese (half package), at warm room temperature 2 T. sugar zest of 2 lemons pinch of salt	Mix until smooth.
2 T. freeze-dried fruit 2 T. flour	Mix until berries are completely crushed and evenly distributed.
	On a lightly floured surface, gently deflate the dough. Divide it into 4 pieces (~170 g. each). Shape each into a ball. Cover and let rest 10 minutes.
9" springform or round pan	Line with parchment. Lightly grease the parchment and sides of pan.
	Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll it into a 6"x12" rectangle. Portion ¼ of the filling (2 heaping tablespoons) onto the top half of the rectangle. Spread it down, leaving the last 5"-6" bare. Cut the uncovered dough into very thin strips. Fold the long edges in so the filling can't seep out; pat gently to flatten. Roll toward the uncovered strips, lightly press the strips into the log, then place the log (seam-side down) into the pan along the outside edge. Repeat.
	Cover and let rise 60-75 minutes.
	Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
milk	Brush the roll with milk (be careful not to deflate it). Bake 28-32 minutes, rotating partway through, until 190 degrees and golden. Remove and cool on rack.

Source: Molly Marzalek-Kelly from King Arthur Flour

Pamela Toman

Feathery Challah

Cornbread

Pan de Cristal

Pretzel Bites

Wool Roll

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