Is this normal –?

Thursday night truly begins only when I do my challah calculations and print out the week’s customized spreadsheet.  I have spreadsheets like this set up for about 6 challah recipes and a few other breads (a sourdough cornbread, the chocolate sourdough I use for sufganiyot and a few more recipes that need scaling up or down at various times.

Every week, it’s a new printout.  I feel bad wasting the paper, but I feel like I have a clean new formula to work with.  What I should do is just keep a copy of the recipe, scaled for x2, x3, x4 etc (x3 makes 5 challahs, plus a bit; that’s what I’m making this week).  I have one hanging around from Rosh Hashanah that has something like x9 on it, and that was half what I ended up making, I think.

Anyway, I do waste the paper, and it may not be normal, but it feels good to start fresh each week… so there.

This is the basic “reliable challah” (eggless) that I make when somebody orders challah (I occasionally and VERY informally sell challah to friends in the neighbourhood…. if you live nearby and are interested).  It always comes out the way it’s supposed to come out.  I have scaled back the salt a bit based on comments, and it can come down a bit more from what’s shown here.

Here’s what I’m making this week…

Reliable Challah, X3:
		0	g starter, of 0g needed
	plus	1200	g bread flour = 10.5 cups (approx)
		825	g ap flour = 7.25 cups (approx)
		1119	g water = 4.75 cups (approx)
		219	g oil
		210	g granulated sugar up to 240g for yom tov
		0	g = 0 large egg(s)
		45	g kosher salt
		30	g yeast
	TOTAL:	3648	g = 5 x 680g challahs, 0 x 450g challahs, and 4 x 60g rolls

My trick the last couple of weeks has been pre-fermenting the dough with a “yeasted autolyse.”  Which basically means I dump in everything but the salt and all-purpose flour and let it sit as long as I want.

Sounds simple?  It totally is.  Sitting for a while before the salt is added actually lets the flour begin the hard work of gluten development – completely untouched!  This means that your dough will need less kneading when you finally DO add the rest of the flour and the salt.

(edited to add: this is not a good “overnight” step because, with yeast and without salt (which inhibits yeast growth), your dough is likely to rise uncontrollably out of its container; what I do is mix it, fold some laundry, then add the rest of the flour and the salt… like maybe an hour later?)

Most autolyse techniques call for just flour and water, no yeast, no nothing.  But that’s just too many steps for me, and this one seems to produce a very tasty challah with almost no extra work.  If you have time and want to play around, by all means, just throw the flour and water together alone first.  But I like my way.  And it’s definitely Thursday night now, and I’m tired. 

Maybe I’ll do try it the “right” way next week.

Rosh Hashanah Challah Bake Sale…

Going, going…

GONE!

Rosh Hashanah Bake Sale?

Well, I have no idea why, but I am putting together a challah bake sale for next Sunday, erev Rosh Hashanah.  With free pickup here or personal hand-delivery in the neighbourhood.

Why bother?  No idea.  I suppose there could be some profit in it, along with some stress and – I guess here’s what I’m hoping: lots of fun, kneading (or not), baking, sharing decent bread.  I may have even finagled my sister Sara into coming and baking with me next Sunday.  I’ll let you know how it goes – if not right away.  I have promised delivery between 3-5 pm, and pickup at 4 pm.  These are awfully tight deadlines, considering I’ve been known to still have challah in the oven at the start of Shabbos and Yom Tov, but I have a really good plan to get things rolling very, VERY early in the day.  All I need is a little sleep and maybe someone else to handle the laundry.  ;-)

Funny thing – I was looking for a picture of a baked, streuselled round challah I could post on the sale page to tantalize potential clients, but couldn’t find a single thing worth sharing after probably more than 10 years of non-stop yom tov challah baking.

Looking again, I did find the one I just stuck in at the top of the post here… which looks okay at first, until you realize that half the challah has been eaten.

Then again, though, perhaps that says a lot about the challah in question.  It’s too yummy to photograph – it doesn’t last long.  If you live anywhere nearby, grab it now, while you can!!!

Six-Word Saturday: 17 Elul, 5770

Why the weird dates? Click here to find out!

Last bake sale for this summer.  :-(

(tomorrow – if and when I get some sleep!)

Double the Basic Boule

Going away for the rest of the week, so I just whipped up some no-knead dough for next Sunday’s final fun fair of the summer.  This is a double batch because the pletzl went so quickly last time.

(Here, once again, is the “Basic Boule” master dough recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.)

I also made a batch of my standard challah.  I’m working on converting the recipe to weight measures, but haven’t gotten it quite right.  Will post it here when I do!

(I have given the “experiment” challahs to grateful neighbours and haven’t even tasted it myself…!)

The best bakey sale day ever!

Well, for me, anyway.

Here’s my menu/sign.  Very windy day; the sign kept blowing over:

These signs just make me happy to look at, for some reason.  Maybe it’s Elisheva’s hand-painted magen david happy faces!

I managed to sell out all the beer bread mix I made, 10 bags, I think, at $3 a bag.  Plus the entire loaf of beer bread, at 75 cents a slice.

Absolutely the world’s BEST pletzl ever!  Here’s a picture of the two I made before baking; I took one with Ted’s camera, I think, afterwards.  They were golden and beautiful and rich and savoury and slightly sweet and ever so amazing.  I used the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day Master Dough instead of any kind of enriched dough.  The only special thing I did was mix it on Thursday night so it had three days to retard in the fridge.

Muffins!  Blueberry, strawberry – both frozen because I didn’t have fresh-picked this time.  About three dozen, a giveaway at 50 cents each!

  

And the “Very Vegan” brownies, which are entirely virtuous until you whomp them with the Tofutti “Better than Cream Cheese” frosting.  Somebody was disappointed because the term “vegan” made them feel like it would be unprocessed and healthy in some other way.  Which is exactly the kind of assumption that annoys me…

 

Anyway, it was a fun day, a sunny day, and I had a great time.  Looking forward to the final one of the summer, the last weekend in August!

p.s. favourite email after the event:  “your pretzel bread was DELICIOUS!”

For recipe links, click here.

Six-Word Saturday: 14 Av, 5770

Why the weird dates? Click here to find out!

 Beer bread mix!  Comin’… get it!

This is for tomorrow’s FunFair bake sale.  And yes, I know it ought to be “come n’ get it.”  But that would be SEVEN words, which is a whole ‘nother meme.  :-)))

Baking Sale

Another funfair at our local park and once again, I’m having a baked-stuff table.  What am I making this time??

• Garden-herb beer bread (more info here and here – still not sure if I’ll sell this or just give samples again to people interested in buying the mix)
• No-Knead Pletzl – a whole one just to see if people buy it.
• Strawberry smash streusel muffins
• Vegan brownies w/Tofutti crm chs icing
• … and Ted’s unbelievably popular Triscuit pizzas

Plus, more beer bread mix to sell!!  I’m going to mix it up ahead of time, ie motzaei Shabbos, rather than at the last second again this time.

Yay, fun, wow!

New Bread Book – New Rye!

While we were in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago, I had a gift card and decided to bite the bullet and buy a no-knead bread book.

They had Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which, of course, I’ve raved about many times here. But I know there were tons of typos (hee hee – I typed “tongs of typos,” just to show you that no-one’s immune!) in the first edition of that book. Plus, they’re all so expensive. I’m no fun when I’m looking at prices of things in stores.

Finally, I compromised with this book, 200 Fast and Easy Artisan Breads, by Judith Fertig, which didn’t look like much fun, but has a lot of good, basic recipes.

Today, I used it for the first time to make the Caraway Rye Dough. I left out the Caraway seeds because I really dislike them, but otherwise made it exactly as written. The formula is very simple – basically, wheat flour, rye flour, water, yeast, salt, molasses. I did cut down the molasses slightly because Elisheva doesn’t like molasses – down to just over 1/4 cup instead of a full 1/3 of a cup.

Above, you can see it rising in my dough bucket. The bucket is overkill for a single recipe like this, but I plan to make pizza dough in the bucket tomorrow night and leave in a bit of the old dough for flavour. It was very nice in last week’s challah; it lent just a hint of more than the usual depth of flavour. (does that sentence even make sense? I am SO hot and tired and bedraggled; blogging from my air-conditioned bedroom on the laptop!)

Oops – formed and rose perfectly, but baked it too long.

I was out at a kiddie birthday party and called Elisheva to preheat the oven, then called again to tell her to stick it in and time 45 minutes. I checked the recipe when I got home – it said 27-29.

The author (Judith Fertig) recommends two tools I don’t have yet: instant-read thermometer and dough whisk. Oh, okay, and a peel and baking stone. Gosh – all-told, I’m about $200 away from my ideal baking setup. Not to mention the closed cast-iron dutch oven everybody loves to bake Jim Lahey’s no-knead bread in (I think that’s the one). Wanty, wanty, wanty.

Anyway, “dark rye” though it was on the outside, the inside was still yummy, moist and delicious. Very hard to cut – is that an effect of the lower gluten from substituting 2 cups of rye flour for the usual wheat flour? I dunno. And once cut, the innards separated too easily from the (delicious) crust, making it hard to butter.

Still, this was easy bread, fast and delicious, and definitely one to consider for my next funfair bake sale. The pastries sold so much better than the breads – I guess nobody wanders through a park looking for bready treats. But the slices of beer bread were very well received, so I figure if I’m selling slices of fresh bread, rather than buns or loaves, probably somebody will take a couple. Especially if I have some nice soft butter available.

As for today’s batch, I still have about half the dough in the bucket downstairs. Maybe I’ll try making rye rolls tomorrow. In future, I’d bake for the recommended time, of course, and also try brushing it with a corn starch and water slurry that I’ve used before for rye breads to give the top a glossy, cracked appearance.

If you’re interested, you can read my full review of this book here. More recipes from it to come. Like I said, it’s not exactly the most exciting baking book – by far, it’s actually kind of dull. But the formulas look okay, and there is a nice range of flavours represented in the book.

It’s SOOPER bakey day!!! :-o

Today’s fun fair at Laughlin Park was so utterly incredible, I almost cannot wait for the next one in July. 

(For more about the funfair itself, and not just the stuff I baked for it, check out my real blog here!)

Here is the menu / billboard Elisheva and I made.  We repurposed from an old school project of hers (you can see the ripped tissue paper around the edges where I (respectfully) tore off pictures of the Mir Yeshiva).

As I posted late last night, I ended up baking Strawberry Streusel Smash Muffins, Vegan Brownies (with Tofutti Cream Cheese frosting), Roasted-Potato Buns, plus Ted made his Triscuit Mini-Pizzas and I offered samples of our incredible Beer Bread to go with the Beer Bread Mix I was selling.

We ate the few leftover roasted-potato buns for supper.  The truth is, they were NOT fantastic.  Freezing dough is still a mystery to me.  Sometimes, it comes out perfect, and sometimes it just flops like a toad on the baking pan and never does rise well.

This was one of those times.  They were dense and tough and chewy.  But people who tried them were very kind and they did actually have a decent flavour; just not the fluffy artisan texture I was hoping for. 

Perhaps a kneaded dough might have kept its rising power better in this case?  I really don’t know.  Input welcome!

But anyway, it was a happy day all-round despite the weird buns.

At 50 cents each, the strawberry muffins sold like CRAZY!  But as a loss leader, they seemed to bring in lots of people and once they were gone, everybody was happy to spend 75 cents for the brownies (pretty small, but the Tofutti cream cheese is expensive, which I felt justified the extra cost).  And at 4/$1, the triscuit pizzas were also the hit of the day. 

I suspect people were looking for something savoury, so next time around, I may throw one more thing in… but definitely more muffins.  Towards the end, when it was 6 pm, people were also probably feeling more supperish and more willing to buy the bread mix and buns.  At the beginning, all they wanted was a snack, but pretty much everything was gone by the end:  perfect!

Here I am, happily tending shop.  This was near the end:  everything was almost all sold out.

Here we were at the beginning (me and Elisheva), our table laden with kosher goodies.  Yum!

  

Notice the crunchy babywearing mama (long blonde hair, bottom right) eyeing my vegan sign and whole-wheat buns?  Do I know my market, or what?  ;-)))

(Want to read more about the funfair, or attend the next one?  Visit my real blog here!)

Six-Word Saturday: 16 Tammuz, 5770

Why the weird dates? Click here to find out!

That’s a lot of potato buns.

:-o

(38, to be exact)

These are for the community fun fair tomorrow afternoon.  I mixed the dough last Thursday, before we left for Ottawa.  It’s been in the freezer all week, and I took it out yesterday afternoon to thaw.  It handled beautifully this evening:  very wet and sticky, but I managed to tame that with a bit of flour. 

I showed Ted a “rustic” bun and a regular round bun and he preferred the rustic model, so that’s what I went with, shaping them quickly by rolling baguettes and just slicing them with the bench scraper. 

Tomorrow, I plan to bake strawberry streusel muffins and vegan brownies.  And sell tomato plants.  And maybe, just maybe, if I get up the energy, pack up and sell beer bread mix (mix = all ingredients except the beer!). 

I figure I can measure out the ingredients batch by batch, then quickly whirl them in the food processor to save time.  Measure, whirl, bag.  I already made up an instruction sheet!

I’d love to bag the kit in paper lunch bags, but may have to go with plastic just in case of rain or other wetness.  Cloth would be utterly charming, but NO, I’m not doing cloth bags.

Now I’m excited!  I hope somebody shows up for this thing…