Challah

It has been a few months since Brett, the resident yeast expert, has made anything with yeast.  In fact, I've been making some serious strides to match his expertise by making lots and lots of pizza dough. But finally, inspired by Giada at Home and a Mother's Day breakfast we are planning for my mom, Brett got the urge to get up and make some Challah, which is a traditional Jewish bread made with eggs.

If I were the one making the Challah, I would have talked about it for a couple of days.  However, I was just watching T.V. and assumed that Brett had got up to get a drink of water.  When he took a little longer than water requires I asked, "What are you doing in there?"

"Making Challah," came his matter of fact response.

As he prefers for his yeast projects, I stayed out of the way. He came and showed me his fist imprint after he punched down the risen dough. I watched him cut the dough into thirds using the bench scraper he got for Christmas. And he required my "girl skills" when it came time to braid the bread. I pretty much just pointed and told him what strand to put in the middle.  One strand was way longer than the others, so he made three little knot rolls.

Before rising:

After rising:

We did not having any extra eggs, so Brett had to forego the egg wash that gives Challah its characteristic sheen.  The final product looks dark and dull, but believe me, it was perfect on the inside.

The little knot rolls were my favorite.  If we ever have some big special occasion meal, I think we should make Challah knots. Of course the actual loaf was delicious too.  I'm looking forward to having this again soon ... in a very different form.