I ain't no Challah-back girl

You're here for the Challah recipe. Welcome. It's ok, I'm here to write it for you and I won't make you scroll all the way to the bottom to get it. LOL. Lets do this:

You're going to need:

Tools

a large chunk of your day (3 rises)

clean countertops

cocktail

mixer with dough hook

bowl for mixer

clean hands (no rona here!)

bench scraper

measuring cups/spoons

whisk

Ingredients

3/4 tbsp Yeast* 

7oz water, warm to the touch

1 1/2 tsp & 1/4 cup sugar, divided. (more on this later)

1/4 cup olive oil
3 eggs (mix up 2, save 1 for later)

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

3 to 3 1/2 cups AP Flour

some sort of pan spray (I use crisco)

First things first. Pour a cocktail but don't get too sloshed. Keep in mind that if you're making this early enough you can eat it the same day. Or you can refrigerate your 2nd rise and bake it off the next day. 

I'm not super good at describing how to braid but this is a 6 strand loaf recipe. Don't let it intimidate you. You are smarter than the dough! You CAN do this! I follow this demonstration < right click on that and open a new window. Once you've watched that video. Then you can start. Go ahead, I've got a cocktail. I will wait for you. Don't skip that step. You'll want to get an understanding before you dive in. 

-- You ready?

Promise?

Cool! Let's go!

You'll need to bloom your yeast. So add your water and sprinkle the yeast and 1 1/2tsp of sugar into the bowl of your mixer that you've fitted with your dough hook. Allow it to get foamy (about 5 min) and then with a hand whisk mix in your olive oil & 2 eggs. 

Add your flour (reserve maybe 1/4 cup or less), sugar, and salt and let the dough hook do its thing for a few min til it starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. If its still sticking, add a little more flour. If your dough is still sticking to the bowl, add in the reserved flour. If you need a little more go ahead and add it in tiny amounts til its no longer sticking to the sides but is still very soft. 

If your mixer is being overworked, just take it out and finish the kneading by hand. 

Spray your bowl and put the dough back in. You want this to rise for about an hour. I covered my bowl with a clean dish towel and my mixer is located above my dishwasher. I was running a load and it gets warm in that corner of my kitchen so I left my bowl there. But move this to an area that gets a little warm. You want that nice rise.

After an hour, punch it down and form your ball again. I re-sprayed the bowl, put the dough back in, and moved it to the fridge so that I could run to Trader Joes for some groceries. Your 2nd rise is about 30 min on the counter. You could do this for an overnight rise as well. IF you're going to do this for an overnight rise, decrease your yeast by a 1/2 a tsp and make sure that you bring this dough to room temperature before shaping. 

Now you're ready to braid. Please refer back to the video. Cut the dough into 6 sections, keeping it as even as possible. I roll them into little balls and then into long snakes about 14'' long. 

Complete your braid. If it makes it easier, braid on your sheet pan. I lined mine with a silpat and its double panned to reduce too much browning on the bottom side (aka burning). 

Cover with a dish towel and allow to rise for another hour. 

If you're like me, take the last 10 min of your rise to remove any stored pans from the oven and turn it up to 350F.

Now that remaining egg you'll need to whisk up and brush all over. This is what creates the golden finish. 

Bake for 30-40 min. Depending on your oven. I only needed 33 minutes. 

This challah is one of my personal favorite recipes. I'd love to try to use the everything bagel seasoning on top of my next batch. I got it at Trader Joe's. But this weekend we wanted french toast. So thats what we did. I hope you enjoy!

*YEAST: If you're still here reading along, I want to fill you in on the type of yeast that I use. I have a, probably, irrational anger at fleischmann yeast, or packet dry yeast. I think they're crap. This my personal opinion. I HIGHLY suggest using Saf-Instant yeast. It has NEVER failed me. Plus its inexpensive and I keep mine in a sealed container in my freezer. 

Urban Farming

I recently watched a documentary called Urban Fruit. It followed a few city dwellers who were fed up with not knowing where their food was coming from and decided to take matters into their own hands. While I can't say that this is something I would ever consider doing (I kill plants), I found it incredibly interesting. I'm a big believer in the whole "farm to table" movement when it comes to fresh ingredients. Food should be whole, in its best state, and unadulterated. Not corporately owned, chemically treated and genetically modified. If I personally knew someone who had a small crop of their own I would definitely help support them. I think that the people that have the time and knowledge to do this are amazing and we need more of them.

Is it good?

Is it good? The question is purely subjective. In America we have culturally appropriated a cuisine based on what WE think it should be. But is it good? If you asked a native Italian to go to the Olive Garden to try "Italian foods" I can almost guarantee you that they would be offended. It's like being in a bad relationship. You go through the motions but there is no heart or soul in it. When I spent 4 years living in Italy, more specifically Sicily, I can tell you this, we have screwed up their food. I've walked through endless markets of produce and fish pondering the potential that the foods hold.

Growing up American when you hear Italian food you automatically go to spaghetti and meatballs. This is not something that you would EVER see on a SICILIAN menu. Even something so simple as pizza is without a shadow of a doubt, substantially better when you char the bottom in a stone oven, paired with a glass of local white wine and over look the Mediterranean Ocean in the bay of Aci Trezza. I've done this. Its fantastic. It's good, very good. But we have bastardized the pizza. It's greasy, chewy, overloaded with toppings and stuffed with cheese in the crust. No. We, as Americans, have ruined the pizza. While there are grassroots movements to improve our methods of pizza making, its safe to say that the American pizza still misses the mark.

Ever tried horse meat? I have. While it wasn't pleasant to my palette, its a delicacy in Sicily. Swordfish. Rich, meaty, buttery. Prawns plucked fresh from the sea daily. Lets not forget the simple cannoli, the creamy gelato, the flakey cornetto (croissant) filled with pistachio cream or nutella.

Sicily. Why did I ever leave?

Taking a stroll through Powells book emporium in downtown Portland is always eventful. I had the opportunity to do so this afternoon on a class trip. It's incredible how many books are packed into this store. Of course my favorite section is going to be the cooking and baking books. Are you really surprised?

Latley I've been really into following the works of Dominique Ansel. I wrote a previous post about his incredible edible creations. Today I stumbled upon a book titled "Dominique Ansel The Secret Recipes". It was a lovely book, simple in design and there was a forward written by award winning chef Daniel Boulud.

As I thumbed through the book drooling over its photography, I stopped on the macaron section. While the photos had me mesmerized. It was the words that caught my heart. "That first bite was always an experience: a gossamer-thin shell that crunched slightly with the gentle pressure of your teeth, which then sank into a moist, tender center with a vibrant burst of flavor." Perfectly describes how it should be when biting into one of these cookies.

One excerpt that had me at the heart strings.. "In a sense, a macaron must live a little and come into its full character with time.." This hit home. Not just in regards to a cookie, but in regards to my life. I've gone through a lot of rough times in the last 2 years. And it's taken me time to rebuild and reinvent myself. I've become a late bloomer because of it. It's interesting to me that it can be said about the macaron. That it takes time to rest, absorb from its surroundings, enrich its flavor before it can be enjoyed by its consumer. Perfect metaphor.

Did someone say creme brûlée french toast?

Quality restaurants in Salem, Oregon are few and far between. But there is one that stands out among the rest. Word of Mouth Bistro on 17th street shines like a beacon of hope in a sad town full of chain restaurants. A typical day for W.O.M starts with a line out the door. In the few years that they've been open, there has been a steady stream of customers that line up and wait for hours. Personally I've waited a few times but the creme brûlée french toast is worth waiting for! They even have turned down an appearance on Food Network's television show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives because they were already at an over abundance of customers. If this diner ever closed down I know that I would definitely be upset as well as those that flock to them for their Steak and Eggs Benedict, house cured bacon, and the before mentioned creme brûlée french toast. They may be a little cafe but their flavors are big, bold and exciting!

More than a Cronut

America seems to have a fascination with food trends. I find that sometimes we overlook the classic delicacies just to have what is new and hot so that we can claim that "we saw it first". Not that its entirely a bad thing, it does create a burning competition inside Chefs to have the next "in" food and has brought us some incredible and inedible treats. America had its first taste of one of the biggest trends in breakfast sweets, the Cronut, in 2014. Its inventor, NYC pastry chef, Dominique Ansel had unknowingly created a monster.

His cross between a donut and croissant was so popular that people were lining up around the block, wrapped twice, just to get a taste. But if you can look beyond the golden, brown, flakey pastry you will see that Chef Ansel is no one trick pony. He has also pumped out creative desserts such as the frozen S'more, chocolate chip cookie shots, a magic souffle, and burrata soft serve in a hand rolled tuille cone. It is my personal opinion that we should definitely be honoring the innovative mind behind these trends more than the trend itself. Chef Ansel is a pastry king.

un cioccolata calda, per favore

Its been a pretty chilly winter here in Oregon. I can't say its been white or freezing but its a nice change up from the dry summer that we had. In the spirit of winter themed recipes, my mind is reminiscing on a delicious Italian hot chocolate that I had when I was living overseas. I want to share that recipe with you.

Picture it, Sicily December 2010. In the small town of Monterosso Almo, my friends and I venture off from our tour group to poke around the village. It was the night of the living nativity and the town was bustling with people. Walking through the labyrinth that was the streets where locals lived, we stumbled upon an empty piazza away from the busy city center. The air was calm and quiet, a beautiful cathedral adorned with statues and lit up for the holidays stood tall in front of us. It was a pretty cold evening and we were in the need for something to take the chill off. Across the piazza was a small cafe that was calling our name. We decided to check it out.

Inside was dimly lit but quaint and inviting. In my elementary italian, I ordered the only thing on the menu that I could understand, “un cioccolata calda, per favore.”  We found a corner booth and sat down for a bit. It was nice to get away from the crowds and just enjoy each other’s company. A few minutes later, the man returned with a cup, a spoon and with what looked like chocolate pudding. Being an American I was expecting a mug of watered down chocolate cocoa mix. But this, this was something special and I am forever ruined.

Italian style hot chocolate is rich, thick and velvety. It can be found, mainly around the holidays and colder months, in cafes and restaurants all over Europe and in different variations. While it’s pudding-like, it is in fact not a pudding as it is made without eggs as a thickening agent. In America, we commonly associate hot chocolate with a powdered mix that you add to hot milk or water. Traditionally speaking, hot chocolate would be made with hot cream or milk and chocolate. While there is really no wrong way to make a cup, the European method may be the most decadent version you will ever put in your mouth.

This recipe for Cioccolata Calda will make enough for 4 servings. You will need to gather a few common ingredients:

• 2 cups of half & half
• 2 tablespoons of cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• ½ of a vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• 6 ounces of dark chocolate, at least 70% bittersweet shaved into shards
• and a pinch of salt.

First things first, shave chocolate into shards or roughly chop if you have chips just small enough to aid in melting. The smaller the chocolate, the quicker the gratification. At this point you can also split the vanilla bean in half and scrape the seeds out with the back of your knife, set this aside. Next, add the sugar and cornstarch into a medium bowl and whisk together thoroughly.  Slowly pour in half of the half & half and whisk together vigorously. This will help prevent clumping later when the cream is hot. Pour remaining half & half into the sauce pan, add vanilla seeds, and place over medium heat. Keep an eye on this, cream burns and boils over quickly. Once steam is appearing from the cream, pour over the cornstarch mixture. Carefully cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture comes just up to a boil and thickens, this should take about 2-3 minutes. Once you’ve come to a boil, remove immediately from the heat. Add your chocolate, and a pinch of salt. The salt brings out the chocolate flavor and balances the sweetness.  Stir gently with a spoon to melt the chocolate and incorporate the flavors.

If you’d like to warm your cups before serving, pour hot water into serving cups. This will keep the cups warm while you’re preparing the beverage. Dump the water out just before serving and dry with a clean towel, then pour about ½ cup of hot chocolate into each cup. Feel free to top this with freshly whipped cream and shaved chocolate. I hope that I’ve been able to share a bit of an Italian Christmas treat with you. Salud! Cin Cin! Buon appetito e Buon Natale!