It's Time for the Challah Bread

Ingredients:
 Soak 1 C raisins in Grand Marnier (Overnight).  Chop them up before using.

Dough: Mix and knead in power mixer with Paddle attachment first:
1 C 110'F water
1 Tbsp Dry Instant Yeast
1/2 C Avocado Oil
1 Tbsp Honey
1/4 C Sugar (organic)
2 tsp Salt
3-3/4 C Flour, unbleached unbromated + 1/4 C for kneading
Switch to dough hook:
Add Tangzong - the roux  (see recipe below)
Add 3 eggs
Add 1 C Flour
The dough is quite wet.  Let it Knead for 45 min. or longer to form firm dough. (At speed 4.)

For Tangzong:  Mix 35 g of flour with 125 ml of water in a saucepan.  Have a thermometer ready.  Mix well and cook over medium heat.  While stirring continuously , measure the temperature often to make sure that it does not exceed 65'C (centigrade). Remove from heat to cool, strain, before use.

After good 45 min if kneading roll out to floured surface.  Hand Knead to a ball.  Add little bit more Flour as you roll into a smooth ball.

 Divide into three equal pieces.  Roll into long ropes.

 Optionally, I rolled out one of ropes into elongated shape and enclosed pre-soaked and chopped golden raisins.

 Braid the dough ropes and tuck the ends under.

 Place in a large bread mold with lid, lined with organic unbleached parchment paper.
Apply Egg Wash.  1 egg yolk, beaten with 1 tsp water.

 Let it rise in a covered container lined with organic parchment paper.  Before baking apply egg wash again.
When almost doubled in size, preheat oven to 375'F. Bake 30 min or internal temp reaches 210'F -220'F.

Ahh! Cinnamon Rolls -- the Old Fashion Yeast Cinnamon Rolls

 I have tested quite a few "Yeast" Cinnamon Roll recipes before, but none came quite so good -- they taste dry.  Replicating Cinnabon's cinnamon roll is not quite my goal as I am sure ... the dough conditioners and other stuff to keep them fluffy throughout the day is not quite achievable.  This recipe came from Alton Brown's "Good Eats 2, The Middle Years" cookbook.   If any foodies interested in the science behind how each ingredient reacts and works together, this book is like a "mad scientist" must have guidebook.

And of course, I couldn't just follow the recipe exactly, as I have no buttermilk.  But considering the fact that I have test making the wonderfully soft HOKKAIDO Bread, Challah bread, and Ponchik, I know the secret of the Sour Cream and TAN ZONG.

 For the dough:
4 large egg yolks - room temperature
1 large egg - room temperature
2 oz sugar
6 TB unsalted butter - softened
3/4 C Sour Cream + 2 TB water
20 oz Flour - Divided into two 10 oz
1 /4 oz Instant Dry Yeast
1-1/4 tsp Kosher salt
Mix to combine egg yolks, whole egg, sugar, butter in the mixing bowl with a paddle attachment.  
Add sour cream.  Mix for 1 minute.
Mix 10 oz of flour, yeast and salt together with a whisk in a bowl first.  Then, add to the egg mixture.
* At this point, luckily for me, I transferred my dough to my commercial Hobart mixer.  
*Change to Dough Hook.    Add 4 oz more of flour and knead on low speed for 5 minutes.
Add more flour if necessary.  Knead until smooth dough forms. 5 minutes more.
Mix until smooth.  Transfer to an oil'd bowl.  Cover and let rise until doubled in size.

 

 

Turn the dough over to a work surface.
Knead gently for 30 seconds.
FILLING:
8 oz light brown sugar
1 Tb ground Cinnamon - Ceylon
pinch of Kosher salt
3 Tbsp softened unsalted butter
Mix Cinnamon and brown sugar together and salt
Line a 13x9x2 baking pan with parchment paper

 Form the dough into rectangle shape.  Roll out the dough 18 x 12 inch.

 Spread the softened butter on the dough.  Sprinkle the sugar mixture over it and spread with the palm of your hand as close to the edges of dough.

 Start rolling in the ends tightly.

 Pinch close the edge at the end.  Roll gently to even out the roll all across.   Cut the roll into halves.  Roll gently to even out the roll, again, if needed.  Slice the roll with very sharp serrated knife.
Note:  In this picture the pan size is not 13x9x12.  I don't know why, but I end up using my brownie pan, instead.   Not trusting that it will expand to fill all the gap when double in volume.

 Cover and refrigerate overnight.  Take out and let rise and bake in the morning, or like me, I left it covered in the kitchen overnight.    I came down at 5:30 am in the morning, and there they are all bubbled and doubled in the pan.   Preheat the oven to 350'F.
Cover the pan with a sheet of aluminum foil to prevent top from over browning, if needed.  As for mine, as you can see is "over crowded".  Before the center temperature reaches 190'F, the external crust would have burned, so I covered the pan with aluminum foil for the first 20 min.
Bake at 350'F in the middle rack

 Insert digital thermostat to the center - its done when the temperature starts to reach 190'F.   **Take out before it reaches 190'F.
Simple Icing:
Mix 5-1/2 oz of Powder Sugar  with 2 Tbsp of milk. 1 tsp of Pure Vanilla.
If you have some cream cheese, soften it and add to it.  If not, skip it.
The mixture should be runny but not like water.  The mixture should coat the spoon thick.
Add more powder sugar, if needed.

 Drizzle the icing over the wonderfully baked Cinnamon Rolls. 

 And guess what, they were shared at the office that morning.   Lucky them!

Challah Loaf

I just love this Challah bread recipe I learned during the 2010 holidays. The dough is so soft and tasty, I can use it as a base for many other types of bread. Since I don't have a 'pullman' loaf pan that I really would like my bread loaf to turned it into sandwich style, I improvised two 8x8 brownie pan. I let the dough rise eclosed in 8x8 non-stick teflon coated brownie pan and baked it. It worked out perfectly as 'pullman' pan idea.   The formula for the bread is found here:
https://rockdavinci.blogspot.com/search?q=challah+bread
And here is copy of what I wrote there:
My Challah has some modification to the recipe I got from the Baking Bites' site. I added Tangzong - Flour ROUX to give extended moisture and softness as a test.
Tangzong - Flour ROUX is not my recipe either. I learned it from some of the Malaysian and Singaporean food bloggers. They reference Yvonne Chen, the bread doctor. For example, you can visit Pei-Lin's blog site. http://dodol-mochi.blogspot.com/2009/10/tangzhong-or-water-roux-method.html.
For Tangzong:  Mix 25 g of flour with 125 ml of water in a saucepan.  Have a thermometer ready.  Mix well and cook over medium heat.  While stirring continuously , measure the temperature often to make sure that it does not exceed 65'C (centigrade).  Remove from heat to cool before use.
Since my kitchen is either too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter, to make sure all my mixtures for the dough is at desirable proofing temp, I added my Tanzong roux while at 90'F (Farenheit) into the flour mixture.

Bread dough Ingredients:
Dissolve 1 tsp sugar + 1/2 C warm 110'F water + 1 Tbsp active dry yeast for 10 min. until bubbles form on top.
Manual Mixing (since I kind of gave up using my Kitchen Aid dough mixing function):
Total of flour used in my variation:  'approx.' 3-3/4 C + roughly 1/2 C for kneading
When it's about 8 minutes into the yeast fermentation, start adding 1/2 C oil, 1 Tbsp honey, 1/4 C sugar and 2 C flour and 1/2 C warm 110'F water in a large mixing bowl.
Mix all well together, and add yeast mixture.  Add Tangzong.  And mix all well together.
In the beginning, I was using a spoon to incorporate everything.  You can use spatula or hand, but I know the mixture is very wet, and I was not yet ready to get my hands all occupied, so, you will see the spoon in the photo.  Once the dough mixture is well mixed.  I let it set for 5 minutes.
Bring two eggs to room temperature under warm water and chop 2/3 C of raisins and cranberries in the mean time.
Add 1 C flour, raisins and cranberries in.  Pass two eggs through the mini-strainer to separate Albumen, chalazae, etc. and it's mashed evenly when done in the bowl.
Mix all well again with the spoon or with your hand.
The mixture is really wet.  Transfer the mixture out to floured work surface.
Start pulling and pushing down the mixture.  Adding handful more of flour up to 1 more Cup.
Repeat pulling and pushing down the mixture, scraping and rolling until the gluten is formed.
After an hour of manually 'kneading' the dough this way, the dough's gluten is well developed for me to round it to form a ball.  Ready for the proofing.
Cover with plastic and a cover and place in a warm place to proof until double in size.
*I heated the oven to 350'F and turned it off.  Waited 15 min and measured the interior temp.  85--87'F.  I placed the bowl inside with lamp on.  It took three hours for the dough to rise.
As I removed the plastic cover, the dough deflated on its own.   I did not pound down any further because I want to keep as much air bubble as possible.
Transfer the dough to lightly floured work surface.  Divided it into three equal parts.
Prepare a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.  Set aside.
The dough is soft and pliable.  Gently pull and elongate the dough.  I rolled the dough into a log shape, then, rolled on the surface gently to form into a long rope.  Repeat with the other two.
Braid the ropes and tuck the ends under.
Transfer to the baking sheet pan line with parchment paper.
Beat 1 egg whites with 1 tsp water - egg wash the formed dough.
Spray the plastic wrap with vegalene and lightly cover the dough for the 2nd rise.
I covered my dough with the inverted rectangular plastic container.  Then, placed the sheet pan
back in the oven with light turned on.  Proof until double in size.
Remove from the oven.  Preheat the oven to 375'F.
I  egg washed it again.  Bake until deep golden brown.  Interior temperature read 200'F.
Cool completely.  **The crust of the bread will become tender as it cools.
You can view video of how I managed to knead the wet dough by visiting YouTube - How to Knead Wet Challah Dough - Step 1 of 4

Challah with Raisins and Cranberries

When I visited Baking Bites' blog site, I noticed this beautiful picture of Challah with Raisins.  I love bread, and it seems to be calling me, so I went right to work.  For Challah with Raisins recipe that I made mine from, please visit http://bakingbites.com/2010/09/challah-with-raisins. Since, I did not know what Challah meant, I consulted the Internet and found it to be quite in time for this holiday season.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challah, and I am glad I made it.  My Challah is three rope braid.  And not knowing the tradition, I added chopped cranberries. It tastes very good with raisins. I would like to try making the sufganiyot, like PONCHIK, the next time.

My Challah has some modification to the recipe I got from the Baking Bites' site. I added Tangzong - Flour ROUX to give extended moisture and softness as a test.
Tangzong - Flour ROUX is not my recipe either. I learned it from some of the Malaysian and Singaporean food bloggers. They reference Yvonne Chen, the bread doctor. For example, you can visit Pei-Lin's blog site. http://dodol-mochi.blogspot.com/2009/10/tangzhong-or-water-roux-method.html.
For Tangzong:  Mix 25 g of flour with 125 ml of water in a saucepan.  Have a thermometer ready.  Mix well and cook over medium heat.  While stirring continuously , measure the temperature often to make sure that it does not exceed 65'C (centigrade).  Remove from heat to cool before use.
Since my kitchen is either too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter, to make sure all my mixtures for the dough is at desirable proofing temp, I added my Tanzong roux while at 90'F (Farenheit) into the flour mixture.

Bread dough Ingredients:
Dissolve 1 tsp sugar + 1/2 C warm 110'F water + 1 Tbsp active dry yeast for 10 min. until bubbles form on top.
Manual Mixing (since I kind of gave up using my Kitchen Aid dough mixing function):
Total of flour used in my variation:  'approx.' 3-3/4 C + roughly 1/2 C for kneading
When it's about 8 minutes into the yeast fermentation, start adding 1/2 C oil, 1 Tbsp honey, 1/4 C sugar and 2 C flour and 1/2 C warm 110'F water in a large mixing bowl.
Mix all well together, and add yeast mixture.  Add Tangzong.  And mix all well together.
In the beginning, I was using a spoon to incorporate everything.  You can use spatula or hand, but I know the mixture is very wet, and I was not yet ready to get my hands all occupied, so, you will see the spoon in the photo.  Once the dough mixture is well mixed.  I let it set for 5 minutes.
Bring two eggs to room temperature under warm water and chop 2/3 C of raisins and cranberries in the mean time.
Add 1 C flour, raisins and cranberries in.  Pass two eggs through the mini-strainer to separate Albumen, chalazae, etc. and it's mashed evenly when done in the bowl.
Mix all well again with the spoon or with your hand.
The mixture is really wet.  Transfer the mixture out to floured work surface.
Start pulling and pushing down the mixture.  Adding handful more of flour up to 1 more Cup.
Repeat pulling and pushing down the mixture, scraping and rolling until the gluten is formed.
After an hour of manually 'kneading' the dough this way, the dough's gluten is well developed for me to round it to form a ball.  Ready for the proofing.
Cover with plastic and a cover and place in a warm place to proof until double in size.
*I heated the oven to 350'F and turned it off.  Waited 15 min and measured the interior temp.  85--87'F.  I placed the bowl inside with lamp on.  It took three hours for the dough to rise.
As I removed the plastic cover, the dough deflated on its own.   I did not pound down any further because I want to keep as much air bubble as possible.
Transfer the dough to lightly floured work surface.  Divided it into three equal parts.
Prepare a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.  Set aside.
The dough is soft and pliable.  Gently pull and elongate the dough.  I rolled the dough into a log shape, then, rolled on the surface gently to form into a long rope.  Repeat with the other two.
Braid the ropes and tuck the ends under.
Transfer to the baking sheet pan line with parchment paper.
Beat 1 egg whites with 1 tsp water - egg wash the formed dough.
Spray the plastic wrap with vegalene and lightly cover the dough for the 2nd rise.
I covered my dough with the inverted rectangular plastic container.  Then, placed the sheet pan
back in the oven with light turned on.  Proof until double in size.
Remove from the oven.  Preheat the oven to 375'F.
I  egg washed it again.  Bake until deep golden brown.  Interior temperature read 200'F.
Cool completely.  **The crust of the bread will become tender as it cools.
You can view video of how I managed to knead the wet dough by visiting YouTube - How to Knead Wet Challah Dough - Step 1 of 4
(click on the photo to view larger image and other details)

I can't wait to make some more this!
FYI - After 8 days, a slice of toasted Challah or microwaved for 5 sec or just as is still tastes very good. & as for the Challah with Raisin, it turned out fantastic.