Rosh Hashanah Apple Challah

Happy New Year! Well, the Jewish new year that is.  Today is Rosh Hashanah and I took the day off from school so that I could go to services with my family and then have lunch with them.  It is going to be a lovely day and I am excited for some family time.

I kicked off the day with a nice 3 mile run.  This week also happens to be the week before the Chicago Marathon and therefore my final week of taper before the big race!  This will be my fourth marathon!  I can't believe it and I feel so positive and strong.  Running has become so important to me and I love that I have accomplished so much.  It was especially nice to run 3 miles this morning after sleeping in a little longer than usual because of my day off!

Last night, we went to my brother's house for a Rosh Hashanah dinner.  I have been obsessed with my new bread maker and so I decided to make a challah to bring to the dinner.  On Rosh Hashanah, you eat round challah because it represents the end of a year meeting the beginning of a new year.  You also eat apples and honey because you want a "sweet" new year.  So, I made a Round Apple Challah!

Round Apple Challah

Ingredients:
Dough:
3/4 cup water
2 eggs
3 tbsp canola oil
3 cups bread flour
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp SAF yeast
Filling:
3 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
1. I used a bread machine to make the dough and all you have to do is add the dough ingredients, in order, and then press start.  If you don't have a bread machine, you can add all the ingredients to a stand mixer and mix everything together and then knead for 8-10 minutes, let it rest for about 30 minutes, then knead again and let rise in a warm place for an hour.
2.  To make the filling, toss the chopped apples with the lemon juice, honey, and cinnamon in a bowl, and place in the fridge until you are ready to use it.
3.  Once your dough is ready, place it on a lightly floured surface.  Using a rolling pin, roll it out until you have a rectangle about 18 inches by 12 inches.
4.  Place the apple filling on the dough rectangle and press it into the dough.  Then, starting with the long side, roll the dough into a long log.  Make sure the seam side is facing down.  Roll the log out so that it becomes a few inches longer.  Then, wind the log around so that you have a circle.  Tuck the end of the dough under the circle.  Place your round challah in a 9 inch cake pan and let rise for another hour.
5. About 15 minutes before your challah is done rising, preheat the oven to 325 and make sure the rack is in the center of the oven.   Sprinkle some sugar over the challah and then, bake the challah for 40-45 minutes.  Let cool for about 20 minutes before removing from pan.

Enjoy :)

Thanksgiving Stuffing

This stuffing recipe was amazing! I adapted it because we decided against stuffing it into the turkey, but it was simply fantastic.  I am definitely going to be bring this one to the Thanksgiving table in the future.

In other news, I am currently watching Gossip Girl.  I haven't been into this show since high school, but something about it is drawing me in this season.  Plus, I don't really feel the need to get a good nights sleep lately.  This week is funky because the students had testing today and all I did was help hand out books, calculators, pencils, and whatnot.  Then, I got to get a lot of work done for both my university classes and 8th grade classes.  I'm feeling pretty relaxed about now.  On Wednesday, though, I am getting observed.  I'm a little nervous because I'm trying out a new sort of classroom arrangement for an activity, but I am also excited because I think that my lesson plan looks really good and thoughtful.  Finally, I am supposed to find out where I will be teaching next semester any day now.  I am extremely excited and nervous.  More on that as soon as I get details!

Sorry about my random ramblings.  I guess I am just a little unfocused, it must be the gossip girl, or the fact that I am still STUFFED from the crazy Thanksgiving Feast I had this weekend.  I mean...check out this stuffing!

Thanksgiving Stuffing (adapted from the Food Network)
serves about 40

Ingredients:
2 loaves Challah bread, cubed into 1/2 inch pieces
2 quarts chicken broth
8 oz mushrooms
4 cups chopped white onion
4 cups chopped celery
4 cups chopped green pepper
4 tbsp vegetable oil
4 tbsp salt
12 oz dried cranberries
8 oz chopped pecans
8 eggs, beaten
8 tsp dried rubbed sage
8 tsp dried parsley
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Pour the chicken broth into a large saucepan and heat until simmering.  Place the mushrooms in the broth, remove from heat, and let sit, covered, for 35 minutes.
3.  Place the copped onion, celery, and green pepper in a large bowl.  Toss with the vegetable oil and salt.  Spread the vegetables out on a cookie sheet and place in the preheated oven for 35 minutes.  During the last 10 minutes, place the cubed bread on top and continue to cook.  
4.  Reserve 1 cup of the chicken broth and then drain the mushrooms.  Chop the mushrooms and place in a bowl with the rest of the roasted vegetables and bread.  Mix in the cranberries, pecans, and season with sage, parsley, and pepper.  Pour the beaten egg over the mixture and toss to combine.  Place the stuffing in a baking dish and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.  Serve warm.

Also, you can pour some of the cooked turkey juices over the stuffing.  This will moisten the stuffing up a bit and make it taste as though it was cooked in the turkey!

Enjoy :)

Challah French Toast-Plain/Strawberry-Nutella/Blueberry/Peanut Butter-Banana

I made a TON of challah the other day for the May Daring Bakers' Challenge.  We had some at dinner, we sent some over to our neighbors, and still I had two whole loaves lying around.  So then, I got to thinking, what can I make with this challah?  The first option, that I'm sharing here today, came to me pretty quickly: Challah French Toast.

Challah French Toast is the best kind of french toast in my opinion and I thought it would be perfect for breakfast over Memorial Day Weekend.  I made three kinds of french toast: Regular, Blueberry Stuffed French, Raspberry-Nutella Stuffed, and Peanut Butter Banana Stuffed French Toast.  Everything came out beautifully and the clear winner for being just amazing was the Raspberry-Nutella guy.

Challah French Toast

Ingredients:
4 egg whites
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups skim milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
12 slices of challah (I used my Honey Whole Wheat Challah)

Directions:
1. Lightly grease a frying pan and set over medium heat.
2. In a large bowl with a flat bottom, whisk the egg whites, eggs, milk, vanilla, and salt.  Add in the cinnamon and nutmeg and other spices that you might want.
3. Cut the challah into 1- 1 1/2 inch thick slices.  For the stuffed challah: Spread and place the fillings in between two slices of bread to form a sandwich (Nutella and thinly slice strawberries, creamy peanut butter and thinly sliced bananas, and blueberry greek yogurt).
4. Place the slices of bread in the bowl with the egg batter and make sure both sides get coated.
5. Fry the bread in the pan, greasing as needed, until lightly browned on both sides.  Mine took about 3 or so minutes on each side.  Serve with additional fruit/syrup/powdered sugar.
Enjoy :)

It also works out nicely that you get Red White and Blue Challah :)

May 2012 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Challah

Today is the day I get to share my first Daring Bakers' Challenge!  The May 2012 challenge came from Ruth over at The Crafts of Mommyhood.  Ruth's challenge was to make challah.  When is saw that this was the challenge I got pretty excited.  This was something that I knew about since I am Jewish, but I had never made it before from scratch.  I couldn't wait to get started.  Ruth provides some awesome history on challah bread as well as examples of different ways to braid the challah.  The only mandatory items were to make an enriched bread and to braid it.  I decided to make a more traditional honey wheat challah and then a less traditional blueberry challah.  Most challah recipes make two loaves as it is tradition to provide two loaves of challah on Shabbat so that you have enough for all of Shabbat (you can't "do work" on Shabbat, so you need to get all the preparations done before).  Therefore, I ended up with four loaves of challah.  I'm going to have to think of some fun ways to use up all this bread!

I decided to have a traditional Shabbat dinner for my family and I did it all.  I made the challah, an awesome apricot chicken dish, and some yummy homemade pasta with a white wine mushroom and broccoli sauce.  We gathered around the table, poured the wine, lit the candles, said the blessings, and dug in!

Honey Whole Wheat Challah (adapted from Ruth's Go-To Whole Wheat Challah which was adapted from D's Whole Wheat Challah)

Before Rise

After Rise

Oven Ready- 6 Strand Braid and 4 Strand Round

 Ingredients:
4 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tbsp honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3 large eggs
2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
2 tsp salt
extra flour for kneading
Egg Wash:
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
-beat all the ingredients together in a small bowl

Directions:
1. In a large mixing bowl, mix warm water with honey.  Mix in the yeast and let it sit for 5 minutes, until foamy.  Mix in the brown sugar, butter, and eggs.  Mix in the flour and the oats.  Mix until just combined and then mix in the salt.  Knead the dough in a stand mixer with the dough hook for 5-10 minutes and add flour as needed (haha no pun intended!) The dough should be smooth and elastic. Form dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl.  Cover the bowl with a clean towel and place in a warm, dry place (I put mine in the oven with the light on).  Let the dough rise for 2 hours.
2.  After two hours, punch the dough down (literally punch it) and then recover with the towel and let rise for another hour.
3. After an hour, punch the dough down again and divide it in two.  Braid the challah as you want and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. (I braided one loaf with the six strand braid method and the other with the four strand round method).  Then cover the two loaves with a towel and let rest for about another hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 and once the loaves are ready, brush with the egg wash and bake for 30-40 minutes.  The challah is done when it is lightly browned and sounds hollow when you tap it.

Enjoy :)

Blueberry Challah (adapted from The Challah Blog)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 tbsp agave nectar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
extra flour for kneading
1 1/4 tsp salt
frozen blueberries (or dried-I think dried would have worked better)
Egg Wash (same as above)

Before Rise

After Rise

3 Strand Braid

Just out of the oven

Directions:
1. In a large stand mixer, mix water with agave nectar.  Mix in yeast and let sit for 5 minutes, until foamy. Mix in the eggs and oil.  Mix in the flour.  Once flour is incorporated mix in the salt.  Switch to a dough hook and knead for 5-10 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic, add flour as needed. Form dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl.  Cover the bowl with a clean towel and place in a warm, dry place.  Again, the oven is good.  Let the dough rise for 1 1/2 hours.
2.  Once the dough has risen, turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead in the blueberries.  Divide the dough in two and shape both loaves as desired. (I braided both loaves with the traditional three strand braid method).  Place the loaves on a parchment lined baking sheet and cover with a towel.  Let rise for another 30 minutes or so.
3.  Preheat the oven to 350 and brush the loaves with the egg wash.  Bake for about 30 minutes and check often to ensure the dough isn't getting too brown too fast.
Enjoy :)