One of my favorite books is The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking. This gem of a book allowed me to try bread making fearlessly. I’ve been wanting to try making challah, a pretty little braided bread, because the braiding looked simultaneously interesting and daunting. I finally made challah bread last Friday. Before I go on, here’s the disclaimer. . .
Acknowledgement: The full and original version of this recipe can be found in The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking. Feel free to visit their website artisanbreadinfive.com. In addition, I took the photographs from this post. If you think it’s nice enough to use, please let me know.
To make the Challah Dough, I mixed the following ingredients using my stand mixer, allowed it to rest for two hours then refrigerated it until the next day:
- 1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
- 1 tablespoon granulated yeast
- 1 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
- 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 7 cups all-purpose flour
You’ll also need egg wash (1 egg beaten with a tablespoon or two of water) and sesame seeds for the top crust.
I only managed to get a picture of the final product.
Honestly though, I wasn’t very happy with this experiment. In fairness to me and the recipe, the challah tasted right. It just didn’t look right. The bread looked dry. Not sure if I over-mixed the dough with my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, but the dough did not rise as high as it usually would. After baking, I checked the yeast we have and proofed it to make sure it’s still active. It was. Goodness knows what went on. What’s more, braiding it was quite a challenge. Thank goodness there are YouTube videos on how to braid the challah!
So what did I do with the bread? Why, I made bread pudding! Here’s what you’ll need.
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups 2% low-fat milk
- 1/2 cup dried tart cherries – I didn’t have any!
- 1/2 cup golden raisins – Not to be found in our pantry as well.
- 1/2 cup fat-free sweetened condensed milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 large eggs
- 8 cups (1-inch) cubes challah or other egg bread (1/2 loaf)
- Cooking spray
- 2 tablespoons sugar – Not clear whether to use granulated or confectioners sugar, but I used the latter.
You can find the complete and simple recipe that I tested here.
I mixed the milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and eggs in a bowl then added the cubed challah. I let it sit for about 30 minutes. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to remove the crust, so left it alone.
I transferred all the above ingredients to my baking dish then sprinkled some sugar. As I mentioned above, the recipe only said sugar. Maybe I should’ve used good ol’ granulated sugar, but oh well!
As stated in the recipe, I baked it at 325 F for about an hour.
The bread pudding was more successful than the challah bread, so yay! Out of the figurative “ashes” of that failed challah experiment, we ended up with a delicious dessert. No food waste!
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Challah is so incredibly tasty! I love using it for French toast. This bread pudding sounds delicious.
Now you’ve given me an idea, Renee! Next time, challah French toast!