Bread Makes The Meal

Last night, Herself had some of the challah bread. She made a face :-/ like that. It was dry, she said, and she didn't care for the taste. Oh well... I just realized last night that I forgot to put the egg wash on before baking it. No wonder it didn't look right. Today is Day 10 for the starter, time to feed again. It should be ready for sourdough use by now, according to the recipe; so I'm looking forward to this weekend! Assuming the starter works, that is. I'm, well maybe not pessimistic but at least tentatively skeptical. After that? I'm going through the cookbook as I type—maybe the ciabatta (though I'll need to go buy whole wheat flour) or the Italian batard. Some of these recipes call for kosher salt rather than standard table salt. Am I missing something by using table salt? Maybe. God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

And without much to say, unfortunately. I'm still following the sourdough starter instructions in Everything Bread , which say to feed every 5 days—it just looks awful thin to me. The challah bread actually turned out quite well. It's a bit dry, though; I had thought the eggs would moisten the dough more. I understand why it has to be made without dairy (to keep kosher, since it's historically been made with meat dishes) but I wonder how that would change it—adding a little more fat to it. But I'm happy with it. I'll come up with an idea for this weekend's bread tonight. Meantime, God speed and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

So I decided to follow my friend Candace's suggestion and make challah bread out of Everything Bread (page 85). There were a couple of differences I had from the recipe. The instructions said to use a cup of all-purpose flour and two or three of bread flour—well, I didn't have any all-purpose flour around; so maybe the bread will be a bit stiffer than the recipe. Then, the recipe suggested that the bread might take two hours to double in size, rising at room temperature. I let it rise for an hour, and then we had to run some errands so I put it in the refrigerator and let it rise until we came back about three hours later. It was doubled by then, so I just let it warm up a bit and proceeded with the rest of the instructions. Only to hit a small snag. The instructions said, "Turn risen dough onto a floured surface," that's okay; "divide into 3 equal portions," I can do that; "and form a 3-strand braid." Umm, grind to a halt here. How do ...