I was not born Jewish, but 17 years ago I did marry into a Jewish family. I love the traditions within the religion, and I especially love (some) of the food. Gefilte fish, not so much, but bring me all the latkes, rugelach, and challah!
I have tried challah in the past, but it never tasted quite right. I finally ditched the old recipe I had and went looking for a new one. I found, on Pinterest, a recipe that looked good and I dove right in. Life as a Strawberry had a simple looking recipe and it was a bread I felt confident in making. When I got to the end of the instructions, I noticed that she had adapted this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Of course she did! I can’t seem to stray too far from Smitten Kitchen, even when I try!
Making the bread is a two day process, but minus the time it takes to let the bread rise, it was super simple. I actually kinda liked having the bread rise overnight- it took some of the pressure off me to do it all in a single day. I did stray from the recipe when it came to the braiding of the bread. The recipe calls for a six-strand braid and it was Friday night and I did not have the energy or patience to learn a new braid. I stuck with a simple three-strand braid and I think it looked just beautiful.
I cooked the bread according to the directions but forgot to account for my convection oven. The bread came out very brown- right on the cusp of burnt- but it wasn’t! I like to say that the bread has some depth and character that many other breads just don’t have!
This challah was so good! Seriously- it was like legit challah! This is good-enough-for-Hanukkah-dinner-challah! I was so excited for this foray into bread making. My new goal is make make most of our bread instead of buying it. This recipe will for sure be on the rotation!!!
right turn ahead 