Bake 52: Week 6

CHALLAH

I love eating homemade bread.  I hate making homemade bread.  I love smelling homemade bread.  I hate making homemade bread.  It never seems to rise properly and is always to heavy.  I thought it was because I have a weak stand mixer without any dough hooks which requires me to knead the dough by hand, which, apparently, is the way many people make bread, I just haven't figured out how to do it right.  Anywho, after turning every wholesome, family bread recipe PG-13 while adding that a KitchenAid would fix EVERYTHING, my husband told me to "just buy one".  Easier said than done since it does cost money to just buy one.  However, on my last Girls' Night Out, my friend and I were at Costco (its much funner without kids), and while she is picking out her new food processor, the shiny red KitchenAid stand mixer next to it reminded me that I was suppose to just buy one, so I did.  And its beautiful in my kitchen.  And it kneads dough.  And my husband thinks my potty mouth is gone.

See how beautiful it is, just standing there, holding its first creation.

Okay, back to the Challah.  A fun, fancy-looking braided bread.  A simple, basic bread recipe that you can find from this week's host, Jenn, Here.
Even with my new mixer, I still had a rough time with the dough!  I guess I need some practice.  My dough looked really dry.  I didn't need to add any extra flour, not even to roll it.  

 I was skeptical.  And it was taking really long to rise, so I forced it a bit, and it still took its time.  Finally, after I braided it and let it rise again, it started looking right.  After it cooked it looked down-right pretty.  I think it was still on the heavier side, but that's the way I do bread.
   The recipe says to wait a couple hours before eating, but I consider it a sin not to eat warm bread.  We ate it right away with lasagna and everybody loved it.  We also tried some with butter and honey which was tasty too.  Overall, this is a great bread to add that extra little touch to a dinner party or just spreading some jam on for the kids.