It's Jewish!

I'm not Jewish, but I like some things that are.

One of those things is challa. Challa is a yeast bread, typically eaten on the Sabbath in Jewish homes. The dough is easy to make, and its braided shape makes a beautiful loaf.

I hadn't made challa in a long time, so I decided to make a loaf yesterday. The recipe I've always used seemed to be hiding, but several of my cookbooks have recipes for it. I ended up following one from How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. It turned out ok, but I think there are better recipes out there (like the one I couldn't find).

Here are the ingredients for the loaf I made.

5 cups flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast
1 Tbsp honey or sugar
3 eggs
1 1/3 cups water or milk, warmed

In his cookbook, Bittman makes all his breads in a food processor. I don't have a food processor large enough to make bread, and probably wouldn't do it that way even if I did, and I think his instructions for making it by hand are goofy, so I'll just tell you how I make it.

First, dissolve the yeast in the water with the sweetener. Add the salt and stir in the eggs. Stir in the flour and  knead until the dough is ready. I let my KitchenAid do the hard work and I think I let it knead for about 6-7 minutes. Then cover the dough and let it rise until doubled. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and roll the pieces into ropes about 20 inches long. Braid the ropes together to make a loaf shape. Let rise again. Before baking, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with some coarse salt. Bake at 375 degrees for around 45 minutes.

When it is finished you will have something that looks like this.

Even though it is a little more complicated than only using three strands, I like the way a loaf braided with four strands turns out. Six is even better, but I haven't quite mastered that technique yet.

Happy baking!

February reads

I usually read around ten books a month, but this February, I only read four. I'm not sure why I didn't get more read. Let's chalk it up to the fact that it was a short month.

I did, however, read my Newbery and Pulitzer selections.

In honor of President's Day, I chose a biography of Abraham Lincoln by Russell Freedman which won the Newbery Award in 1988 titled Lincoln: A Photobiography.

As the title suggests, this book tells the story of Abraham Lincoln's life from his humble beginnings to his tragic death. Except for a lot of pictures of Lincoln, and some interesting Civil War photos, there is really nothing remarkable in this book. The story is easy to read and includes a very simplified account of the Civil War.

Overall, it's not great but not terrible either. Take it or leave it.

For my Pulitzer read, I chose last year's winner. Tinkers, by Paul Harding is not at all what I expected. The story is about a dying man named George. While his life is ebbing away, he remembers moments from his past. Interspersed with his story is that of his father, Howard, a peddler and misunderstood epileptic.

I want to like this book, and while it is well written with some truly beautiful and poetic passages, I really can't recommend it. It is just too hard to get into and stick with, and at times, overly difficult to follow. Even though it is just under 200 pages, it seems much longer.

February's reading was pretty disappointing. March will be better. I made a trip to the library yesterday and have a large stack of books that I am anxious to work my way through.

Happy reading!

C'mon ring those bells!



On Saturday, I was lucky to get the opportunity to tour the bell tower and carillon at the University of Denver.



The tower was completed in 1999, is 215 feet tall, and are 95 steps leading to the top. 



The interior of the tower is gorgeous. There are murals on the walls depicting the evolution of communication from the spoken word to the digital age. My pictures don't do it justice, but the colors and textures are amazing.

 

 



See that little red spiral near the ceiling? Let's take a closer look. 



Yep. Those are some of the 95 stairs we had to climb to get to the top. Just kind of hanging out there up there. Not the easiest thing for someone who has a fear of heights to deal with. Going up wasn't too bad, but coming down was another story.



At the top of the stairs was a room housing the keyboard for the carillon. Each lever, or baton, is connected by a wire to the clapper of one of the bells. 



Here is another view of the keyboard. The bells can also be played with the pedals below. 



These are the two largest bells. It is hard to get a sense of how large they actually are, but the one on the top, which is the largest weighs close to 12,000 pounds. 



Here are some of the midsized bells.



And some more. All together there are 65 bells. The bells themselves are stationary and only the clappers move. 



At the bottom center of this picture is the smallest bell weighing only a couple of pounds. 



This is our lovely tour guide and the university's carillonneur, Carol Jickling Lens, playing a piece for us by Kabalevsky. It was really fun to watch her play. I didn't have much room on my camera, so this is only a snippet. After she played and gave us a basic overview of the instrument, we all took turns playing a little. It was slightly intimidating, but fun.



Carol plays the carillon each weekday when school is in session from 11:45 to 12:15. If you are in the area, be sure to listen for the bells.

This was a fantastic opportunity and an experience I will not soon forget. Many thanks to my Aunt Cathy for inviting me to come along on the tour.

Think Pink!

When I was a kid, I had a book of Valentine's Day poems, and I've always remembered the start of one.

It's Valentines Day, so I'll create,
a special cake to celebrate
a cake that's good as cake can be
I'm using my own recipe.

I can't remember the rest, but I think the speaker puts all kinds of strange ingredients in the cake, like licorice and jelly beans and rice and I don't know what else, and of course the cake doesn't turn out all that great.

I like to bake for Valentine's Day, and while I didn't make a cake this year, I did give my pink food coloring quite a workout.

On Saturday, I baked some heart shaped sugar cookies and decorated them with royal icing using the flooding method. I had never used that technique before, and they are far from perfect, but I think they turned out kind of cute. Here are some of them.

I also made some oreo truffles, which I dipped in pink colored almond bark. I was kind of sloppy with my dipping, but they still taste good. If you've never made these before, they are super simple and really yummy.

Take a package of oreos and crush them. I put mine through the food processor. Then, mix the crumbs with a softened block of cream cheese. Shape the mixture into balls and chill it for about an hour. Then dip the balls into almond bark. If you are going to color almond bark, make sure to use a gel color. Liquid ones will make the almond bark do weird things.


Finally, today I made Cream Wafers. I usually make these around Valentine's Day, because that's what we did when I was a kid. They are a little time consuming, but worth it. The recipe is after the picture, and I believe it originally came from an old Betty Crocker cookbook.


Cream Wafers

Wafers:
2 cups flour
1 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
granulated sugar

Filling:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
food color

Mix flour, butter and whipping cream. Cover and chill about 1 hour or until firm.
Roll 1/3 of the dough at a time 1/8" thick on a lightly floured surface. Cut into shapes with 1 1/2" cookie cutters. Sprinkle with granulated sugar. Prick each cutout with a fork.
Bake at 375 degrees for 7 to 9 minutes or until set but not brown. Cool completely.
Mix filling ingredients until smooth. Add a few drops of water if necessary. Spread about 1/2 teaspoon filling between pairs of cookies.
Makes about 5 dozen sandwich cookies.

Now, just so you know, I have no intention of eating all of this stuff. I plan on packaging it up and passing it out to the people I come into contact with tomorrow. Who knows, maybe it will be you!