So it turns out that I have fallen a bit behind on The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge.  Life doesn’t always cooperate with bread baking and blogging, and that’s the reason I’ve encouraged everyone to bake at their own pace and take breaks as needed.  Well my break is now over, my husband is home from Iraq, and I’m ready to jump back in and share some bread with you!

Bread #14 in the book is French Bread.  After the huge success of the focaccia, I was a little worried that my baguettes would disappoint.  I’ve never made a basic French bread, and it’s so easy to pick up great-tasting baguettes from our local bakeries, I wasn’t sure it would be worth the effort.  But, as usual, Peter Reinhart proved me wrong.  This bread wasn’t that difficult, and it had an amazing flavor!

This French Bread formula uses a large amount of pâte fermentée, or pre-fermented dough.  As we’ve learned from earlier breads in this challenge, the extra step of using a pre-ferment really doesn’t take much effort, but makes a huge difference in the final outcome.  It only takes a few extra minutes of hands-on time, and you’ll be amazed at the wonderful flavor that develops.  You simply mix up some flour, yeast, and water a day or two ahead of time, and let it hang out in the refrigerator.

For the pâte fermentée,  I blended bread flour, all-purpose flour, salt, yeast, and water.  I kneaded it like any other bread dough, let it ferment at room temperature for an hour, and then stuck it in the fridge overnight.  The next day, I let the pâte fermentée come to room temperature before using it in my French Bread dough.

When using a pâte fermentée or biga (the Italian equivalent), the pre-ferment must be chopped up into pieces so that it can be mixed more easily into the final dough.  I simply dumped it out onto a floured surface and cut it into pieces with my bench scraper.

Next, I combined more flour, salt, and yeast with the pieces of pâte fermentée in a mixing bowl.

Water was then added and the dough was mixed with the paddle attachment in my stand mixer until everything came together and a coarse ball was formed.

I then switched to the dough hook and kneaded the French Bread dough until it was soft, pliable and tacky.  I had to add small amounts of flour as I was kneading in order to achieve that state.  I also ended up kneading it longer than the book suggested in order for the dough to pass the windowpane test.  Because of the extra kneading, my dough temperature was higher than it should have been.  The book says the dough temperature should be between 77 and 81 degrees F, but mine registered at 85 degrees F.  Ooooops.

Next, I placed my slightly warm ball of dough into a greased bowl, turned it to coat both sides with oil, and let it ferment at room temperature.  I knew that the dough was going to rise faster than I wanted, but the book specifies that if this happens, you can degas the dough and let it rise a second time.

Sure enough, my dough doubled in record time!

So I kneaded it gently and then placed it back in the bowl.  Just for fun, I checked the temperature again.  It had dropped and was now within the range it should have been originally.

I let the dough ferment for about another hour, and it once again doubled in size.

Now for the fun part!  I dumped the dough back out onto my flour board so I could divide it into three pieces which would eventually be shaped into baguettes.

I usually weigh my dough so that I end up with equal pieces, but I was lazy this time and just eyeballed it.

I obviously didn’t do a very good job of guessing the weight of the dough since I ended up with three different sizes (next time I’ll go back to using my scale)!  Before shaping the baguettes, I first pre-shaped the pieces into batards and let the dough relax for a few minutes.

Unfortunately I didn’t photograph the baguette-shaping process, but you can see the process more clearly in this video. After shaping my baguettes, I nestled them in between the folds of a floured couche, seam side up, and let them proof at room temperature for about an hour.

After the baguettes were properly proofed, I gently transferred them to a piece of parchment paper on the back of a sheet pan.  I was thinking that I could just slide the baguettes and parchment onto my baking stone using the sheet pan instead of messing with semolina or cornmeal.

Next, I slashed the baguettes using a razor blade.  I’m still not completely confident in my slashing technique, but it wasn’t too bad.

To prepare the oven for baking, I preheated to 500 degrees with a baking stone on the middle shelf and an empty pan on the top shelf.  The pan on the top shelf is allowed to preheat with the oven so that I can pour hot water in it to create steam after the loaves have been placed on the baking stone.  The steam allows for a better oven spring as the loaves are allowed to grow a bit more before a crust is formed.

When the oven was ready, I tried to slide the baguettes and parchment paper onto the stone.  Unfortunately, the baguettes rolled rather than slid, and I ended up with a mini disaster as the baguette were all upside down and in the wrong places and I was dealing with a 500 degree oven.  I was able to save two of them, but the third ended up being baked upside down and halfway off the baking stone for a few minutes (I was able to move it after the crust had started forming).  The results were two nicely shaped baguettes and one slightly curved baguette.  But they all looked much better than I had anticipated!

The only thing that concerned me was the color.  I thought that they were a bit too pale and wonder what I could do differently to get some better caramelization in the crust.  But the flavor of this bread was magnificent and I will definitely be giving it another try soon!

Are you ready to give homemade baguettes a try?  The recipe for French Bread can be found on page 168 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. The next bread in the challenge is Italian Bread and it’s a good one!  Meatball Sandwich, anyone?

Want to Join The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge?

There are several ways for you to join in the fun!  First of all, you need a copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  Read the first section of the book carefully, as this will prepare you for the bread recipes in the second section of the book.  Then just jump in and bake some Anadama Bread, which is the first recipe in the book.  But first, please visit The BBA Challenge Page for more details on how to participate in the group!

If you haven’t already, you might want to bookmark the BBA Challenge Page.  From there you can see which breads are coming up soon, find answers to Frequently Asked Questions, visit and/or add yourself to our World Map, see the BBA Challenge Blogroll, and check out the continually updated slideshow of BBA Bread photos from our ever-expanding group of bakers!

French Bread from other BBA Challenge Members:

• French Bread from Big Black Dog
• French Bread from Gourmet Hotdish and other Culinary Disasters
• French Bread from Ahrelich Gesagt
• French Bread from Goth Panda
• French Bread from Pete Eatemall
• French Bread from Salt and Serenity
• French Bread from Round the Table
• French Bread from La cuisine d’Hélène

Ok, let me come right out and say this.  This focaccia was the best I’ve ever tasted in my life.  Period.  Like many of the formulas in the book, this one takes two days to make.  And although it’s more labor and time-intensive than other focaccia recipes I’ve tried, I’m pretty sure it’s the only one I will ever make again.

This is the 13th bread I’ve made for The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge (with 31 more to come) and it has moved up to the top of my favorites list.  Honestly, I didn’t think I could love any bread more than the salami and cheese-filled Casatiello.  But I was wrong.  Foccacia, I love you.

There are two different formulas for focaccia in The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, both of which take two days to make.  So why does it take so much time to make a great focaccia?  As many of you have learned from following along with my bread baking, long, slow fermentation of the dough is key to developing maximum flavor.  This can be achieved by using a pre-ferment such as a poolish (like I used for the ciabatta), or by refrigerating the dough overnight (the bagels were a good example of overnight fermentation).

I chose to make the Poolish Focaccia, for no other reason than I just like to watch the bubbles form in the poolish.  Also, I like to say the word ‘poolish.’  A poolish is simply a combination of flour, water, and a small amount of yeast.  It gets mixed together to form a batter-like dough and is allowed to ferment at room temperature until it gets nice and bubbly.

Here is my poolish after mixing:

and then a few hours later:

As you can see, the poolish increases in size and starts bubbling away.  If you stand and watch for a minute, you can actually see bubbles form, grow, and burst.  It’s alive!  Now once it’s nice and bubbly you want to put the poolish in the refrigerator for a long, slow, overnight ferment.  You can let it hang out in the fridge for up to 3 days and continue with the focaccia whenever you are ready.

Ready?  Ok, take the poolish out of the fridge one hour before you want to make the dough so it can warm up a bit.  For the focaccia dough, you will be adding more flour, yeast, water, olive oil and salt to the poolish.

I stirred the dough up with a spoon until it formed a wet, sticky dough.

Then I kneaded it for 7 or 8 minutes using the dough hook on my Kitchen Aid mixer.  Once I had a smooth, sticky dough, I stopped kneading and dumped it out onto a bed of flour.  Doesn’t this remind you of my ciabatta? It should, because I used too much flour on the board for the ciabatta and for some reason didn’t learn from my mistake!

So the next step is to dust the dough liberally with flour and then pat it into a rectangle.  This was as close as I managed to get.  It’s almost a rectangle!

Now for the stretching and folding.  Again, this should seem familiar if you saw my ciabatta post. After letting the dough relax for a few minutes, I coated my hands with flour and stretched the rectangle out.  It’s supposed to be twice its original size.  This time I brushed most of the flour off the top of the dough before folding.

Next, fold one side of the dough in towards the middle then brush the flour off again.

Then fold the other side over, letter style.  Now I’ve completed one “stretch and fold.”

I covered my dough and let it rest for 30 minutes and then repeated the stretch and fold process two more times, allowing the 30 minute rest each time.  As you can see, the dough grew during the process!  But now it’s time to let it grow even more.  I covered it and let it ferment at room temperature for one hour.

While the dough was fermenting, I made a garlic herb oil using fresh garlic, basil, rosemary and parsley.  I also added a bit of crushed red pepper.  Hold on, you’ll see what I do with the oil in a minute.

After an hour, the dough had doubled in size and was ready to go in the pan.

I lined my rimmed half sheet pan with parchment and spread olive oil (not the herb oil) all over the bottom.  I gently lifted the dough off the counter and spread it out on the parchment.  Not as easy as it sounds!  As you can see, the dough didn’t hold it’s rectangular shape very well.

I drizzled some of the herb oil over the top of the dough and started dimpling it with my fingers, gently spreading the dough out in the pan.

The dough didn’t quite reach the edges of the pan, but I wasn’t worried because it still had some growing to do!

I covered the pan and let it proof for about an hour and a half.  As you can see, the dough definitely filled the pan!

Next, I drizzled even more herb oil over the top.

Then I dimpled the dough all over with my fingertips again.

Before putting the focaccia in the 5oo degree oven, I sprinkled the whole thing lightly with coarse salt.  The focaccia baked for about 20 minutes, and I rotated the pan halfway through baking.  Although the oven is preheated to 500 degrees, it gets turned down to 450 after putting the bread in the oven.

Here is the resulting bread:

The crumb was beautiful!

And the flavor and texture were out of this world!

I can’t wait to make this focaccia again and try some different toppings.  I loved the herb oil, but can’t wait to try it with cheese and olives, among other things.  I might even make a thick crust pizza using this dough.  It is absolutely amazing!

The recipe for Poolish Focaccia can be found on page 164 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.

The next bread in the challenge is French Bread!  I can’t wait to tell you about the beautiful crusty baguettes that came out of my oven last weekend.  Yes, I have been baking bread faster than I’ve been able to write about it, but my blog posts will soon be caught up to my baking.

Want to Join The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge?

There are several ways for you to join in the fun!  First of all, you need a copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  Read the first section of the book carefully, as this will prepare you for the bread recipes in the second section of the book.  Then just jump in and bake some Anadama Bread, which is the first recipe in the book.  But first, please visit The BBA Challenge Page for more details on how to participate in the group!

If you haven’t already, you might want to bookmark the BBA Challenge Page.  From there you can see which breads are coming up soon, find answers to Frequently Asked Questions, visit and/or add yourself to our World Map, see the BBA Challenge Blogroll, and check out the continually updated slideshow of BBA Bread photos from our ever-expanding group of bakers!

Focaccia from other BBA Challenge Members:

• Tomato Parmesan Focaccia from Lovin’ from the Oven
• Herbed Focaccia from The Yumarama Bread Blog
• Caramelized Onion and Cherry Tomato Focaccia from I Can Do that
• Focaccia with Feta, Tomatoes and Pine Nuts from MustangTerri
• Herbed Mushroom and Cheese Focaccia from Texas Farmer’s Hot Stove
• Herbed Focaccia from Bewitching Kitchen
• Herbed Focaccia with Tomatoes and Blue Cheese from Nico’s Blog
• Sun Dried Tomato Focaccia from Goth Panda
• Herbed Focaccia from Something Shiny
• Focaccia with Caramelized Onions and Parmesan Cheese from Culinary Disasters
• Herbed Focaccia from The Other Side of Fifty
• Focaccia with Peppers, Olives and Feta from Pete Eatemall
• Caramelized Shallot and Golden Raisin Focaccia from Pink Stripes
• Grape and Walnut Focaccia from Eating Out Loud
• Raisin Focaccia from Eating is the Hard Part
• Blue Cheese, Pepper, Steak and Mushroom Focaccia from Joelen’s Culinary Adventures

Have you ever thought about making English Muffins from scratch?  If not, maybe you should!  They are surprisingly easy and lots of fun to make.  You might not know this, but English Muffins are baked on a griddle rather than in the oven.  Since I am somewhat obsessed with watching things bake and have a tendency to plant myself on the kitchen floor in front of the oven glass, I love that these get baked on a griddle where I can get up close and personal!

I’ve made english muffins several times over the years, but this is my first time using Peter Reinhart’s recipe.  Yes, this is another installment from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge and it’s another great one!  Although sourdough english muffins are my favorite, these plain white muffins were outstanding!  Like many of the bread formulas in the book, this one calls for buttermilk, and I think that’s what made them so great.

The dough is very basic: flour, salt, yeast, a bit of sugar and shortening, and buttermilk.  Just mix it up in a bowl and then knead it until soft and smooth, tacky but not sticky.  It’s very important that the dough is not too stiff.  This is my dough after kneading:

And a little more than an hour later, it has risen nicely.

Next, I divided the dough into six equal pieces and shaped them like dinner rolls.  I was careful with dough, taking care not to completely deflate it as I was shaping the muffins.  I placed the balls of dough on sheet of parchment that had been sprinkled with cornmeal.  Then I sprinkled cornmeal over the top of the dough, too.

I covered them with plastic and let them double in size, which took about an hour.

I’ve found that the easiest way to bake the muffins is on a big electric griddle.  The temperature is easily controlled and you can bake the whole batch at once.  If you don’t have an electric griddle, you can use a stove top griddle, or whatever frying pan you have handy.  Cast iron works really well.  I heated my electric griddle to 350 degrees and I also preheated the oven to 350 degrees in case the muffins needed to be finished in there for the last few minutes.

When I placed the muffins on the griddle, they spread out just a little bit.  This is what should happen if your dough is soft enough.

Next they started puffing up!  It really is a lot of fun to watch the transformation up close!

After about 7 minutes, the bottoms were nice and brown and it was time to flip them over.  This is when they really start to look like english muffins!

After they had cooked for another 7 or 8 minutes, I quickly transferred them to a baking sheet and into the oven for about 5 minutes, just to ensure that the middle was completely baked through.

Don’t they look perfect?  The hardest part is allowing them to cool for 30 minutes!  But like all bread, this is a crucial stage in the process.  The bread just isn’t finished until it has cooled a bit.

But I didnt wait too long!  The muffin was still slightly warm when I split it with a fork, buttered it, and topped it with blackberry jam.  Delicious!

But my favorite way to eat an english muffin is toasted with nothing but a little bit of butter (ok, maybe a lot of butter).

Important:  Put those knives down!  English muffins should always be split with a fork if you want the signature nooks and crannies.  Push the fork into the side of the muffin, working your way around until it has been punctured all the way around.  Then gently pull it apart.

The recipe for these english muffins can be found on page 157 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  If you don’t yet own the book, there are several wonderful English Muffin recipes floating around the internet.  I’ll link to some of  them at the bottom of this page.

But first, here are some English Muffins from other BBA Challenge Members:

• English Muffins from Ährelich Gesagt
• English Muffins from Susie’s Home and Hobbies
• English Muffins from Two Skinny Jenkins
• English Muffins from The Other Side of Fifty
• English Muffin Loaf from I Can Do That
• English Muffins from Big Black Dog
• English Muffins from Bewitching Kitchen
• English Muffin Loaf from The Yumarama Bread Blog
• English Muffins from Of Cabbages and King Cakes
• English Muffins from Round the Table
• English Muffins from Joelen’s Culinary Adventures
• English Muffins from My Hawaiian Home

Thank you Mr. Reinhart for yet another wonderful bread!  And thank you everyone who is participating in The BBA Challenge with me, it’s been so much fun so far and we have many wonderful breads still to come!

The next bread in the book is Focaccia and I’ll let you in on a little secret:  I made the Focaccia last week and it is my new favorite bread from the book!  Simply amazing.  I’ll be sharing it with you soon!

Want to Join The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge?

There are several ways for you to join in the fun!  First of all, you need a copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  Read the first section of the book carefully, as this will prepare you for the bread recipes in the second section of the book.  Then just jump in and bake some Anadama Bread, which is the first recipe in the book.  But first, please visit The BBA Challenge Page for more details on how to participate in the group!

If you haven’t already, you might want to bookmark the BBA Challenge Page.  From there you can see which breads are coming up soon, find answers to Frequently Asked Questions, visit and/or add yourself to our World Map, see the BBA Challenge Blogroll, and check out the continually updated slideshow of BBA Bread photos from our ever-expanding group of bakers!

English Muffin Recipes from Around the Web:

• English Muffins from Baking Bites
• Sourdough English Muffins from Wild Yeast

And here comes number eleven!

That’s right, I’m still plugging away at The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge and the next bread up is Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread.  But since Mr. Reinhart gave us the option of choosing different dried fruits and nuts, I decided to celebrate cherry season and use tart dried cherries and pecans in my bread.

Although it is definitely a gorgeous loaf worthy of a celebration, this bread was surprisingly easy to make!  No unusual ingredients for this one, just bread flour, yeast, sugar, salt, buttermilk, eggs, butter, water, lemon extract, dried tart cherries, and pecans.

First, the dry ingredients and wet ingredients (except water) are mixed up separately, then combined in one mixing bowl.

I stirred everything together with my trusty wooden spoon, then added enough water to make a soft dough.

Ok, perhaps I added a bit too much water.  Don’t panic if this happens, remember that you can always knead in some extra flour during the next step!

Now for the kneading.  I decided to give my mixer a day off, so I kneaded this dough by hand on my board.  A kitchen counter or smooth tabletop also makes a good kneading surface, you don’t need a pastry board to knead bread dough!  But I have one, so I use it.  I sprinkled it with a good amount of flour before scraping the sticky mess of dough out of the bowl, floured up my hands, and got to work!

It took about eight minutes of kneading by hand, before I ended up with a smooth, pliable, slightly tacky ball of dough.  You really need to make sure that it’s not too stiff at this point, because the nuts and fruit still have to be kneaded in!

I roughly chopped the nuts and cherries before kneading them in.  I think this was the first time I’ve ever kneaded dried fruit and nuts into a bread dough by hand, so I was a little unsure about it.  I just kind of flattened out the dough and dumped the whole mess on there.

It wasn’t as hard as it seemed.  Just be persistant, and it will get incorporated eventually!

Now it’s time for bulk fermentation, the stage where you let the yeast do it’s work and let the ball of dough double in bulk.  I cleaned out the mixing bowl, oiled it, and placed the dough inside, rolling it once to coat it with oil.  Now, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in bulk.  If you have a warm house, you will want to check the dough early, because it will rise faster.

Here’s my dough about an hour and a half later.  I guess I had some happy yeast!

Now it’s time to divide the dough.  For this, I use two important tools:  My bench scraper and my digital scale!

Since this is a celebration loaf, it will be shaped into a double braid.  There will be a large three-strand braid on the bottom and a smaller three-strand braid on top.  This means we’ll need six pieces of dough.  Three pieces will be 10 ounces each (for the larger braid) and three pieces will be 4 ounces each (for the smaller braid).    Using a scale makes it simple!

Next, the balls of dough need to rolled out into ropes.  The book specifies the lengths you need, so a ruler comes in handy at this stage.  The larger pieces are rolled to about 9 inches long, while the smaller pieces are about 7 inches long.  As you can see, the ropes are thicker in the middle and tapered at the ends.  This technique is what helps to form a nice looking braided loaf that is thicker in the center and tapered at the ends.

And now for the braiding.  Just like for the challah, I started my braid in the middle and worked out to each end.  There are detailed instructions for braiding on page 84 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.

After you have braided both the large rope and the small ones, you will place the small braid on top of the large one, making sure it is centered.

Next, brush the entire loaf with an egg wash and let it proof (rise) uncovered at room temperature for about an hour and a half, or until the loaf nearly doubles in size.

After it has doubled, the loaf is carefully brushed with a second egg wash.

Finally, it is baked at 325 degrees  for 50-55 minutes, until the loaf is a deep golden brown and sounds hollow when it is tapped on the bottom of the loaf.  The internal temperature should be between 185 and 190 degrees.  Kind of looks like a roast bird from this angle, doesn’t it?

Although I accidentally baked mine for about ten minutes too long because I forgot to set the timer for an additional five minutes and then got distracted by twitter for fifteen minutes, I was really pleased with this bread!

Like many of the others participating in this challenge, I’m ready for a break from sweet breads and was kind of dreading making another one.  But this bread was both beautiful and delicious!   And pulling such an amazing loaf of bread from the oven really did fill me with a sense of accomplishment.

I’m glad that I decided to use the tart dried cherries and pecans in this bread, they worked really well together.  One thing I might change if I make this bread again is the fruit/nut ratio.  I think it could have used a little less dried fruit and perhaps a handful of extra nuts.  I think I’ll save the cranberry walnut version for Thanksgiving, it will be perfect for leftover turkey sandwiches!

Interested in making this bread?  The recipe can be found on page 154 of Peter Reinhart’s amazing book, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.

For those of you who are participating in The BBA Challenge, here are some questions:  How did you like the Celebration Bread?   What type of fruit or nuts did you use?  Did you shape it into the double braid or did you choose a different shape?  Would you make it again?

And remember, if you wrote a blog post about the Celebration Bread, or have photos available online, please leave a comment and share your link!

The Next Bread

Next we will be making English Muffins!  It will be nice to have a break from sweet breads for a little while and I love homemade English Muffins!!  The English Muffins are different from the other breads we’ve made so far because they are ‘baked’ on a griddle, rather than in the oven.  The instructions begin on page 157 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  Good luck and happy baking!

Want to Bake Along With Us?

There are several ways for you to join in the fun!  First of all, you need a copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  Read the first section of the book carefully, as this will prepare you for the bread recipes in the second section of the book.  Then just jump in and bake some Anadama Bread, which is the first recipe in the book.  But first, please visit The BBA Challenge Page for more details on how to participate in the group!

If you haven’t already, you might want to bookmark the BBA Challenge Page.  From there you can see which breads are coming up soon, find answers to Frequently Asked Questions, visit and/or add yourself to our World Map, see the BBA Challenge Blogroll, and check out the continually updated slideshow of BBA Bread photos from our ever-expanding group of bakers!

Celebration Bread from other BBA Challenge members:

• Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread from Susie’s Home and Hobbies
• Cherry Walnut Celebration Bread from Round the Table
• Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread from I Can Do That!
• Cranberry Apricot Celebration Bread from 3Sheik
• Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread from Ahrelich Gesagt
• Strawberry Walnut Celebration Bread from A Stove with a House Around It
• Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread from Something Shiny
• Peach and Pecan Celebration Bread from Pink Stripes
• Cranberry Apricot Walnut Celebration Bread from Pete Eatemall
• Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread from Bewitching Kitchen

Can you believe I’ve made it through the tenth bread in The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge? I was a little surprised to see a quick bread recipe in the book, but I’m really happy that Mr. Reinhart decided to include this corn bread.

It’s sweet and dense, without being too heavy.  The slices were crispy on the outside, but very moist inside.  The sweetness of the fresh cut corn is nicely balanced out by the salty bacon on top.  I pretty much loved everything about it!

Of course I’m from California and I grew up eating a fairly sweet corn bread.

This isn’t a corn bread that needs a bowl of black-eyed peas.  It doesn’t even need butter.  This corn bread can stand alone.  Although it’s probably sweet enough for dessert, I actually enjoyed it most for breakfast.  But it also paired nicely with the braised short ribs my sister and Aunt prepared last week after falling under the spell of The Barefoot Contessa.

But the thing about this ‘quick bread’ recipe is that it isn’t so quick.  It requires you to soak some coarse-ground cornmeal in buttermilk overnight.  You also have to saw the kernels off a few cobs of corn and fry up some bacon before you can proceed with the recipe.  But that is a small price to pay for such a big reward!

The recipe said to use a 10-inch round cake pan for the bread, but I prefer corn bread baked in a cast iron skillet.  I preheated my 10-inch skillet in the oven and poured in some of the leftover bacon drippings and swirled them around.  The book actually instructed me to do this, but you know I would have done it anyway.  After pouring in the batter and hearing that satisfying sizzle, you sprinkle crumbled bacon over the top and gently press it in before returning the skillet to the oven.

The only problem I had with the recipe was the cooking time.  My corn bread took about 45 minutes to bake through, not 30 minutes as the book suggested.  Everyone else had the same issue, so it wasn’t just my oven.  Make sure you keep that in mind if you’re going to give this one a try.  And really, I think you should give it a try.  The recipe can be found on page 151 of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.

For those of you who are participating in The BBA Challenge, here are some questions:  How did you like the Corn Bread?   Did you make any changes?  Would you make it again?

And remember, if you wrote a blog post about the Corn Bread, or have photos available online, please leave a comment and share your link!

The Next Bread

Next we will be making Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread.  We have the option of using other types of dried fruit or nuts, so I’m actually making Cherry Pecan Celebration Bread.  The instructions begin on page 154 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  I have to tell you that I’m ready to get past these sweet breads, but at least I’ll get some more practice braiding bread dough!  Good luck and happy baking!

Want to Bake Along With Us?

There are several ways for you to join in the fun!  First of all, you need a copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  Read the first section of the book carefully, as this will prepare you for the bread recipes in the second section of the book.  Then just jump in and bake some Anadama Bread, which is the first recipe in the book.  But first, please visit The BBA Challenge Page for more details on how to participate in the group!

If you haven’t already, you might want to bookmark the BBA Challenge Page.  From there you can see which breads are coming up soon, find answers to Frequently Asked Questions, visit and/or add yourself to our World Map, see the BBA Challenge Blogroll, and check out the continually updated slideshow of BBA Bread photos from our ever-expanding group of bakers!

Corn Bread from other BBA Challenge members:

• Corn Bread with Bacon from A Stove with a House Around It
• Corn Muffins with Bacon from matchirman on Flickr
• Corn Bread with Bacon from The Missing Piece
• Corn Bread from MustangTerri
• Corn Bread with Bacon from A Tiger in the Kitchen

To tell you the truth, I wasn’t so sure about this one.  I love raisins, but I generally prefer my cinnamon bread to be raisin-free.  And walnuts?  Well, they’re great in banana bread, but again, I like my cinnamon bread the way my mom made it, thank you very much.

But I was wrong.  So so so wrong.  Not about my mom’s Cinnamon Swirl Bread, of course.  That one will always be a favorite.  But this Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread is now tied with Casatiello as the favorite bread I’ve baked so far in The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge.  This bread is good.  And I mean really good!

But before I tell you how I made it, let me talk for a minute about one important ingredient that goes into every single loaf of bread I’ll be baking during this challenge.  To quote Peter Reinhart from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, “Flour is the core of bread, the body containing its heart and spirit.”

Let’s talk flour.

For the majority of my breads, I have been using one of two flours:  unbleached bread flour or unbleached all-purpose flour.  I always mean to mention the brand of flour I’m using for each bread, but up until today, I’ve forgotten to include the information.  The majority of breads we’ve baked so far have used unbleached bread flour.  I started out using King Arthur’s bread flour, but then ran out and ended up buying Gold Medal’s ‘Better for Bread’ flour.  As you’ve seen in my previous posts, both flours produce excellent bread.  But recently I’ve been using another brand of flour that is fairly new to me.

Shepherd’s Grain is a flour company in the Pacific Northwest that I learned about during the International Food Blog Conference in Seattle.  Karl Kupers, a co-founder of Shepherd’s Grain sat on the “Passionate Purveyors and Producers” panel and talked to us about sustainable agriculture.  Shepherd’s Grain has 33 growers farming wheat for their flours and they all use sustainable agriculture farming methods and are certified by the Food Alliance Association.  Want to meet the farmers? Before learning about Shepherd’s Grain, I didn’t even know that wheat was grown in the Pacific Northwest, much less that a revolution in farming was taking place there.

I had the pleasure of meeting Karl and his wife Lexie at the conference and they were very excited to learn about The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge.  They even offered to send me some samples of their flour for me to try out during the challenge.  I used Shepherd’s Grain Unbleached High Gluten Flour for the Ciabatta and it was perfect!  I also used their all-purpose flour (sold under the brand Stone-Buhr) for the Cinnamon Buns.  And if you saw those buns, you know they turned out well.  I used the rest of the high gluten flour for this Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread, again with absolutely wonderful results!

I wouldn’t say that any of the brands of flour I’ve used so far have performed better or worse than others.  As long as you’re using the type of flour called for in the bread formula, you should end up with decent results regardless of brand.  But I particularly enjoyed using Shepherd’s Grain flours because after learning about the farming practices and meeting Karl and his wife, I felt a personal connection to the flour.

If you live on the west coast you can buy Shepherd’s Grain flour under the brand name Stone-Buhr flour. I have not yet searched the stores in San Diego for Stone-Buhr flours, but I will definitely be going out of my way to do so now that my samples have run out!  And if you do purchase a bag of Stone-Buhr flour, make sure you visit their Find the Farmer Web site that allows you to enter the lot code from your bag of flour and see which specific farms grew the wheat for that batch.  Talk about personal connection!  You can also follow Find the Farmer on twitter.

Now who’s ready for some Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread?

First, I combined flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and cinnamon in a mixing bowl.  I used the bowl of my stand mixer since I’ve been very lazy about kneading bread by hand lately!

After mixing the dry ingredients, I added the wet ones: egg, melted shortening, buttermilk and water.  I mixed everything on low speed using the paddle attachment in my stand mixer.

As you can see, the dough was very wet and sticky.

So I added some flour until the dough came together in a ball.

Next, I switched to the dough hook, and kneaded the dough for about 6 minutes.

Then I added the raisins and walnuts and kneaded for another couple of minutes.

The stand mixer didn’t do the greatest job of kneading in the nuts and fruit…

So I dumped the dough out onto my board and kneaded the dough by hand for another minute.

Now that looks better!

It was time to let the dough ferment for a couple of hours.  I washed and oiled the mixing bowl and placed the dough back in the bowl, turning it once to coat both sides with oil.

After two hours, the dough had doubled just like it was supposed to.

I dumped the dough back out onto the board so I could divide it into two pieces.

To make sure the two pieces were equal, I used my trusty red scale.

Once I had two equal pieces, I rolled them both out into rectangles.  For this bread, Mr. Reinhart gave us the option of adding a swirl of cinnamon and sugar to the dough.  In order to make the swirl, the dough has to be rolled out like this.

Next, I brushed each piece of dough lightly with water (the book didn’t say to do this, but it’s what I always do with my regular cinnamon swirl bread) then sprinkled a mixture of cinnamon and sugar evenly over each rectangle.

Next, I rolled the rectangles into tight logs.  After rolling, I folded each end up and pinched all the seams together well.

When placing the loaves in the pans, it’s important to put them in seam side down.  I also gently press the loaves down with the backs of my hands so that they fill the bottom of the loaf pans evenly.

After proofing at room temperature for a little over an hour, the loaves had crested the tops of the pans and were ready for the oven!

I baked them for about 45 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time.  As soon as they came out of the oven, the tops were brushed with melted butter and dipped in cinnamon sugar.  YUM!

This turned out to be one of the most amazing breads I’ve ever baked!  The texture and flavor was better than any Cinnamon Raisin Bread I’ve ever tasted.  And to be honest, I think I like this one almost as much as my Mom’s Cinnamon Swirl bread! That says a lot.

After baking the first nine breads in Peter Reinhart’s book The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, I can honestly tell you that it is worth buying.  Even if every other recipe in the book turns out to be a dud (very unlikely), the book is worth buying for the first nine recipes alone.  And if you’ve ever had a question about baking bread, this book will probably answer it for you.  Want to understand how yeast works?  Turn to page 60.  Curious about the differences between different types of flour?  Read pages 29-32  Want to learn how to shape different types of loaves?  Check out the wonderful photo tutorials on pages 72-86.  As I work my way through the book, I truly do feel like a bread baker’s apprentice.

The Next Bread

This week we will be making Corn Bread!  The corn bread instructions begin on page 151 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  Corn Bread might seem like an odd choice for inclusion in a bread book like this, but from the looks of the recipe, it’s going to be a great one!  Good luck and happy baking!

Want to Bake Along With Us?

There are several ways for you to join in the fun!  First of all, you need a copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  Read the first section of the book carefully, as this will prepare you for the bread recipes in the second section of the book.  Then just jump in and bake some Anadama Bread! But first, please visit The BBA Challenge Page for more details on how to participate in the group!

If you haven’t already, you might want to bookmark the BBA Challenge Page.  From there you can see which breads are coming up soon, find answers to Frequently Asked Questions, visit and/or add yourself to our World Map, see the BBA Challenge Blogroll, and check out the continually updated slideshow of BBA Bread photos from our ever-expanding group of bakers!

For those of you who are participating in The BBA Challenge, here are some questions:  How did you like the Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread?  Did you add a cinnamon swirl?  Did you put cinnamon sugar on the top of the loaf?  Did you learn anything new while using this formula?

And remember, if you wrote a blog post about Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread, or have photos available online, please leave a comment and share your link!

Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread from other BBA Challenge members:

• Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread (with swirl) from Two Skinny Jenkins
• Cinnamon Raisin Bread from The Other Side of Fifty
• Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread from Bewitching Kitchen
• Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread from Texas Farmer’s Hot Stove
• Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread (with swirl) from Italian Food Forever
• Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread from No Fear Entertaining
• Cinnamon Raisin Cranberry Rolls from Flour Girl
• Cinnamon Raisin Bread (with swirl) from Way More Homemade
• Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread two ways from Sweet & Savory
• Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread (with swirl) from Butter n’ Thyme

I call them Cinnamon Rolls, Peter Reinhart calls them Cinnamon Buns.  Whatever you call them, these things are delicious!  These Cinnamon Buns are the eighth bread in The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge!

What fun we’re having with this challenge!  Unlike some of the other great baking groups out there, we aren’t all baking the exact same breads at the exact same time.  But that’s what I’ve really grown to love about it!  It’s wonderful to have support and advice from those who have baked the bread before you, and it’s equally nice to be cheered on by those you who are following along behind you.

Speaking of being behind, it might seem that I’ve fallen behind in the challenge since I actually made these cinnamon rolls a couple of weeks ago.  But I’m further ahead in my bread baking than I am in my blogging and I plan on completing the tenth bread tomorrow!  You’ll just have to excuse me as I rush you through two bread posts this week (you’ll be reading about the next bread tomorrow) so I can try to get back on my original BBA blogging schedule.  I’ll try. We’ll see.  Either way, I’ll be sharing the process of every single bread I bake regardless of whether it’s on time or not!

I’m going to try something a little different this week.  Since the photos are self-explanatory, I’m going to let them stand on their own, without explanation.  Let’s see if you can follow along!

I didn’t feel the need to offer explanations for the photos this time because I really didn’t have any problems at all with this formula!  Everything worked perfectly.  But there is something I would change next time.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the White Fondant Glaze and think I would prefer a different type of icing.  Next time I’ll try the Sticky Bun variation, or perhaps make a cream cheese glaze for the cinnamon buns.

For those of you who are participating in The BBA Challenge, here are some questions:  How did you like the Cinnamon Buns?  Did you make straight cinnamon buns or did you turn them into gooey sticky buns?  Did you learn anything new while using this formula?  Would you make them again?

And remember, if you wrote a blog post about your Cinnamon Buns, or have photos available online, please leave a comment and share your link!

The Next Bread

I’m not putting the cinnamon away quite yet, because the next bread is Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread!  If you want to bake along, the instructions begin on page 147 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  The recipe is very straightforward and doesn’t require any extra special ingredients.  It will make two loaves, so you’ll have an extra for the freezer or to give away to a lucky friend!  We have the option of adding even more cinnamon flavor by turning them into cinnamon swirl loafs (you know I’ll be doing that)!  Good luck and happy baking!

Want to Bake Along With Us?

There are several ways for you to join in the fun!  First of all, you need a copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  Read the first section of the book carefully, as this will prepare you for the bread recipes in the second section of the book.  Then just jump in and bake some Anadama Bread! But first, please visit The BBA Challenge Page for more details on how to participate in the group!

If you haven’t already, you might want to bookmark the BBA Challenge Page.  From there you can see which breads are coming up soon, find answers to Frequently Asked Questions, visit and/or add yourself to our World Map, see the BBA Challenge Blogroll, and check out the continually updated slideshow of BBA Bread photos from our ever-expanding group of bakers!

Cinnamon and Sticky Buns from other BBA Challenge members:

• Cinnamon Buns from Goth Panda
• Cinnamon Buns with Raisins from The Yumarama Bread Blog
• Sticky Buns with Chopped Macadamia Nuts from I Can Do That!
• Cinnamon Buns from Rise Medusa
• Cinnamon Buns from The Missing Piece
• Sticky Buns from Claudine on Flickr
• Cinnamon Twists from Something Shiny
• Cinnamon Buns from Round the Table
• Sticky buns from Tiramisu
• Cinnamon Buns from Culinary Disasters

Last week I finished bread #7 in the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge.  The bread was ciabatta and while I was excited to try it, I admit that I was a bit nervous.  Lots of BBA Challenge members finished their ciabatta before me, so I knew that the bread wasn’t turning out perfectly for many people.  Everyone seemed to be saying the same thing:  great flavor, but not enough holes!

In addition to its signature flat and rectangular shape, ciabatta is known for its open crumb with lots of big, shiny holes.  And I’ve learned over the years while trying to perfect my own loaves of sourdough, the open crumb with big shiny holes is much harder to achieve than a great flavor!

Peter Reinhart offers many variations for his Ciabatta formula.  We had the option of using either a Poolish or Biga for the pre-ferment — the main difference being the amount of water added to the flour and yeast during the pre-ferment stage.  A note in the sidebar mentions the option of enriching the dough with olive oil, milk or buttermilk, for a softer, more tender loaf.  And he also gives directions for Wild Mushroom Focaccia, Ciabatta with Cheese, and Caramelized Onion and Herb Ciabatta!  But even with all those choices and variations available, I decided to stick to original formula using only flour, salt, yeast and water.

Although some people seemed to be having better luck using the stiffer biga starter, I decided to give the poolish a try.  Like I mentioned earlier, the difference between a poolish and biga is simply the amount of water added to flour and yeast.  A poolish will have the consistency of pancake batter, while a biga will be stiff and kneadable like bread dough.  Both types of pre-ferments are made day before using a portion of the flour and yeast from the bread formula.  The purpose of a pre-ferment is to improve the flavor and structure of the bread by extending fermentation time.  Although these terms are probably new to many of you, there is nothing difficult about using a pre-ferment.  You just need to plan ahead and allow some extra time to let the mixture sit around and do its thing.

My poolish started with 2 1/2 cups of bread flour, 1 1/2 cups of water and 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast.  I just stirred it up with a wooden spoon, covered it with plastic wrap, and let it sit at room temperature.

After a few hours, it had bubbled up and increased in size quite a bit.  Now it was ready for an overnight rest in the refrigerator.  See, nothing to it!

The next day, I removed the poolish from the fridge an hour before I was ready to start making my ciabatta dough, to take off the chill.  When I was ready to begin, I measured out the rest of the flour, yeast and salt.

I whisked the dry ingredients together then added the poolish.

The amount of water in the recipe can vary by quite a bit.  The instructions say to add 6 tablespoons of water at this point, but the final dough might use up to 3/4 cup.  I knew I would end up using more than 6 tablespoons, so I  started out by pouring in about 1/2 cup of water.

I then started stirring everything together to get an idea of how wet the dough would be with that amount of water.  I ended up adding a bit more water until the dough looked to be the right consistency.

I used my stand mixer with the paddle attachment to mix the dough for a few minutes.  I think I ended up adding close the full 3/4 cup of water by the time I was done mixing.  I knew from making sourdough bread, that I needed a very wet dough if I wanted big holes in my ciabatta.  After mixing with the paddle attachment for a while, I switched to the dough hook and kneaded for a final two minutes.  The dough mostly cleared the sides of the bowl while it was being kneaded, but stuck to the bottom, as described in the book.  but as you can see, it was a wet and sticky dough.

Next, I scraped the dough out onto a well-floured board.  The book says to create a bed of flour, so I really used a lot!

Now it was time for some stretching and folding.  Since I’ve never made ciabatta before, this was a new technique for me.  First, I sprinkled some flour on top of the dough and formed it into the shape of a triangle.  Then I let it relax for a couple of minutes before grabbing the ends and stretching it out to twice it’s size.

Then I folded it into thirds, like a letter.

Then I covered it with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.  I was surprised at how much the dough grew in 30 minutes!

Next, I repeated the stretch and fold process one more time, covered it with plastic wrap and let it sit and ferment for an hour and a half.

The book says the dough should swell, but not necessarily double in size.  But I think mine doubled!

Next, the dough is divided.  I decided to make three small loaves, so I cut the dough into three pieces.  Since the dough is so sticky, I dipped my bench scraper in water before cutting through the dough.  I didn’t weigh the pieces because I wanted to handle the sticky dough as little as possible.  Consequently, I ended up with three different sizes!

Next, I gently rolled the pieces in flour so they were well-coated on all sides.

And then I transferred them to a prepared couche, and folded each one again.  A couche is a heavy linen cloth that is used to support the loaves and help them keep their shape during proofing.  After shaping the loaves, I covered them with plastic and allowed them to proof for close to an hour.

Since I didn’t think all three loaves would fit on my peel, I decided to use the back of a sheet pan to transfer the loaves to the oven.  First I dusted the back of the sheet pan with corn meal.

Then I started transferring the loaves from the couche to the makeshift peel, gently stretching each loaf out to a length of about 9 inches.

I was happy to see that the three loaves fit perfectly on the back of the pan!

Now it was time to put them in the oven.

Earlier, when I placed the loaves in the couche to proof, I had prepared the oven.  I placed a baking stone on the middle rack, and an empty pan on the bottom of the oven (this will be used to create steam later).  I then preheated the oven to 500 degrees.  When you are heating the oven with a baking stone, it takes longer for it to come to temperature.  When I need the oven and baking stone to reach 500 degrees, I always allow it to preheat for 45 minutes.  So by the time, the loaves were proofed and ready to go in, the oven was ready.

I also had a pot of simmering water on top of the stove, ready to help me create steam.  Just before putting the loaves in, I measured out one cup of simmering water.  Now I was ready to bake some ciabatta!  I popped the loaves onto the baking stone, quickly draped a dish towel over the oven door glass (to prevent water from splattering and possibly shattering the glass) and carefully poured the cup of simmering water into the hot pan on the bottom of the oven (I used a long oven mitt for this).  As the steam billowed up, I quickly shut the oven door (making sure to remove the towel) to trap as much of it inside as possible.  After 30 seconds, I opened the oven door and used a spray bottle to mist the oven walls with water, creating even more steam.  Again, I quickly shut the door to trap the steam.  I repeated this two more times at 30 second intervals.  After the final spray, I turned the oven temperature down to 450 degrees and baked the bread for somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes, rotating the loaves halfway through.

Perhaps all that steaming sounds like a lot of work, but it really does help to create a beautiful crust!  Here are the finished loaves:

And what about the crumb?  Perhaps the holes aren’t as large as the ciabatta featured in the photo in the book, but I was perfectly happy with the way mine turned out.  Especially for a first try!  The main problem I had with my loaves was the line of flour that was visible in the middle of the loaf.  Next time I will try harder to brush the flour off the top of the dough before folding.  But it didn’t affect the flavor or texture too much, so I’m still calling this one a success!

The ciabatta tasted great and I really enjoyed it as a sandwich bread, especially lightly toasted!

The Next Bread

This week we will be making Cinnamon Buns!  The cinnamon bun instructions begin on page 143 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  You have the choice of making either cinnamon buns or sticky buns, depending on whether you use the white glaze or the caramel glaze.  I’ve heard nothing but great things about this formula, so I can’t wait to get started!  Good luck and happy baking!

Want to Bake Along With Us?

There are several ways for you to join in the fun!  First of all, you need a copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  Read the first section of the book carefully, as this will prepare you for the bread recipes in the second section of the book.  Then just jump in and bake some Anadama Bread! But first, please visit The BBA Challenge Page for more details on how to participate in the group!

If you haven’t already, you might want to bookmark the BBA Challenge Page.  From there you can see which breads are coming up soon, find answers to Frequently Asked Questions, visit and/or add yourself to our World Map, see the BBA Challenge Blogroll, and check out the continually updated slideshow of BBA Bread photos from our ever-expanding group of bakers!

For those of you who are participating in The BBA Challenge, here are some questions:  How did you like the Ciabatta?  Did you use the poolish or the biga for your pre-ferment?  Did you stick to the original formula or did you try some of the variation?  Did you learn anything new while using this formula?

And remember, if you wrote a blog post about Ciabatta, or have photos available online, please leave a comment and share your link!

Ciabatta from other BBA Challenge members:

• Wild Mushroom Ciabatta from Pink Stripes
• Ciabatta from Two Skinny Jenkins
• Ciabatta (poolish version) from Gourmet Hotdish and Other Culinary Disasters
• Ciabatta (biga version) from Anna on Flickr
• Ciabatta (poolish version) from The Other Side of Fifty
• Ciabatta (biga version) from Appoggiatura
• Ciabatta (poolish version) from Bewitching Kitchen
• Ciabatta (biga version) from You Eat Now
• Ciabatta (poolish version) from Flour Girl
• Ciabatta (poolish version) from Carried on the Wind
• Ciabatta (with wild yeast poolish) from Coffeegrounded’s Blog

Bread #6 for the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge is Challah.  This was my very first time making Challah and also the very first time braiding any type of bread dough!  Luckily, both the bread and the braid turned out pretty darn good.

Challah (listen to the pronunciaton) is a traditional Jewish bread that is eaten on the Sabbath and holidays.  The dough is enriched with eggs and lightly sweetened.  The bread itself is delicious, but the shaping is what makes it so spectacular.  The bread dough is divided, rolled into ropes and braided.  The braids can be really fancy, but I stuck to a standard three-strand braid since it was my first time.  After braiding, the loaf is brushed twice with an egg wash and sprinkled with seeds.  The resulting loaf is shiny, golden and absolutely beautiful!

The process for this bread is very straightforward.  First, you blend the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, salt and yeast.

In a separate bowl, you whisk together the wet ingredients: eggs, egg yolks, water, and oil.

Stir together the wet and dry ingredients either with a spoon or in a stand mixer and decide whether the dough needs more water or more flour.

As you can see, mine was a pretty wet dough so I didn’t add any more water.  I switched to the dough hook and started kneading, adding little bits of flour until the dough reached the ‘tacky but not sticky’ point.

After kneading for 6 or 7 minutes in my stand mixer, I gave the dough the windowpane test.  Although it was hard to photograph, this was the best windowpane I’ve ever achieved!  Hooray for Challah!

According to the book, the dough temperature should be about 80 degrees after kneading.  I checked and it was about 3 degrees warmer.  Works for me!

I lightly coated the ball of dough and let it ferment (rise) at room temperature for an hour.

Mr. Reinhart says the dough should be at least 1 1/2 times it’s original size after an hour and it looked pretty close to me.

I dumped it out on my board and started kneading it to remove the bubbles.  The book says to knead it for a couple of minutes to degas.  But as I started kneading, I realized that my dough was really really stiff.

It was almost impossible to knead it for two minutes.  The dough started tearing as I tried to wrestle the bubbles out of it.  I really started to wonder what I had done wrong.  This is how it looked after kneading (I gave up after about a minute and a half).  So much for my smooth and supple dough…

But I returned it to the bowl and greased it up again for it’s second fermentation.

After another hour, the dough had risen nicely again.

Now it was time to divide it into three pieces.  Luckily the dough had loosened up a bit and was much easier to deal with.  I measured out three equal pieces using my trusty digital scale.

I then formed the three pieces into nice smooth boules and let them rest for ten minutes.

It’s important to let the dough rest before shaping, because the gluten will relax and the dough will be much easier to work with.  Even after ten minutes, it was a little difficult to roll the balls out into long ropes.  If you find that the dough keeps springing back while you’re trying to form the ropes, just let it sit for a few minutes and then try again.  It will eventually work.

I made three ropes of equal length, making sure to leave them thicker in the middle and slightly tapered at the ends per Mr. Reinhart’s instructions.

Next, I started the braid.  The only thing that was slightly confusing about the braiding process was that the book told me to start in the middle.  But it was easy enough to figure out.

Starting from the middle, I braided down one side.  It really is just like braiding hair!

And then I finished the other side.  The ends were just pinched together and tucked under slightly.  Behold a succesfully braided loaf!

I transferred the loaf to a silpat-lined baking sheet (parchment paper would be fine, too) and brushed it with an egg wash.

Next it was covered with plastic wrap and allowed to proof for another hour or so.

It really grew!

After proofing, it got brushed down with the egg wash once more and then I sprinkled it with poppy seeds.  Sesame seeds may also be used.

The challah was put into a preheated 350 degree oven and baked for about 40 minutes.  It had lots of oven spring and turned into a big and beautiful loaf!

I thought the bottom of the bread was almost as pretty as the top, so I had to photograph it, too.

And of course, you have to see the crumb.

I really enjoyed the challah toasted with butter and raspberry jam for breakfast this morning.  And tomorrow, I’m going to make some french toast.  But this is definitely not the type of bread to be hoarded and eaten alone (like I did with the Casatiello) so  I will be taking a large portion of the loaf to my sister and brother-in-law today.

I’m now six loaves into the BBA Challenge, and I’ve enjoyed every single bread I’ve made.  I would definitely call this another success and am proud that I finally braided a loaf of bread.  Since I have never made Challah before, I can’t compare this to other recipes, but I thought the flavor and texture of this bread was really nice and I would definitely make it again.

The Next Bread

This week we will be making Ciabatta.  This is another one I’m excited about, because I love to eat it, but have never made it at home before.  The ingredients are very simple: bread flour, yeast, salt and water, but this bread requires two days to make.  The bread instructions begin on page 135 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  There are five different versions of Ciabatta in the book and you can choose any version you would like.  You can try as many as you like, but you’ll only need to make one of them for the purposes of this challenge.  Good luck and happy baking!

Want to Bake Along With Us?

There are several ways for you to join in the fun!  First of all, you need a copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  Read the first section of the book carefully, as this will prepare you for the bread recipes in the second section of the book.  Then just jump in and bake some Anadama Bread! But first, please visit The BBA Challenge Page for more details on how to participate in the group!

If you haven’t already, you might want to bookmark the BBA Challenge Page.  From there you can see which breads are coming up soon, find answers to Frequently Asked Questions, visit and/or add yourself to our World Map, see the BBA Challenge Blogroll, and check out the continually updated slideshow of BBA Bread photos from our ever-expanding group of bakers!

For those of you who are participating in The BBA Challenge, here are some questions:  How did you like the Challah?  Did you make one large braid or two smaller ones?  What type of braid did you choose?  Did you learn anything new while using this formula?

And remember, if you wrote a blog post about Challah, or have photos available online, please leave a comment and share your link!

Challah from other BBA Challenge members:

• Challah from Tiramisu’
• Challah from Confessions of a Penguin Chef
• Challah from Claudine on Flickr
• Challah from Something Shiny
• Challah from In Good Taste
• Challah from The Missing Piece
• Challah from My Hawaiian Home
• Challah from Round the Table
• Challah from Second Dinner
• Challah from Susie’s Home and Hobbies
• Challah from Of Cabbages and King Cakes
• Challah from That Certain Age
• Challah from A Tiger in the Kitchen
• Challah from Crispy Waffle
• Challah from Way More Homemade
• Challah from Italian Food Forever