Challah

May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads.

I'd never made Challah before. Actually, I'd never even had Challah before this past Thanksgiving. Hard to believe given my great love of bread. But there you go.

I had to wait to make this as for the past month I've been in the process of moving. Things were packed, I lost my internet access for a bit, etc. etc. This is also the reason why last months' challenge, Nazook, just went up as well. Sorry y'all.

So I broke in my new kitchen with Challah; the first of many wonderful things to be made here, I'm sure. I was a little nervous as I am switching back to electric after years of having a gas oven. I think things turned out pretty well. 

I used the whole wheat Challah recipe that was provided by our host this month. The recipe was easy to follow; though it was missing where to add the salt. Which I then proceeded to completely forget about until I started kneading the dough. I added it in at that point, and the bread still came out nicely.

I attempted a 3-strand and a 4-strand braid. They both came out ok, though I'm still not positive I understand how the 4-strand braid was supposed to go.

Though time consuming, this is definitely something I will want to make again. And while I can just knock back a whole loaf of bread plain, I decided to make some french toast instead...

Nazook

The Daring Bakers’ April 2012 challenge, hosted by Jason at Daily Candor, were two Armenian standards: nazook and nutmeg cake. Nazook is a layered yeasted dough pastry with a sweet filling, and nutmeg cake is a fragrant, nutty coffee-style cake.

Yes, I am super super late with this. I've been in the process of moving for over a month now (finally done!), and was a little distracted. Seeing as how I was already late with Daring Bakers for April, I chose to do just the Nazook. I do plan on, don't quote me on this though, to go back and try the nutmeg cake at some point.

The recipe came together quickly enough. And the hardest part for me was muscling my way through the refrigerated dough to get it rolled out. I split the work between two days; making the dough on Friday and finishing them up on Saturday. Though one day would be plenty to make these if you have a decent stretch of time.

I was kind of meh on these at first. I tried one fresh, and was underwhelmed. I tried one the next day and thought, well, maybe I can get used to these. By the third day they were growing on me. So if you don't like them right away, let them age a few days and try them again.

Chinese Three-Spice Almond Crescent Cookies

A friend of mine left for a six month teaching gig in China this week, and in order to send her off in style I wanted to bake something for her. After much googling of 'Chinese desserts' I finally settled on a recipe for Chinese Five-Spice Almond Cookies from Whole Foods.


                               


It's a fairly basic recipe, and I had all that I needed. All except for the Chinese Five-Spice. Apparently there was a run on Chinese Five-Spice. Whodathunkit? So when I got home from a fruitless trip to the grocery store I dug around in my pantry and come up with three of the five spices in Chinese Five-Spice. And thus was born, the Chinese Three-Spice cookie.


Chinese Three-Spice Almond Crescent Cookie
slightly altered from the Whole Foods Chinese Five-Spice recipe
makes around 20 cookies

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup unsalted butter, in chunks
1/4 cup sugar
~1/8 tsp of cinnamon
~1/8 tsp ground ginger
~1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp almond extract

powdered sugar for dusting if desired


Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Put everything but the powdered sugar in a food processor and pulse until the dough gets crumbly. Then blend until it forms a soft dough.

Take a small pinch of dough, and roll it a bit to form a log. Shape the log of dough into a crescent. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cookies are fairly firm to the touch. Let cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. Once the cookies are completely cool, dust them with powdered sugar if you'd like. These aren't a super sweet cookie, so I think most people would appreciate the little extra bit of sweetness.