We Have #6 – Challah, from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice

The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge (BBA) is the brilliant idea of Nicole at Pinch My Salt.  You can see what we’re baking this week at our Flickr group, on Twitter (#BBA), or check out the challenge page.  For those of you who don’t know about it, we are baking everything in Peter Reinhart’s book, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread, in order.  I must confess that, even though I post in order, I don’t necessarily bake these breads in order.  Some days I don’t have the time for three rises, numerous turns . . . well, you get the idea.

Well, so far this book is batting .1000.  Everything I’ve made from it has been delicious, if not exactly visually appealing (my fault, not his).  This time, I ended up with tasty challah AND beautiful bread that I shared with my neighbors.

I followed the recipe pretty much (you can find it on line, here, but buy the book!), except that I subbed about 5 ounces of atta flour, and sprinkled the loaf with flax seeds because I couldn’t find my sesame seeds.  Time to clean out that freezer!  And I did not make any braids, just baked the dough in two 8×5-inch pans.

The bread was beautiful and made great toast and sandwiches, as you can see.  If you’re wondering whether that’s bacon, the answer is no, it’s not – it’s Morningstar Farms Veggie bacon strips.  Before you knock it, consider that my meat-eating, pork-loving husband finds that it is a highly acceptable stand-in for the real stuff.  This sandwich was my breakfast the other day.  Great way to start the morning, I must say.

Next up:  Ciabatta!  And check out Susan’s weekly roundup of all things yeasty, YeastSpotting!