For those who have known me or my family for any amount of time, you know my mom is incredible baker. She has it down to an art. She’ll tell you she still makes mistakes, but anyone else will tell you there are never any leftovers when she brings over a baked good. My mom makes the best, most delicious, and soft Challahs. So of course I asked her for her recipe!
Either she didn’t want me to succeed, unlikely, or she has the recipe memorized and writing out instructions isn’t her skill set because this challah was almost a total disaster. My mom was so kind to email me a recipe. She even broke down the ingredients by step! But the actual steps got me a bit confused. I always read the directions completely from start to finish before I start anything. Always. And I did this time as well, but I didn’t catch where there might be some confusion because I hardly bake. In fact, I only bake one time each year when I make sweet potato rolls for Thanksgiving and I cry every single time. Ask my fiancé I cry ever.. single… time. The dough isn’t rising. It got too dry! My yeast didn’t activate. One year, I even grabbed yams instead of sweet potatoes! And then the dog ate the cookies off the counter when I rushed to the store before it closed. Yeah… I wasn’t exaggerating. I cry every time, but they are so freaking good. I refuse to give up.
Recipe for this mouth watering rolls here -> https://iamhomesteader.com/sweet-potato-rolls/
My first try at challah involved many calls to my mom, asking “what do you mean by that?” And some frustrated words.
After several mistakes and hours of letting the dough “rise”, I finally had enough and just said “duck” it. I braided the dough I had and threw it in the oven. It must have been the will of G’d because that challah came out looking pretty dang good! It tasted fine, but it wasn’t as light and fluffy as it should have been… 🙁
So here is what I learned and a few tricks as well…
- Make sure the water for your yeast is warm, not hot. This is crucial or you’ll kill the yeast and it won’t double in size at all.
- You add the yeast mixture to the wet goods before you add the sifted flour. (This is where I messed up before and ended up over-working the dough. This is why my bread was more dense than it should have been).
- Mom’s try their best, but they are not perfect. Even mine <3
- Dense challah makes the most amazing French Toast. All is not lost
All in all, it wasn’t bad. I only cried once and I think I’ll give it another try at the end of the month! What should I bake next?
If you’d like the recipe for my mom’s challah, click contact and mention “mom’s challah” in the subject!