Salted Caramel Challah

Whelp its official, I’ve got that summertime sadness! This has been the craziest winter with a whopping 100.2 inches of snow. We only need 7.4 more inches to break the record set during the winter of 1995-96 for the snowiest season on record. I am not going to lie, the snow days have been nice but beyond that it has been excessive! We’ve even had to shovel the grass so Bailey could go outside. To help bring back summer we found a summertime challah that we forgot to blog. So this Thursday we are throwing it all the way back to Fourth of July weekend to our delicious salted caramel white chocolate chip and health bar challah. This amazing combination is sure to help shake off the winter blues whether you are buried in 100.2 inches of snow or not!

Little Lindsey and Jennifer loved playing in the snow! We had a huge backyard growing up with a nice steep hill that was perfect for sledding. Even though we are supposed to be getting older and more mature, the inner kid in us still cant resist sledding and building snow men (and the occasional snow dog).

Recipe: (makes 2 loaves)
3/4 cup water
1 packet of active dry yeast (about 2 tsp)
1.5 tbsp honey
2 tbsp sugar
3 extra large eggs: 2 for dough, 1 for baste
1/4 cup oil
3-4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
Salted Caramel Spread (we used Jiff)
White Chocolate Chips
Heath Toffee Chips

Mix water, yeast, honey and sugar in a mixing bowl. Place in a warm place. This could be next to a window that gets sunlight, or I like to place it in the oven at 120 degrees and then turn off the oven. Let stand for about 10-15 minutes or until the mixture starts to foam.

In a separate bowl mix 2 eggs and oil. Add to the yeast mixture after it has foamed. Add flour and salt. Make sure you mix the flour as you are adding it. Continue to add flour until the dough is no longer sticking to your hands.

Knead the ingredients and form into a ball. Oil the large bowl and then roll the ball of dough in the oil. This prevents the dough from sticking to the bowl as it rises. Place the ball back in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place it in a warm place. Let the bowl sit for about 1-2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Remove dough from bowl and knead to get out all the air.

Separate the dough and roll out each ball into a strand. Place a layer of salted caramel spread on each strand then put white chocolate chips and heath toffee chips on top. I did a 3 strand challah, but you can do whatever shape you want.

After braiding the challah, place on a buttered cookie sheet and allow challah to rise for at least 30 minutes in a warm place. This allows the dough to rise again.

Baste with egg wash (1 egg and 1/2 tbsp water).

Bake for about 25 minutes at 350 or until internal temperature is around 170. If the top of the challah is getting too dark or hard then place a piece of foil on top of it while the inside continues to cook.

This challah was the so great and gooey!!!

Even Ally and Katie Loved the Challah... back in July!!

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Challah

All the single ladies, all the single ladies, now put your hands up!

This challah is dedicated to all the single ladies out there because although being single on Valentine's Day can suck, it is so much better than dating some idiot. If falling for losers was an Olympic sport I would for sure win the gold medal. This is exactly why I have been on a man-cation, so that I can focus on what's really important, Me. So instead of looking for a nice Jewish husband I have chosen to invest in my future, because let's be honest, a career will be there in 5 years but a guy probably won't (unless maybe at 2am). And just think about how much better our world would be if we had more strong, confident, powerful women, irrespective of relationship status. So keep your head held high and if you are ever down about being single just remember this:

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the girl who'll decide where to go." -Dr. Seuss

Recipe: (makes 2 loaves)
2/3 cup water
1 packet of active dry yeast (about 2 tsp)
1.5 tbsp honey
2 tbsp sugar
3 extra large eggs: 2 for dough, 1 for baste
1/4 cup oil
4 tbsp raspberry pastry filling
6 drops of red food dye
3-4 cups flour
1 tsp salt

Filling:
Red chocolate chips
Raspberry pastry filling

Mix water, yeast, honey and sugar in a mixing bowl. Place in a warm place. This could be next to a window that gets sunlight, or I like to place it in the oven at 120 degrees and then turn off the oven. Let stand for about 10-15 minutes or until the mixture starts to foam. In a separate bowl mix 2 eggs, oil, raspberry pastry filling and red food dye. Add to the yeast mixture after it has foamed.

Add flour and salt. Continue to add flour until the dough is no longer sticking to your hands.

Knead the ingredients and form into a ball. Oil the large bowl and then roll the ball of dough in the oil. This prevents the dough from sticking to the bowl as it rises. Place the ball back in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place it in a warm place. Let the bowl sit for about 1-2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Remove dough from bowl and knead to get out all the air.

Separate the dough and roll out each ball into a strand. Place a layer of raspberry pastry filling on each strand then put red chocolate chips on top. I did a 4 strand challah, but you can do whatever shape you want.

After braiding the challah, place on a buttered cookie sheet and allow challah to rise for at least 30 minutes in a warm place. This allows the dough to rise again.

Baste with egg wash (1 egg and 1/2 tbsp water).

Bake for about 25 minutes at 350 or until internal temperature is around 170. If the top of the challah is getting too dark or hard then place a piece of foil on top of it while the inside continues to cook. This is important for this challah so that it stays red and doesn't turn brown.

Oh Em Gee, my mouth is literally watering! This challah looks better than any man in Ohio!

Red Wine Challah

I'm in my last semester of school (hopefully ever) and I couldn't be more excited! Between school, work, and volunteering, I haven't had any free time lately so I'm actually writing this post while in class, don't tell my professors. But actually, some of my professors still don't know my name so you can go ahead and tattle because they won't know who you are talking about. In the past few months I have learned to love to hate grad school. It's for sure a worthwhile experience because I am able to gain a deeper understanding of accounting; that being said, group work is literally the worst thing to have ever been created. Literally it could be used as a form of torture. But of course the worst part about grad school is that I am so far away from my BFF Bailey. My poor dog is so sad back in Massachusetts right now because our town got 3 feet of snow. My mom dug out a path for him in the backyard but apparently he just mopes around all day. However, his moping was a a minimum on Sunday night because Bailey is a proud Patriots fan and he actually stayed up passed his bed time to see them win the super bowl. Also fun fact, Bailey was actually one of the beach balls in the half time show.

SnOw much Snow back home!! 

I can think of so many reasons to drink wine. Maybe you have had a long day, maybe it's girls night (especially TGIT), or maybe just because it's five o'clock somewhere. And as great as wine is with challah... its even better in challah. But let's be honest, I obviously had a glass (or 2) while eating the challah straight out of the oven :) Although I am usually a white wine person, I like to embrace my inner Olivia Pope every now and then and indulge in some red wine. My favorite red wine is an Australian wine called "Bitch." I like to buy wine based off the best brand titles and this one just seems to suit me.

Recipe: (makes 2 loaves)
3/4 cup Red Wine
1 packet of active dry yeast (about 2 tsp)
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp sugar
3 extra large eggs: 2 for dough, 1 for baste
1/4 cup oil
3-4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
Nutella
White Chocolate Chips
Nestle Milk Chocolate Morsels with Caramel Filled DelightFulls

Mix wine, yeast, honey and sugar in a mixing bowl. Place in a warm place. This could be next to a window that gets sunlight, or I like to place it in the oven at 120 degrees and then turn off the oven. Let stand for about 10-15 minutes or until the mixture starts to foam.

In a separate bowl mix 2 eggs and oil. Add to the yeast mixture after it has foamed.

Add flour and salt. Continue to add flour until the dough is no longer sticking to your hands.

Knead the ingredients and form into a ball. Oil the large bowl and then roll the ball of dough in the oil. This prevents the dough from sticking to the bowl as it rises. Place the ball back in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place it in a warm place. Let the bowl sit for about 1-2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Remove dough from bowl and knead to get out all the air.

Separate the dough and roll out each ball into a strand. Place a layer of nutella on each strand then put white chocolate chips and caramel filled morsels on top. I did a 3 strand challah, but you can do whatever shape you want.

After braiding the challah, place on a buttered cookie sheet and allow challah to rise for at least 30 minutes in a warm place. This allows the dough to rise again.

Baste with egg wash (1 egg and 1/2 tbsp water).

Bake for about 25 minutes at 350 or until internal temperature is around 170. If the top of the challah is getting too dark or hard then place a piece of foil on top of it while the inside continues to cook.

 

Also makes great french toast!

Quit your wine-ing and try our bitch-ing good challah! Then go to the gym so you can eat and drink some more!