Fresh Homemade Challah

I’ll admit it – up to now, challah has intimidated me. I’ve long wanted to make it myself but was pretty sure that I’d never be able to figure out the braid or get the consistency right. I once made bread machine challah but it was a poor imitation of the real thing. Enter The Shiksa in the Kitchen, Tori Avey. Tori manages to make traditional Jewish foods incredibly accessible with her simple, straightforward recipes and instructions. I followed her recipe for challah and her braiding instructions and baked up some truly delicious bread!

What I learned is that anyone can make challah as long as you have patience. You need to let the dough rise multiple times and the whole process takes several hours but it’s well worth it. I followed Tori’s instructions to the letter and I’m so glad I did because I impressed myself with both the taste of the bread and my braid. This is just the simple three strand braid (much like what you’d use to braid your hair) but starting off this way has given me the confidence to try with additional strands next time. And there will be a next time because this challah was just that good!

Be sure to visit The Shiksa in the Kitchen for tons more delicious recipes and inspiration!

P.S. No, this hasn’t turned into a Jewish food blog – Chris and I just made a lot of really great dishes for Rosh Hashanah. Later this week I’ll have Homemade Butterfingers and a new DIY Birthday Card so stay tuned!

By the Batch - Mom's Banana Bread

One of my favourite things about fall is that cooler weather means we can actually use our oven without the house turning into a sauna. I've hardly baked at all over the last few months but I've got big plans for that to change. I'm bringing back my By the Batch series so be sure to visit on Mondays for recipes and ideas to indulge your sweet tooth! This week I made my Mom's Banana Bread.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup margarine

2/3 cup white sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup banana (approx 3 bananas)

1 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Optional - 1/2 cup of chocolate chips or nuts

Directions:

Cream margarine with sugar. Add eggs then add banana. Mix other ingredients in a separate bowl. Mix wet and dry ingredients together. If using chocolate chips or nuts, mix them into the batter.

Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 300 for 45 minutes to an hour.

According to Sarah:

This is my mom's tried and true banana bread recipe and she has made it countless times over the years. For some reason hers always turns out much darker than mine but, no matter the colour, this banana bread always tastes great! With so few steps it's pretty foolproof. My one tip is to use rotten bananas - the blacker the skins the better. If your bananas aren't rotten you'll want to put them in a blender before you try to incorporate them with your other ingredients.

I put chocolate chips in this loaf and then, to really make it sweet, I added some simple icing on top. I don't have a recipe for this, just add milk to icing sugar until you get a good consistency. I like to make it runny enough that I can just pour it over the bread and let it drip down the sides.

Is your mouth watering yet?