Saturday, July 03, 2004


anxiety

i love new recipes, and i loathe them. you never know exactly how they will work out.

for example, today i'm making a new recipe for challah. i'm looking at the proportions, thinking, going hmmmm.

the recipe begins with 25 oz. flour. it also calls for 8 oz. water, 2 eggs, 6 tablespoons melted butter.

naturally i immediately sit down and try to work out this recipe's hydration percentage by the baker's formula.

8 oz. water plus let's figure the eggs contain another 4 oz. water: that's 12 oz.

the butter is about 12-14% water by weight. so let's figure this at an extra 0.5 oz. water.

this gives us 12.5 oz. water for the recipe, or only 50% hydration. and that's making me nervous. very nervous!

i'm worried the challah will be dry & crumbly with so little water. i'm used to working with european breads that are 68, even 72% hydrated!

still, i understand challah isn't that kind of loaf. but it's just unsettling.

should i have added more water? another egg? some milk? ( i know the role of milk in traditional jewish breads can be controversial, but don't beat up on me!)

what in heavens name should the hydration for a good challah be? i don't make this bread often, so i just don't know. . . i do want challah to "kvell" (gush, praise wildly) over.

once i get this worked out i'll go on to the more interesting challah types: apple, chocolate, etc. etc.

however, i do find the story of why challah is braided to be charming. some say that each strand has a meaning. the first braid stands for "remember;" the second, "protect" or "cherish;" and the third braid, the one that unites the other two, is said to mean that you must do the remembering and cherishing at the same time -- they cannot be separated, just as after baking the braids grow together into one loaf.

however, i have to confess that it's common to see challah of 4, 6, even 8 braids. and of course on some holidays, the challah is formed as a wreath -- so i'm not sure how reliable this explanation is!

posted by fortune | 10:40 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments