I figured since the potato bread had come out so well, I’d try my luck with more bread this weekend.

I saw a recipe online for a Leek Bread Pudding, so the logical first step was to make a loaf of challah.

My challah recipe comes from an old friend, and it’s about as simple as bread gets.  I was careful this time to bloom the yeast for the full 10 minutes, and it looked fizzy and healthy before I started adding everything else.  I took that as a good sign.

I added the rest of the ingredients – oil (I use olive), more water, more sugar, and two eggs, kneaded it in the stand mixer, then let it rise.  I put it in the oven with the door closed and the light on, and that seemed to work perfectly.  It was doubled in 2 hours, and I punched it down and let it rise another 45 minutes.

The braiding is easy – just split the dough into thirds (I never get them quite even), lay them out on parchment paper, and braid them.  I usually only get a few twists in.  Tuck the ends underneath to make it look neater.

Then let it rise one more time, and add sesame seeds and egg wash to the top, and bake.  I didn’t want the sesame seeds in the bread pudding, so I left them out this time – the picture above is from an earlier loaf.  I was sloppy with the egg wash – my egg-wash-applying-brush was in the dishwasher, so I tried to use a spoon, and it got messy:

But it was still good. And it made amazing bread pudding…but that’s the next post.

( see the recipe )

I’ve admired the Bread Baking Babes from afar for a while, but I just don’t have good yeast luck. The last two or three things I’ve baked with yeast just haven’t worked.

I don’t know why that is – I used to be able to bake bread just fine. I thought buying new yeast would help, but the yeast-based cake I tried with the new yeast also didn’t rise.

But I saw Cookie Baker Lynn’s post about her potato chive bread earlier this month, and I figured I’d give bread another try.

The recipe is originally from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson. I didn’t have soy milk, so my version wasn’t vegan – I just used the 2% milk that I happened to have in the fridge. And I didn’t knead mine by hand – I used my stand mixer.

Otherwise, I followed the recipe as written. I made the potatoes the night before and put them in the fridge overnight. I should have mashed them more finely, but when I realized there were chunks, I just turned up the speed on the mixer a bit until they were pulverized out.

When it came time to let it rise, I stole an idea from a more-competent friend, who suggested preheating the oven to 200F, then turning it off, and letting the bread rise on the now-warm stovetop.

It seemed to do the trick – mine was slow to rise, but it did eventually. I suspect there may be a draft in my kitchen. Someone else suggested letting it rise in a cold oven with just the oven light on for warmth – I’ll try that next time.

It’s really great bread. We had half the first loaf with dinner, the second half of the first loaf with soup for lunch today, and the other loaf is going to turn into French Toast (yes, even with the chives – we’ll see how it turns out!) and bread pudding.

And I got this picture, which is terrible, yet amusing:

Doesn’t that look like something you’d see on the set of a low-budget science fiction movie?

Anyway, I’m glad that my yeast problems seem to be over. At least for now.

( see the recipe )