Baking and Books

Sugared Challah – An Oldie But A Goodie

30 CommentsFriday • February 12, 2010 • by Ari

Sugared Challah

There are many things I love about bread, but right up there near the top is the impressive flexibility of any recipe once you’ve truly got the hang of it. My Honey-Vanilla Challah is a perfect example of this. I shared the original recipe back in 2007 yet there are at least a dozen variations of it. Sometimes I add dried apples, other times I add fresh ones.  Diced apricots and chocolate are another favorite addition, as are cinnamon and raisins, or pears and cardamom. You can add pretty much whatever flavors and mix-ins you like to this recipe, which is why I love it and also a helpful option when you’re baking at 2 o’clock in the morning and haven’t been to the grocery store in… a while. I have a good excuse though:

3 weeks old

This is our little munchkin, who is just over 3 weeks old now. He thinks I’m still in college and can stay up all night long without even missing this thing called “sleep.” I can’t say that’s the case, but overall I don’t mind the sleep deprivation. I mean,  how could I resist a face like that, especially when I imagine looks like this mean: “Hey mommy, why don’t we bake something? Who cares if it’s 2AM?!”

Being this tired has had an unexpected effect on my culinary life  - a return to the tried and true. Rather than fool around with newfangled recipes I find myself returning to old favorites like rice pudding (the first thing I made when we got home from the hospital) and pulla and challah. These are the kinds of recipes people jokingly say they know so well they could make them “in their sleep” – except in my case I sorta am making them in my sleep.

I made the challah shown here early this morning, though as you can see the shape is fairly untraditional as far as challahs go. Instead of braiding the dough I went with the monkey bread method, because who has the energy to slice bread these days? Not me. Grab and go is more my style, and this pile of fluffy buns is perfect for that. Just pull one off and enjoy. I added extra sugar to satisfy my sweet tooth – both in the dough and sprinkled on top, where I used both regular and vanilla turbinado sugar. The sugar melts in the oven, giving the top of the bread a thin, sugary crust that’s irresistible. I also increased the recipe by half to fill up the pan. That’s it! An oldie but a goodie – and a treat while baby and I watch re-watch season 2 of Lost tonight.

If you have been reading this blog since 2007 this recipe won’t be “new” to you, but I hope you’ll forgive me for visiting the archives with this slight variation. (Also thank you for reading for so long, how awesome are you?!) If you’re a newer reader and haven’t tried any of my challah recipes, then I hope you give one of them a whirl soon!

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