Weekend Baking

Two accomplishments this weekend, and not much else other than all the running I did. First, I made a blueberry pie, recipe compliments of fellow co-worker Caroline from the library (isn't it beautiful!?!),


and a challah bread from Bakingbites.com. Then, I went to the Greek festival on Saturday with Kev's parents, and for some reason I had a craving for some sweet-ish bread, and Alice (his little sister, who will be graduating from Douglas High School this next year and go on to become a brilliant astro-physisist) suggested making challah. Perfect! Here is the braided bread, unbaked. There was a tip with the recipe to sprinkle some cinnamon on the baking sheet to enhance the aroma of the bread without making the bread taste like cinnamon, and I must say my house smelled heavenly while it was baking!


Both new recipes to me, and both fantastic~ the pie was awesome, even if it was still warm when served, and the bread was so smooth and elastic when I kneeded it for the 5-8 minutes called for in the recipe. It was a pleasure to make this bread- almost as much as eating it!


The egg wash I used is different than the one called for in the recipe- I used an egg yolk and just a touch of 8th Continent Vanilla Soy Milk, so it is a pretty yellow color- this also gave the crust a rich dark color, and the vanilla complimented the sweetness of the bread nicely. The pie is gone, and the bread almost gone. The boys loved it! :) I'm happy to make things my boys like, because they're not always crazy about my experiments. I also made shrimp risotto for dinner tonight- here's a picture of my counter in the middle of the hubub... Can't cook with wine and not have any for all my efforts!