YW Challah—- best grilled cheese ever!
Thick slices of Cabot cheddar , buttered Challah and a 100 yr old iron skillet. Nothing could surpass the flavor and fragrance.
Same old same old. Only new thing is using sweetened 1/2 and 1/2 on the dough pre bake. I love the flavor rather than the egg yolk wash.
Baking exactly the same formula every 2 weeks. Make a levain with stored Apple/ raisin YW and flour and another one in equal amounts with a spoonful of stored YW starter and YW and flour. Both tripled in a few hours . Dough rose and puffy and light in 2 hrs. Shaped and it was ready for the oven in 30 min. Beautiful fragrance.
I have no problems with my stored YW I carried it to Florida for a month and used it 2x there. I’ve been leaving the sludge in the bottom and keeping large pieces of fresh orange rind in it and only changing the apples and raisins when they sink. Works perfectly no dough deterioration when mixing , rising or shaping. Very happy with this series of successful YW Challah bakes so moving on to some other ideas . 
Comments
Very nice bake and the braids look perfect! Would love to have seen a crumb shot but I'm sure these got devoured already ;-). Quick question/clarification: when you make your final levain build with YW, are you adding a spoonful of your YW too? Did you use any YW for the dough hydration as well? Sorry...new to YW and trying to absorb!
Thanks so much for posting...I was actually thinking about making some Challah this weekend for Mothers Day (was going to sneak in some orange rind and flavor), so you have inspired me to give it a try with YW!
I actually just saw a show last night that showed someone using Grand Marnier in a glaze, but it was for a denser kind of bake and am not sure that would fly for this, but it sounded very tempting.
No they aren’t devoured I cut and freeze and they last about 2 weeks. I will post a crumb shot after lunch when I thaw some.
I used two levains :
1) YW 1/4 c and AP flour 1/2 c mix and let rise warm place a few hours til double then add 1/4c YW and 1/2c AP flour to this first build and let get bubbly. Used then but can save in fridge for days and will still be very active.
2) YW 1/4c and AP flour 1/2c AND 1 scoop stored YW starter from fridge. Let double and add 1/4 c YW and 1/2c AP flour to this first mixture. Let get bubbly and used then but as above can store til ready and will be very active.
These two slightly different levains take the place of 1c water and 2 c flour out of the recipe which has an additional 1 c water and 5-6 c more AP flour plus the 3 eggs and 1/4c sugar and 2 tsp salt. 30 min autolyse. 10 min speed 2 KA mixer. Rise till double shape rise till very puffy and bake 350 degrees for 35 min. ( they should have risen another 30 min but I was tired from the drive home. Drove 900 miles in one day! )
no YW added to the recipe except what was in the two levains.
Lovely challahs Caroline. I hope you're enjoying Florida, it must be quite steamy there now.
Benny
Weather was stellar for a month. Had a great time. Got in 100 miles a week on our bikes lots of gym workouts and swam many laps in the heated saltwater pool. Ate a lot of shrimp and fish. Drank too much wine! All in all a perfect holiday. Drove 900 miles in one day to get home Saturday!!! Was just cruising and seemed a good idea😊. Now doing hours and hours of gardening. Catching up on all the weeding. Take care Bennie and thank you!
Yikes! Not bad for a grandma. Lovely Challah. I've had a lot of fun baking some of your yeast water and challah recommendations. I also got a shipment of T-65 - fantastic!
Richard
Thank you. Have you posted your bakes? Would love to see. What are you baking with the t65? Did you get the regular or the organic? I have my 2nd bag of organic in the fridge . Will be getting it out and using it next week. Glad your YW is working well. c
Hope I'm not too late for lunch! Those sammies would hit the spot 😋
–AG
We eat an embarrassing amount of cheese and grilled cheese is a wonderful vehicle. Do post your bake!
Now that’s a good looking sandwich!
This breed is so delicious. Breakfast with peanut butter and honey and sliced banana. Lunch grilled cheese and dinner grilled with spaghetti and meatballs! Good thing I stay so busy!!! 😳
You’ve earned every bit of those carbs with 100 miles a week on the bike plus gym time. 😉
Been doing workouts of one sort or another since the ‘70’s. A great lifestyle and habit. Weigh within 5# of my high school weight but it’s shifted!!!😳🤦♀️😂