Some of my sourdough loaves
I'm new here, and I see a lot of pics of folks' loaves of bread and thought I too would share some pics of some of mine.
I make all sorts of bread, but sourdough is certainly my favorite to work with. I have 4 starters including one wheat starter going all the time.
Here is the first sourdough challah I made. This bread has an awesome flavor.
And here is the second one I made. You can see that I forgot the seeds on this loaf.
Third one. Getting better and better.
Number 3 opened up and ready to eat.
Here is where I get brave. This is a loaf of Neapolitan challah.
Here it is cooling. The strawberry and chocolate didn't spring quite as well as the vanilla. I believe that it was over kneaded. But it was fantastic.
Sliced up and ready to eat. I serve this with honey butter.
Thanks for looking at my bread. I'll post other loaves later.
Very nice looking breaded braids braided breads.
Oh my gosh the Neapolitan challah is absolutely fantastic! How did you get it so pink? Did it really taste like strawberry? I am just loving the idea and the colors!
So here's the recipe.
1 cup active starter at 100% hydration
6 Tbs water
2 Tbs good Mexican vanilla
3 2/3 cups high protein flour
2 tsp Salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1/4 cup Nestle Nesquik strawberry powder
2 Tbs Cocoa
Another egg for egg wash
Mix the starter, water, vanilla, egg, egg yolks, sugar, oil, 1/2 the flour, and the salt. Stir. Add more flour, a bit at a time, until the dough is too thick to stir.
Pour out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough, adding more flour sparingly, until the dough is smooth, satiny, has lost most of its stickiness, and is fairly firm. Cut dough into 3 pieces of the same weight. Now add the strawberry powder to one of the dough balls and knead until well incorporated and of a uniform color. Do the same with the cocoa.
Place dough balls into separate containers, cover and allow to rise until doubled in volume.
Punch down the dough, knead briefly, form each ball into a strand of about 12 to 14 inches in length. Braid the three strands into a loaf and place on large parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
Beat another egg with a few tablespoons of water. Brush this egg wash all over the loaf and let it rise until doubled.
Preheat oven to 350°.
When the oven is ready, brush the loaf with the egg wash again, being careful not to deflate it. Slide into the oven, bake about 35 minutes rotating loaf half way through.
This makes a very large loaf.
That looks really yummy. I've been on a braided bread kick lately too, I really need to work on my braids, but yours look fantastic!
Yummmmm that looks delicious
Can we get strawberry powder in UK?
We live under a stone,
I know a couple of grand daughters who'd die for the Neapolitan challah!
Mary
Mary, sorry to disappoint you but I'm an ex-pat Limey living in Washington state and haven't been back to England since 1990. I haven't ever heard of strawberry powder so I hope someone more up to date will be able to help you find it. Good luck, A.
Hi Mary
Nesquik is a bit like Ovaltine; mix a spoonful in a glass of milk.
I took a look on Nestlé's UK website and found it listed:
http://www.nestle.co.uk/ourbrands/productrange/drinks/nesquik/
If your local store doesn't know about it, maybe you could email Nestlé, or ask your grand-daughters where to buy it!
Cheers, Robyn
Well done.. as far as challah goes.. this is a beauty!
Yes Robyn (one of the grand daughters is called that - but she's only one of ten ... ) but the chocolate part isn't a problem, the strawberry powder is. I spent the afternoon in Waitrose looking for it - or anything akin to it. No success.
I did find some blueberry soup powder from Ikea which I might use, it will be purple instead of pink but still a contrast to the others!
Mary
Sorry Mary, I didn't explain well.
Gunslinger used Nestlé's Nesquik Strawberry Powder. It isn't made from strawberries, it's a powdered milk product which is pink in colour and flavoured strawberry; blended with milk it makes a sweet, pink milk drink. There are chocolate and banana versions of Nesquik too. They are sold in the section where Ovaltine, drinking chocolate and other such drink powders are sold.
The blueberry soup powder sounds interesting. Other people on TFL have used beetroot to provide pink colour for their bread. I suggest you put 'beetroot' into the search box, top left, to get some ideas.
It must be a pleasure baking for appreciative grandchildren.
Robyn
The original recipe calls for thawed frozen strawberries. The baker said that the flavor wasn't there, and that's why I thought of the powder. The original recipe is here http://foppish-baker.blogspot.com/2006/05/neapolitan-bread.html . I just borrowed parts of it and adapted to my challah.