This time it’s challah! (But on a Thursday?) I have three different recipes but which one to use? Not the one requiring six eggs, thanks. (I only have four in the house.) I combine the Mark Bittman (How to Cook Everything) and the most recent edition of Joy of Cooking, using Bittman’s recipe and Joy’s rising times. So. I combine part of the water and yeast, and then eggs, sugar, salt and flour and start thinking ‘uggh, why is this so dry? Please don’t let this turn into the hamantashen disaster of 2003’ but then a-ha, oh right, I forgot the rest of the water. I knead and cover and wait, then beat the now puffy dough down and stick it in the fridge for three or four hours.
By now I am SO BEAT, it is time to try a Girl Drink Drunk cocktail recipe, taken from the the Fog City Diner Cookbook. It’s the Pterodactyl! Oh shit, I forgot to buy limes. Maybe I’ll just add more pineapple juice. I fiddle with the proportion of the juice, the simple syrup, and the Stolichnaya Limonnaya (ok, fine, it’s Smirnoff Citrus Twist, ’cause I’m cheap.) Shake in my $2 cocktail shaker, and well. It’s sticky and strong. Maybe it does need lime juice.
Back to the bread! Knead, rest, roll into three pieces, (WAIT, I have no rolling pin!) braid. Cover and rest and then brush with a pastry brush. (Surprisingly, I actually do have one of those. Thanks Williams-Sonoma store!) BAKE.
It’s yummy. The crust is crunchier than I remember it being on store bought loaves, and maybe next time I will add more eggs to the dough to get a lovely yellow look. It’s nice with butter. And maybe another Pterodactyl.