Challah Back!

It's week three and I'm already starting to get sick of these ridiculous French names for everything. Today we made brioche which was complicated to learn. By the time we were done I saw it and thought "Ohh, it's a cinnamon roll!" But no, this definitely didn't taste like anything I've ever cracked out of a Pillsbury container. These were absolutely to die for.  There was just the right amount of sweetness in the bread without being overwhelming. Instead of the normal and boring cinnamon raisin flavoring, our group added candied cherries and candied oranges to ours.

The second item we baked was Savarin bread. A Savarin is a rich yeast cake which is always baked in a ring mold and soaked in either rum or Kirsch syrup. We of course chose rum. Once the cake is baked it takes on the consistency of a sponge and literally soaks up an extremely generous amount of the alcohol. We were convinced there was one shot per cake (...at least thats what we were aiming for). These tasted great with a light whipped cream frosting on top. 

Lastly we made Challah bread. While I've heard of it before, I've never actually tasted any. Throughout the entire prepping process it just seemed like any other bread and I didn't understand what was so special about it. The dough rose much quicker than most doughs so we put it in the proofer, then separated it into three equal parts. I braided the dough, and topped it off with a basic egg wash and some poppy seeds. When I finally got a chance to taste some, I couldn't believe how soft it was. It was literally melting in my mouth as I ate it. It was so tasty. If only for a moment, I debated converting religions.

The funniest thing that happened today: As we were prepping our brioche we forgot to add water. We mixed our entire dough and quickly tried to recover from our mistake by throwing some water in and mixing again. Our teacher came over, stared at our finished dough and simple stated "In this classroom, it doesn't matter what religious affiliation you follow, but we all pray to the Pastry Gods here. And you better start praying." The Pastry Gods must really exist because our finished product was one of the best in the class.

Candied Cherry Brioche

Drizzled with Icing

Savarin Bread

Topped with whipped cream frosting and fresh fruit

Challah Bread

Sprinkled with Poppy Seeds