Bread Baking

I feel like I haven't had a night off in a long time! I worked 3 nights in a row, went to Tiffany's wedding, babysat overnight for 3 days, and then worked 5 nights in a row. Ack! I was so happy to have a quiet Sunday at home because my friend and co-worker Johanna had given me 2 dozen farm-fresh eggs from her parents' stash and I wanted to bake!

Such a lucky kid. I grew up in a "from-scratch" household. Yes, I still make a mess when I bake and yes, I still lick the bowl

These eggs are so much better than store bought because these chickens are true free-range birds. They eat grains, corn, and whatever else they can scavage, including worms and bugs. There's no such thing as a true vegeterian free-range chicken like they claim on the brown egg containers in the supermarket.

You know it's a good egg when the yolk is practically orange! True free-range eggs are much higher in beta carotene and omega-3 than their grocery store counterparts.

I trusted Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice with this liquid gold and used his recipes for challa bread and poor-man's brioche. These recipes call for 4 and 5 eggs, respectively. The recipes are more or less the same: flour, yeast, water, and eggs. But brioche is richer due to the addition of butter.

The best yeast, courtesy of Central Market. And a good example of what challa bread should look like.

That's not discoloration from the flash- it really is bright yellow!

Brioche dough rolled into a sandwich loaf

Braiding the challa dough

Mmmm bread dough is yummy!

Brioche rolls fresh from the oven. These were amazing and the crumb structure looked professional, if I do say so myself (thank you Peter Reinhart).

Challa on the left, brioche on the right. Again, the color is not distorted- the eggs made these loaves so yellow.

We'd be eating a lot of omelettes and quiche if it weren't for this book!