ABC: Old-World Braided Coffee Cake

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This was our choice for our monthly Avid’s Baker Club where we are working our way to baking the recipes from Flo Braker book “Baking for all Occasions”.  So far everything that I have made from this book has been a success, remember the Lemon-Scented Pull-Apart Coffee Cake?

Flo mentions that this cake is “reminiscent of recipes from eastern Europe” where apparently they like their yeast-leavened cakes.

Cake you say?

Yeah, I know, it say’s Coffee Cake above. But, you tell me, does that picture above look like a cake to you?

Yeah, I thought you would agree with me.

Because that looks alot like a bread.

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Popovers

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The year that I meet Tom, we travelled to Bar Harbor, Maine for the first time to meet his extended family.  The WHOLE family, as in there were over twenty people plus expected, we had a agenda of activities sent to us before the trip.  

Sadly the occasion was not a joyous one.  See, a week after I meet Tom, his father past away. It was not a surprise passing, his father had been sick for a while and it was his time to go, everyone had made peace and they were simply getting together to celebrate his life and to scater his ashes on top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park as per his request.  I wrote about this trip here and here.

The trip for me was a chance to travel within the US.  I have to come clean, having lived in the US for more than twenty years and I’m clueless about the country in general.  I’m a snob traveler and most of my trips involved the use of a passport, so I don’t know my adopted country that well - there I said it *hung head low*

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ABC: Evie Lieb's Processor Challah

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I think I may be ready to cross out “conquer anything with yeast” off my kitchen bucket list.

Uh, maybe.

This month’s choice for Avid Baker’s Challenge called to make Challah bread.  I have to note that I love French bread, because I tend to like breads that are super “crusty” and then light and airy inside.  But, Challah is one of my favorite soft breads (the other is brioche) plus I use it all the time to make the best EVER, SUPER DUPPER EASY French Toast Casserole.  It also holds a special place in the Jewish tradition of the three Sabbath and two holiday meals, which begins with two complete loaves of Challah bread being blessed by the head of the household. On Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, the challah may be rolled into a circular shape (sometimes referred to as a “Turban Challah”), symbolizing the cycle of the year, and baked with raisins in the dough. Sometimes the top is brushed with honey in honor of the “sweet new year.”

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