Putting the “no fail challah” to the test
I woke in pain this morning at 2:30am. The pain is probably the result of the dental surgery which was performed Monday. Since I knew it would be a good 20 minutes before the painkillers kicked in I decided to make more challah as we were down to our last loaf. Besides, what else can one do at 2:30am?
I had brought a few kilos of whole wheat flour and I was feeling experimental and since my grandmother’s recipe advertises itself as the ‘Lubavitcher No Fail Challah‘; why not test the limits and make it with whole wheat flour. Now I did remember reading an issue with baking with whole wheat flour is the lack of rise and the potential density of the bread. To compensate I mixed 4 cups of regular white all-purpose flour to 8 cups of whole wheat.
Those suckers rose, and kept rising. In fact, the kitchen was in danger of being taken over by the rising dough. I just popped the first two loaves in the oven and I have discovered two things. The whole wheat takes longer to bake, and it needs at least three swipes with the egg wash – approximately one go every 15 minutes.
The bread did come out soft and flaky but I am not sure I am entirely satisfied with the result. I will hold off final judgement until the boys get up and hear what they have to say. I think I will try the ‘nutri-flour’ next time which advertises itself to be a very finely ground whole wheat flour which looks like unbleached white flour. Any one have any experience baking with this new kind of flour – please send me any tips or suggestions.
