Pumpking Cinnamon Rolls

I'm sticking with my pumpking typo as a thing. What of it?!

Anyway, in our fall cooking festivities, I ventured to try SK's pumpkin cinnamon rolls. It was a little challenging at moments, but teamwork is great help, and they were tasty. I didn't get a strong pumpkin flavor, but it was good. Plus it felt fun and fancy to have made them by hand. Also, I think my yeast wasn't great because it didn't rise as it should have, so I think that explains some discrepancies between her pictures and mine.

Fair warning: this is pretty involved and took me quite a few hours over the course of an afternoon and a morning. Just know what you're getting yourself into.

Dough
6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, to be divided
1/2 cup (120 ml) whole milk, warmed (but not over 116 degrees)
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (from 1 .25-ounce or 7 gram envelope yeast)
3 1/2 cups (440 grams) all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out
1/4 cup (packed) (50 grams) light or dark brown sugar
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon (6 grams) table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2/3 cups (160 grams) pumpkin puree, canned or homemade
1 large egg
Oil for coating rising bowl

Filling
3/4 cup (packed, 145 grams) light or dark brown sugar
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons (5 grams) ground cinnamon

Glaze
4 ounces (115 grams) cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons (30 ml) milk or buttermilk
2 cups (240 grams) powdered sugar, sifted
Few drops vanilla extract (optional)

Make your dough: 
Melt your butter, and hey, if you’re melting it in a little saucepan, you might as well brown it for extra flavor. Once the butter has melted, keep cooking it over medium heat for a few additional minutes. It will become hissy and sizzle a lot, then take on a nutty flavor as golden bits form at the bottom of the pot. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.

Combine your warmed milk and yeast in a small bowl and set aside. After five to seven minutes, it should be a bit foamy. If it’s not, you might have some bad yeast and should start again with a newer packet.

In the bottom of the bowl of an electric mixer combine flour, sugars, salt and spices. Add just 1/4 cup (or two-thirds of; leave the rest for assembly) of your melted/browned butter and stir to combine. Add yeast-milk mixture, pumpkin and egg and mix combined. Switch mixer to a dough hook and run it for 5 minutes on low.

Scrape mixture into a large oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside for 1 hour in a draft-free place; it should just about double.

While it is rising, line the bottom of two 9-inch round cake pans (8-inch round should work too, as does an 8-inch square) with parchment paper and butter the sides of the pan and the paper.

Assemble buns: 
Scoop dough onto a very well floured surface and flour the top of it well. With a rolling pin, roll the dough to an approximately 16×11-inch rectangle. Brush reserved melted/browned butter over dough. Stir together remaining filling ingredients and sprinkle mixture evenly over dough. Starting on a longer side, roll the dough into a tight spiral. It’s going to make a mess because the dough is crazy soft and some stuff spills off the ends; don’t sweat it. It will all be delicious in the end.

Here’s how to cut cinnamon rolls without squishing their pretty spirals: With a sharp serrated knife, using absolutely no pressure whatsoever (only the weight of the blade should land on the dough) gently saw your log with a back-forth motion into approximately 1-inch sections. When a soft dough like this is rolled, it tends to grow longer, which means that you’ll have the option to either make more buns (say, 18 instead of 16) or just cut them a little larger (in generous inches).

Divide buns between two prepared pans. You can sprinkle any sugar that fell off onto the counter over them. Cover each pan with plastic wrap and let rise for another 45 minutes.

If you’re doing this ahead of time, you can now put them in the fridge overnight. In the morning, leave them out for an hour to warm up and finish rising.

15 minutes before you’re ready to bake them, heat the oven to 350°F. Meanwhile, you can make the glaze. Beat your cream cheese until it is light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Drizzle in milk until you get the consistency you’re looking for, either thick enough to ice or thin enough to drizzle.

Finish your buns: 
Remove the plastic and bake buns for 25 minutes, until puffed and golden and the aroma brings all the boys to your yard is like a snickerdoodle. Transfer pans to wire cooling racks and drizzle/schmear with cream cheese glaze, then have at them.

Pumpking Beer Bread

This was one of the first recipes I cooked for my now-boyfriend when we first started hanging out this summer/fall. It was starting to cool off, and stores were stocking up delicious fall treats for October. We decided to have a fall cooking weekend, so I pulled up this pumpkin beer bread recipe a friend showed me and decided to give it a whirl. Very yummy. I'm giving the recipe as I originally found it, but I made it a second time and doubled all the spices and really liked that better. 

Also I keep mistyping Pumpking instead of just pumpkin, so I'm officially just going with it and dubbing this bread Pumpking Beer Bread. King of the pumpkin beer breads. Why not?

[as I mentioned before, I doubled all the spices the 2nd time I made it because I love delicious spices]


Oil or butter for greasing the pan
1¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch ground nutmeg
Pinch ground allspice
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup pumpkin purée
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin ale

1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch loaf pan. Combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice in a large bowl.

2. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat (or in a medium bowl in the microwave). Remove from the heat. Stir in the pumpkin and brown sugar, then stir in the eggs. Finally, stir in the pumpkin ale. Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients and stir just until combined, then transfer the batter to the greased pan.

3. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool thoroughly, then slice and serve. (Leftover pumpkin bread can be wrapped in foil or plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to a few days.)

Muffin Bread Pudding

As I did not eat up all my muffins from the other day and they got sort of stale, I wanted to see if I could make them into a bread pudding, which I've never made before. According to Joy of Cooking, you can't make muffins into bread pudding, so that made me sad, but I decided to google it before I gave up. SK didn't have anything, but I found a couple random blogs that had recipes, and this one seemed to match what I wanted to do most similarly. The cinnamon in it was really nice, so I would maybe add a bit more next time because I liked it so much. Looking over the recipe, I really didn't even use a lot of what it had, but I got the basics and it turned out pretty well. More cinnamon would have been good, and I guess I could have cooked it for longer, but it was tasty. Especially with some Blue Bell homemade vanilla ice cream, which will always be my love of loves for simple desserts.

1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups milk
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp almond extract [didn't have]
6 muffins, crumbled (about 4-5 cups) [I only have 5 muffins]
2 Tbl butter, melted [didn't use and didn't even see until now...]
1/2 cup raisins (optional) [didn't use]
1/2 cup slivered almonds, chopped [didn't use]

1. preheat oven to 350 f. spray or lightly butter a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.
2. beat together sugar, eggs, and milk in a medium size bowl.
3. beat in cinnamon, nutmeg, and almond extract.
4. add crumbled muffins to the pan.  carefully toss with optional raisins.
5. pour melted butter over muffins.  add milk mixture and sprinkle with almonds.
6. bake for about 45 minutes until top is crusty and pudding looks set and is firm to the touch.
7. cut into slices while in the pan.  serve plain or with suggested accompaniments.

strawberry banana breakfast cake

This is SO DELICIOUS! I'm super excited about it. I made this recipe several times before - the strawberry summer cake - and I recently made it as cupcakes for my boyfriend and I and added bananas. YES, PLEASE! They caramelized a bit on top and were so incredible that I just had to make it again as soon as we ate the cupcakes. I decided to do it as a cake because the cupcakes didn't quite have the surface area I wanted/needed and the bananas caramelized a bit onto the cupcake pan and that was not as much fun to clean up. So I just used the same strawberry cake recipe as before, wedged the strawberries in first (all over the place), and then put the bananas on top. I think we got about 10 slices of this, but I seriously could eat it all in one sitting, happily.

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for pie plate
1 1/2 cups (188 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 cup (200 grams) plus 2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup (118 ml) milk
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
1 pound (450 grams) strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 10-inch pie pan or 9-inch deep-dish pie pan (what I used). This cake would also work in a 9- or 10-inch springform or cake pan. The 10-inch would make a thinner cake than pictured.

Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.

Pour into prepared pie plate. This time, I wedged the strawberries into it because the cake rises more than you'd think and this way there is fruit throughout. I laid my banana slices on top of the cake and strawberries and then the cake rose around them. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries. [I'm not sure whether or not I think the sugar is necessary with the bananas on top - I did it for the cake but not the cupcakes and couldn't tell a difference, so why bother?]

Bake cake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake cake until golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes to 60 minutes [significantly less for cupcakes]. (Gooey strawberries on the tester are a given.) Let cool in pan on a rack.

cheddar mustard beer pull apart bread

Hello superbowl food! I wasn't that excited about the game this year (a combination of still getting back into football after a few years abroad and out of it and not caring about the teams too much), but I knew I wanted to make some superbowl food to take with me to watch the game. I had made the banana cupcakes the day before, and then SK posted this recipe for savory pull apart bread, so I had my bases covered. I ended up watching most of the game at my boyfriend's friend's house (which is conveniently located around the corner from my apt), and as the only girl, I also had the only sweet and bread contributions (aka, they had just ordered wings and bought beer).

This was not so difficult to make, but I rarely feel overwhelmed by a recipe (well, one that involves baking anyway). I chose to make the dough the night before and keep it in the fridge and then finish it by making the filling and baking it a couple hours before the game. That probably contributed to me not thinking it was such a big undertaking. I also felt that it wasn't terribly hard to assemble the bread, which was a bit surprising. And although I wasn't completely sold the instant I ate it (you'd expect more cheese in every bite but it gets soaked into the bread or something), I ended up liking it and the guys took care of the rest handily.

 Yellow time: mustard sauce + dough + countertop = indistinguishable

Bread
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup plus 1/3 beer, preferably dark but really, use whatever you like to drink
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1/3 cup rye flour (use additional a-p flour if you don’t have this) [I used wheat]
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) instant yeast
1 teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature

Filling
3 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon Dijon or a mustard of your choice
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Dash of hot sauce
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon table salt
Several grinds black pepper
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar [I did not measure out and probably used more]

Make dough:
In a small saucepan, heat the 4 tablespoons butter and 1/4 cup of beer, just until the butter has melted. Remove from heat and add the remaining 1/3 cup beer. Set aside to cool down slightly. You want the mixture warm (110 to 116 degrees), but not steaming hot.

Meanwhile, in the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together 2 cups of the all-purpose flour, sugar, yeast and table salt. With the mixer on low, pour in the butter-beer mixture, mixing only until the flour is moistened. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix until combined. The batter will look lumpy, but will become smooth in a moment. Add the remaining 1/2 cup all-purpose flour and all of the rye flour, mixing until just combined. Replace paddle with a dough hook and let the machine knead the dough for 3 to 4 minutes on low. [My mixer was not at its best with this recipe, so I ended up kneading it by hand.]

Oil a medium/large bowl and transfer dough to it. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and set aside for 50 to 60 minutes, until doubled. Meanwhile, prepare fillings.

[Do ahead: You can also rest the dough in the fridge overnight -- wrapped tightly with plastic. The next day, let it rest at room temperature for an hour before rolling out.]
[I wasn't clear on whether I should let it rise for an hour and THEN put it in the fridge, so I didn't, but I think that would have been the correct way to do it.]


Make filling: 
Back in the same small saucepan you used for the butter and beer, melt the 3 tablespoons butter. Remove from heat and whisk in mustard, Worcestershire and hot sauce until smooth. Set aside.

In the bottom of a medium bowl, stir together mustard powder, paprika, table salt and several grinds of black pepper. Add shredded cheddar and toss until grated strands are evenly coated with spices. I like to keep this in the fridge until needed so it doesn’t get soft and clumpy, making it harder to sprinkle over the dough in a bit.


Assemble bread: 
Either coat a 9-by-5 loaf pan lightly with butter or a nonstick spray and set aside.

Turn dough out onto a well-floured counter and roll the dough into a 20-by-12-inch rectangle, making sure it doesn’t stick to the counter by lifting sections and re-flouring the counter as needed. Brush the butter-mustard-Worcestershire mixture evenly over the whole surface, right up to the edges. Cut the dough crosswise into 5 strips; each should be 12-by-4 inches. Sprinkle the first one evenly with a heaping 1/4 cup of the grated cheese (which is now fine to leave out at room temperature). Gently place another strip on top of it, coat it with another heaping 1/4 cup of cheese, and repeat with remaining strips until they are stacked 5-high and all of the cheese is used.

With your very sharpest serrated knife, gently — so gently! The lightest sawing motions the weight of the blade will allow! — cut your stack into 6 to 7 2-inch segments (each stacked segment should be 4-by-2 inches). I say 6 to 7 range because while your 12-inch length should clearly yield only 6 2-inch segments, I find that the soft dough stretches so much when you lift and stack it that I end up with 7. Either amount will fit; this is totally not something to fret over.

Arrange stacks of dough down the length of your prepared loaf pan as if filling a card catalog drawer. I make this easier by standing my loaf pan up on its short end to make the next part easier. If, when you finish filing all of your dough stacks, you ended up with less than needed for the dough “cards” to reach the end of the pan, when you return the pan to rest flat on the counter again, just shimmy it a little so the dough centers. It will all even out in the final rise/oven. If you ended up with too many dough cards, before you add the last stack, simply press gently on the dough already filed to make room for it.

Loosely cover the pan with more plastic wrap and set it aside to rise again for 30 to 45 more minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Bake loaf for 25 to 35 minutes, until puffed and brown. Transfer it to a wire rack and let it cool for 5 minutes before flipping it out onto a serving plate/cutting board. Serve warm with cold beer.

Loaf “pulls” apart the easiest when it is hot or warm. If it has cooled beyond the point that the layers wish to easily separate, simply serve it in thin slices. Wrap leftovers in plastic and keep at room temperature for a day. I bet the leftovers would be fantastic reheated with scrambled eggs.

Nutritional Information (for 1/10 of recipe)
271 total calories
14g total fat
27g total carbs
9g protein

margarita pizza, with stone

I gave my boyfriend a pizza making kit for Christmas, and we finally got around to using it (finally only because we cook so often). I wanted to make homemade dough for it (memories of making pizza weekly with Eryn in Morocco and the giggles that accompanied all of our kitchen time), so I've included the basic recipe from SK, though I tweaked it a bit. I think using the whole wheat flour instead of some of the regular flour contributed to the thickness of the dough, as did some perhaps imperfect measurements on my part. When it was hot, it was good, but the crust part was a bit more chewy than normal. I haven't had this problem using the same recipe but all white flour, so if you follow it exactly, you shouldn't have a problem.

We first baked the dough on the stone with a bit of olive oil, garlic, herbes de Provence, fresh thyme, and black pepper. Once it was about halfway done, we brought it out and put on the tomato sauce (from a jar), mozzarella and parmesan cheeses, and tomatoes, and put it back in the oven. When it was finished, we sprinkled fresh basil on the top, and voila. It was very yummy. We even enjoyed it cold the next day (sometimes reheating in an oven [no microwave], though worth it when I do, is more than I'm bothered to try).

*I doubled this recipe for our pizza, but I have used this for two and its been good (and thinner)


6 tablespoons warm water (may need up to 1 or 2 tablespoons more water)
2 tablespoons white wine
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups flour [I used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour with 1 cup regular flour]


Whisk wine, water and yeast in a medium bowl until yeast has dissolved. Add honey, salt and olive oil and stir. Add flour and no matter how dry it looks, work it with a spoon and your fingers until it comes together as a dough. Add more water one tablespoon at a time if you need, but in my experience, this is almost never necessary.

Sprinkle some flour on the counter and knead the dough for a minute or two.

If you’re like me and always trying to reduce the number of dirty dishes left at the end of the night, wash the bowl you made the dough in, dry it and coat the inside with olive oil. Put the dough in, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise for an hour or up to two, until it is doubled.

[Easiest way to tell if a dough has risen enough? Dip two fingers in flour, press them into the dough, and if the impression stays, it's good to go. If it pops back, let it go until it doesn't.]

chocolate chip spice scones

I've made variations on these scones a few times, but this was the most improvising I've done. They really should be called everything but the kitchen sink scones because I did not have all the ingredients on hand by a long shot. I'll post the original recipe and my interpretation this time... They turned out all right, though. I did some with chocolate chips and some without, and I definitely thought the chips added something good and necessary to it.

Courtney’s Cardamom Ginger Scones

3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¾ tsp ground cardamom
1 egg
1 cup yogurt/crème fraiche
¼ cup chopped candied ginger
½ cup sugar

*my version

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

¾ tsp apple pie spice mix (ground cinnamon, cloves, etc)

1 egg

1/2 cup yogurt/crème fraiche

1/2 cup applesauce [I may have used more to get it to a workable consistency]

½ cup sugar

3/4 cup chocolate chips

preheat oven to 375
mix dry ingredients first
then add stick of butter (cubed into small pieces) [if you want to add butter, I don't usually]
add egg, yogurt, sugar, spices, and chocolate chips
mix together until thick dough mixture
bake in oven for around 25 minutes

quick note

I've been rather MIA lately with the holidays, but I'll be back soon. I have a few little recipes to post from Christmas, and I'll get them up this week.

I made beer bread yesterday, and this time I used the Shiner Light Blonde beer. I think it was my favorite beer bread that I've made. The beer's flavor lingers a bit and dictates the taste of the bread a bit, and I thought the Shiner Light Blonde was pretty unobtrusive and let it taste more like really good bread than flavored beer bread, if that makes sense. Anyway, just thought I'd share.

Be back soon! Hope everyone had happy holidays and have a happy new year!

pretzels

One of my roommates made pretzels a few times in Bulgaria, and they were so so delicious that I've been wanting to try them out myself. I couldn't get a hold of her and the recipe she used, so I tried this one from, where else, SK. It turned out pretty well and was easy to make. I used whole wheat flour for 2 of my 5 cups of flour, and I think it may have made them a bit tougher and chewier than the average pretzel. Next time I'll probably just stick with straight white flour. They don't last very well, so I recommend getting them eaten within a day or so, not that it should be so hard. On most of mine, I sprinkled sea salt, but I made a cinnamon sugar mixture that I dusted over a few and it was pretty tasty. Even better, I had (and still have) leftover cream cheese frosting from the coconut cupcakes, and the cinnamon pretzels dipped in that are quite a treat.

Oh, and I mixed it with a wooden spoon as she mentioned doing, which worked well except for the wooden spoon that I broke in the process. It was probably old, but watch out!

 heart shaped pretzel stains!

Makes 16 full-sized or 32 miniature

2 cups warm water (100°F to 110°F)
1 tablespoon + 2 tablespoons sugar
1 packet active dry yeast
5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons canola or other neutral oil
1/4 cup baking soda
1 large egg
Coarse or pretzel salt

Vegetable-oil cooking spray

1. Pour warm water and 1 tablespoon sugar into bowl of electric mixer fitted with a dough hook* and stir to combine. Sprinkle with yeast, and let sit 10 minutes; yeast should be foamy.

2. Add 1 cup flour to yeast, and mix on low until combined. Add salt and 4 cups more flour, and mix until combined, about 30 seconds. Beat on medium-low until dough pulls away from sides of bowl, about 1 1/2 minutes. Add another 1/2 cup flour, and knead on low 1 minute more. If dough is still wet and sticky, add 1/2 cup more flour (this will depend on weather conditions); knead until combined, about 30 seconds. Transfer to a lightly floured board, and knead about ten times, or until smooth.

3. Pour oil into a large bowl; swirl to coat sides. Transfer dough to bowl, turning dough to completely cover all sides. Cover with a kitchen towel, and leave in a warm spot for 1 hour, or until dough has doubled in size.

4. Heat oven to 450°F. Lightly spray two baking sheets with cooking spray (parchment paper, ungreased, also works). Set aside. Punch down dough to remove bubbles. Transfer to a lightly floured board. Knead once or twice, divide into 16 pieces (about 2 1/2 ounces each) or 32 if making miniature pretzels, and wrap in plastic.

5. Roll one piece of dough at a time into an 18-inch-long strip. [I find the pretzels much easier to roll on an unfloured board, oddly enough, but see what works for you.] Twist into pretzel shape; transfer to prepared baking sheet. Cover with a kitchen towel. Continue to form pretzels; eight will fit on each sheet (you may need a third sheet if making miniatures). Let pretzels rest until they rise slightly, about 15 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, fill large, shallow pot with 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil. Add baking soda (and step back, it foams up quickly) and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Reduce to a simmer; transfer three to four pretzels to water. Poach 1 minute on each side. Use slotted spoon to transfer pretzels to baking sheet. Continue until all pretzels are poached.

7. Beat egg with 1 tablespoon water. Brush pretzels with egg glaze. Sprinkle with salt. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on wire rack, or eat warm. Pretzels are best when eaten the same day, but will keep at room temperature, uncovered, for two days. Do not store in covered container or they will become soggy.

* These days, I mix all of my bread doughs by hand, with a wooden spoon. I find it a fantastically easy process, and not very hard to stir by hand. No need to mix for several minutes, just a minute or so after it looks combined. To save even more dishes, I rinse out the bowl, oil it and use it for proofing the dough. And you thought making bread wasn’t simple!

honey apple challah

I really love making bread. Although I was teased on facebook, I will say it again - there is something beautifully rhythmic and physical about kneading dough, and I love it. This was definitely a process to make - I think the whole process took me about 5 hours, but a lot of the time was spent letting it rise and bake. In terms of overall effort, it wasn't too much: initial mixing, kneading, mixing in the apples, and braiding were the active steps. And I promise, even though braiding bread sounds hard, it really isn't! If you get confused, check out SK's post for this and look at her step by step photos. I didn't have any trouble at all and have never made challah before.

My only comments about this recipe, which she does mention and I just didn't pay close attention ahead of time, are that I think the apples should have some cinnamon-sugar mixture on them first before mixing them into the bread and that this makes great french toast. I made it today for brunch for myself and sprinkled cinnamon-sugar on the eggy bread before I put it in the pan, and it tasted heavenly. So there's a good chance that the rest of my roll/loaf/whatever you call a whole challah will be eaten in that delicious form.

*If you measure your oil in your 1/3 cup measuring cup first, and then your honey, the honey will slide right out.

Makes 1 round woven challah

Bread
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 standard 1/4-ounce packet) active dry yeast
1/3 cup (79 ml) plus 1 teaspoon honey
1/3 cup (79 ml) neutral oil, plus more for the bowl
2 large eggs plus 1 large yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons (8 grams) table salt
4 1/4 cups all-purpose (530 grams) or bread flour (578 grams), plus more for your work surface

Apple filling
2 medium baking apples (I love baking with MacIntoshes), peeled, cored and in 1/2- to 3/4-inch chunks
Squeeze of lemon juice, to keep them from browning
[I recommend mixing some cinnamon-sugar on them]
[Also, I found that my chunks seemed rather large, so I would make them smaller even though I'm sure mine measured 1/2 - 3/4 inches]

Egg wash
1 large egg
Coarse or pearl sugar for sprinkling (optional)

[Total time for this: mix + knead, 1 hour rise, apples in, 30 min rise, braid, 45 min rise, 45 min baking = work time + 2h15m rising + 45 min baking = 3h45 min at the least]

Make your dough: 
Whisk yeast and 1 teaspoon honey into 2/3 cup warm water and let stand until foamy, a few minutes.

With a stand mixer: 
In the bowl of a stand mixture, whisk together yeast mixture, oil, remaining honey (1/3 cup), eggs and yolk. Switch to dough hook and add 4 1/4 cups flour and salt. Use dough hook on a moderate speed until it pulls all of the flour and wet ingredients together into a craggy mass. Lower the speed and let the dough hook knead the dough for 5 minutes, until smooth, elastic and a little sticky.

[I have a weird attachment for my mixer that I assume is for dough, so I used that, but after it got everything combined into a ball, I went ahead and kneaded it for 5 minutes on my counter instead of having it do that since it didn't seem quite as good. Perhaps if I had the correct dough hook instead of the loop that I have, it would have worked, but I don't know.]

By hand:
In a large bowl, whisk together yeast mixture, oil, remaining honey (1/3 cup), eggs and yolk. Add flour all at once and stir with a wooden spoon until you get a craggy mass of uneven dough. Turn dough out onto a floured counter and knead it into a smooth, elastic dough, about 5 to 8 minutes. Try to use as little flour as necessary when kneading the dough; you don’t want to toughen the bread. A bench scraper can make it really easy to remove it from the counter if it gets stuck in a spot. [More bread tips here.]

Both methods: 
Transfer dough to large oil-coated bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 1 hour, or until almost doubled in size.

Add apples to dough: 

• Turn dough out onto a floured counter and gently press it down into a flat, oblong shape. The shape does not matter so however it goes, it goes. 
• Spread 2/3 of apple chunks over 1/2 of the flattened dough. 
• Fold the other half over the apple chunks and press the dough down around them, flattening the now lumpy dough. 
• Spread the remaining 1/3 apple chunks over half the folded dough. 
• Fold the other half over the apples, pressing the dough down again. Your dough packet will likely be square-ish. 
• Fold the corners under with the sides of your hands and form the dough into a round. 
• Upend your empty bowl over and set it aside for another 30 minutes.

Weave your bread: 

• Divide dough into 4 pieces. 
• Roll and stretch each one as carefully as you can into a rope — don’t worry about getting it too long or thin, just 12 inches or so should do. 
• If any apple chunks fall out as you form the ropes or at any other time in the forming of the loaf or risings, just poke them back in with your finger.
• Arrange two strands in each direction, perpendicular to each other, like a plus sign. 
• Weave them so that one side is over, and the other is under, where they meet. So, now you’ve got an 8-legged woven-headed octopus. 
• Take the four legs that come from underneath the center and move them over the leg to their right, i.e. jumping it. 
• Take those legs that were on the right and again, jump each over the leg before, this time to the left. If you had extra length to your ropes, you can repeat these left-right jumps until you run out of rope. For me, this was enough. 
• Just as you had with the folded packet of apple dough above, tuck the corners/odd bumps under the dough with the sides of your hands to form a round.

Transfer the dough to a parchment-covered heavy baking sheet or baker’s peel (if you’ll be using a bread stone). Beat egg until smooth and brush over challah.

Let challah rise for another hour but 45 minutes into this rise, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Bake your loaf: 
Before baking, brush loaf one more time with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar if you’re using it. Bake in middle of oven for 40 to 45 minutes. It should be beautifully bronzed; if yours starts getting too dark too quickly, cover it with foil for the remainder of the baking time. The very best way to check for doneness in any bread but especially on like this where the wetness of the apples can slow down the baking time a bit, is with an instant read thermometer — the center of the loaf should be 195 degrees.