Friday night, Challah and sugary doughnuts

I have taken so long to be able to dedicate time to this blogg, but things happen because of a reason so now I am ready to share my experiences about the beauty and  soul lessons of making bread. Few months ago, I attended my second course on EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique, which consists in unblocking negative energy in the body's magnetic field created by traumas and negativity in our life while working on the meridians of the body. (See: http://www.eft-courses.org.uk/what-is-eft.html). There I met a lovely lady with who spontaneously began to share our enthusiasm in making bread. I told her that one of my favourite breads to make was the Challah bread and she then told me that she was from the Jewish tradition. We had a moment of deep heart talking with each other, a moment in which we could imagine the unity and love in the Prophet Ibrahim's family and a deep desire that Inshallah, one day we will be able again all of us go back to the Prophet's way, described in the Qur'an as Al Hanif, the one living in complete consciousness of Al Haqq or The Reality without being manipulated or distracted by external or internal powers. The path in which there is no separation between his belief, his actions, his knowledge and his heart. The path that connects us to our fitra, our spiritual nature that we are all born with and unite all of us regardless of the spiritual tradition we follow, we all want to go back to it in the purest way. The Qur’an speaks of the Prophet Ibrahim standing against all the people of the town in a revel and revolutionary way against the worshiping of the pagan gods made of stone, a moment of complete truthfulness to own self and everything around him gave him the power for such bravery. In the clearing of negative patterns, ideologies and beliefs in the process of EFT this is all what it takes, recognise with truthfulness our own self. One of the greatest lessons I got from the course was to understand in a deeper level that everything around us speaks about our sickness and the medicine for our healing, and it is there for us placed mercifully to see when we are ready. Like this bread, the Challah, the lessons of life braid themselves in order to give us manna, the same way that God will feed the Israelites in the dessert. It is said in the Torah that God will give double portion on Fridays in order to be able to eat the next day, the Shabbat and spend the whole day in contemplation of God and our actions or creations it is a day dedicated to listen the way of the heart. This is what this bread means in its deeper level, to come back to the way of the heart and braid thoughts, actions, creations feelings in order to contemplate them being submerged in the One Reality as God commands the Israelites to offer one portion of the bread to Him once that they are able to start eating from the soil of the Holy Land.  (See: http://www.chabad.org/theJewishWoman/article_cdo/aid/335973/jewish/The-Secret-of-Challah.htm).  In the Islamic tradition we will dedicate our Thursday night, or the night of Friday for duas, to talk and supplicate to God. It is very well known that by Friday, God would give you a sign to show you that your prayers have been answered which naturally leads us to a rested soul, a soul in peace and tranquillity free from needs and desires for Saturday.
Of course I don't  wait until friday to make challa bread, I do it every time I feel in mood of it. But I hae done it several times on friday wih the intention of thanking God for the blessings of the  week. Use the same recipe to make the doughnuts, although if your intention is to make only  the  doughnuts I will suggest to delete the egg yolks. This same recipe is also very nice to make bread buns. You can me the bread buns and doughnuts with no yolks and it will be fine. The yolks give a very rich taste characteristic of the challa bread. I personally don't like half way tastes, I will always suggest to use the best butter, full fat milk and free range eggs and when posible organic flour. Here is he recipe, enjoy!

If you would like to enhance the flavour you can start  one night before by making a sponge otherwise just join all the ingredients the same day (the ones off the sponge and of the next day):

Sponge:
200 ml full fat milk
250 gr. white strong (bread) flour
1 tablespoon of cane sugar (or honey)
15 gr. of yeast (fresh if possible if not, 1 tablespoon of active yeast activated in 50 ml. of water and delete 50 ml from the milk or 1 packet of instant yeast)

Mix all the ingredients and leave this sponge for 8 hours resting covered with a cling film or a bag. Remember, more you wait, tastier it is.

Dough:
250 gr  white strong (bread flour)
1 tablespoon of cane sugar (or honey)
2 teaspoons of sea  salt
60 gr. room temperature butter
2 eggs and 2 yolks (if you decide to prepare only the doughnuts or half recipe for doughnut and the other half  for  buns, or just dont like the challa so eggy, delete the yolks and add 50 ml. of milk do so little  by little feeling the moist of the  dough first)


If you ad a sudden desire of bread, as it happens to me all the time, and cannot wait for 8 hours just use all the ingredients all at the same time and it will be allright and still delicious.

Mix the flour with the sugar and salt and with your fingers mix the butter untill is all incorporated to the flour then add the eggs and little by little mix the dough to the sponge and kneal well. (I will write soon my knealing technique) Let the dough rest until double size or for around 1 hour in  a warm place (I usually switch  on the heaters and put it on the top covered with blanckets).

 When ready, divide the dough in 2, one for the doughnuts and  one for the Challah or buns. Make the doughnuts quite small  balls and  let them rest for  half and hour to one hour and then fry in hot oil that has been  on medium heat for 15 minutes.  Fry for a few  minutes until folden and cover directly with caster sugar mixed with  a bit of cinnamon. 

For the challah braid  it as you like,  3,4 or 6 braids, there is plenty of ways in the youtube, even like a charachole.  Let it rest one hour and then mix a little of milk with an egg and a pinch of salt, brush your challah all over with that mixture and put sesame seeds or poppy  seeds  on top. Make the buns  as big or small you like them to be and let them rest 1 hour. Remember to preheat the oven in 220 degrees. Hope you will enjoy it.

 

Tips: Challah can be  sometimes a tricky bread, all depends on the  temperature or humedity of the day. Be
 patient when knealling, kneal little by little and let it rest  for a few minues,  two, three times  if necessary, clean your hands and go back to it and kneal it a bit more until the dough is not that sticky. Dont feel tempted to put more and more flour becuase the process will be endles and that is becuase you need to fie time for the gluten to activate and if you keep adding more flour you will just make it stickyer. Ony put flour at the very end to let the dough rest or when the dough feels far to wet.

Bread and more bread...

 During this last Christmas holidays, I was so busy that I wasn't really able to sit down to write, but misterously, I was having enough time to make bread. I feel that it was my own pecular way of disconnecting from "have to do" and I just let my hands work in this beutiful alchemy of making bread. This blogg is meant to share different ways in which we use our hands to create little or big things, but it seems that bread has been the theme of my hand's creativity. I will share some pictures and then through the week share recipes and techniques of all of the collection of thoughts I had during this time. Enjoy!

 Sourdough arabic khobbez

 Delicious mexican style doughnuts with cinnamon and hot chocolate... I don't remember how many I ate that day, but one cannot stop eating...

Every religion must have some beautiful tradition, and challa bread on shabbat day in judaism is one of those. Jewish are very proud of their platting, I am still learning, but mini challas was a succes in my home and with my children.

The bread aside was made one day before, it was almost finishing, a simple enriched recipe excellent for healthy sandwishes!

Seeds and Grain Sourdough Bread

There is something very romantic about making bread, all our senses get involved in the process, our hands learn to feel the chemical changes that simple combination that flour, water, yeast and salt make, passing from one state to the other, it is simply magical. Our eyes, witness all of those changes and when the dough has been perfectly kneeled, it shows some sort of smoothness in its texture. Our sense of smell, of course, is so active in all the process, especially once that the bread is done. Who cannot recall the smell of bread coming from the bakery while walking in the street? I have this memory in San Miguel de Allende, a beautiful colourful town in Mexico, everyday at certain time in the afternoon each summer, one could smell its bread baking coming from traditional mexican bakeries and the sound of a great shower of rain pouring down. Still, it has been with mama Laila, my mother in law that my passion for making bread began. When I just got married I lived with her for 2 years. She will cook delicious za'ater (flat bread with thyme), zafiras (flat bread with meat) and fatiras, bread rolls filled with cheese, or meat, among many others. Every time she will make bread, I will observe her hands dancing around and learn from her expressions. Making bread is very rewarding, but making sourdough bread is even more, not exactly because of the taste, to be honest, but because of the process that it takes and because, it is the most natural form of bread, so if like me, you like to learn about how to come back to your inner nature, sour bread is a great teacher!! Once that one has been able to create the sourdough, one has to take care of it literally like a baby, every 3 days needs to be look after and feed! I have been very blessed by having a 9 year old sourdough that has been given to me by my gorgeous friend Monica from the blog "Sabores del Alma" with whom I will enjoy hours of talking, learning and making bread. Here is a simple way of making sourdough, the process take a few days and we will need 1 cup of rye flour, because it naturally contains the bacteria and yeast that we need. Mix the cup of rye flour with one cup of water, leave it near the window for an hour and then cover it and leave it in a warm place. Don't do anything to it the next day. The third day, add one cup of white flour and one of water and mix it well. Cover it again. The next day, leave it alone. On the fifth day, your sourdough should be bubbling and smelling like sour yogurt and it will be ready to use. For our sourdough bread recipe we will use 1 cup and a 1/2 of this mixture, the other half keep it in the fridge and every 3 days feed with flour and water, until you are ready to make more bread again! Hope you will enjoy it

Seeds and Grain Sourdough Bread Recipe

1 1/2 cups of sourdough

1/2 cup of warm water
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
1 tablespoon of honey
3 cups of Wholemeal with seeds and grain bread flour

Wholemeal flour for dusting

Mix all the ingredients and form into a ball. Let it rest for 10 minutes while covered and then come back to it, this will help you in the kneeling process as it will be less sticky, as the gluten is beginning to work. After the 10 minutes put the dough on a surface and kneel it with love and no thoughts about you not doing the correct thing. Kneel it for around 10 minutes. Then form it into a ball and let it rest on a warm place. I will use the heaters and cover it with a Clingfilm and lots of covers on the top, this helps the process. Once it has double the size, bring it out of its container and slightly flour a surface and roll open the dough in order to create a rolled sausage and tipping the sides down. Place the bread on a cooking tray that has been previously greased and let it rise for around 1 to 3 hours until has doubled its size.  This can be done in the fridge if you would like to have early morning homemade bread, it can be left all night and by the morning be ready.

Once the dough is ready make one or several half way cuts with a sharp knife.

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees. Sprincle wholemeal flour on the top and bake for around 25 to 30 minutes until is dark gold in color.

The bread is ready!!!

It is a bread full of character that can be eaten with butter only, cheese, anything you would like, hope you will like it too!!!

Begining with.. My Mother

Thank you so much for all those who will give themselves sometime to read. This first post I would like to dedicate it to my mother. It has been her beautiful hands the ones that have inspired me to create this blog. Since I can remember my mother's hands will not find any difficulty in anything; they will work hard, create beauty, heal, love and disapprove as well. They will express feelings and dance. I can still see them dancing through the home, taking care of her plants that were must of the times the envy of the neighbourhood, take care of the many animals that used to live with us, birds, dogs, cats, all of them received from her hands love and care. She will see with her hands creations to taste, recipes that are still in our mouth and transport us to her every time that we try to imitate them. She will create beautiful decorative things that were around the home that on our childhood hardly saw, but that now in adulthood greatly appreciate. My mother, the root of my tree! You will find in this blog a lot from her presence, but will as well the many great ladies that have been in my life, you will find Latin-American taste from my Mexican origin, my love to my Arabic side through my husband and this energetic place that lets all of this elements amalgam together and create a new hue of colours for infinite creations, England. Peace and blessings!