Pumpkin Challah ala James Beard

Originally posted October 31, 2009 This recipe is perfect for the holidays and will win over even those who don't like pumpkin:

For the Halloween weekend, I decided to go baking mad. I made Pumpkin Challah a few weeks ago, which was delicious, but the recipe itself made the dough too wet & very hard to work with. Most recently I made Challah from the Beard on Bread book by none other than James Beard himself.

Then I thought, well, why not just add pumpkin to the beard recipe and see what happens?

3 Tbsp active dry yeast
1 1/3 c warm water (approx 100-115 degrees)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp coarse salt (I used sea salt)
3 tbsp soft butter
3 eggs
1 c pumpkin puree
2 ½ c AP Flour
2 ½ c Whole Grain Pastry Flour
1 tbsp white or black pepper (or to taste)
1 yolk mixed with 1 tsp cold water
Poppy seeds

Proof yeast in the water in a large bowl. Add sugar & salt. Then add butter, pumpkin & eggs. Now add your flour, a cup at a time as you may not need all of it. Beat thoroughly with wooden spoon. The book said to dump out the bread, knead it and place in a buttered bowl.

I did that the first time and wasn’t delighted with the results, so I thought I would try something different. I left everything in the bowl, covered it with plastic wrap, set it on the counter & walked away for two hours.

Next, I scraped out the dough & set it on my clean counter after I did a ‘bread fling’, meaning I dusted the counter with flour. My final dough weighed approx two lbs. Beard calls for 6 balls, so I weighed each one so they were close to 8 oz each (ish). I then rolled them out to the desired length, did two braids and left them to rise again.


Once they rise, brush them with egg wash and bake for about 45 min at 325 F. They should sound hollow if you tap them. Pull from oven and allow to cool before cutting open and enjoying. This dough also makes for really lovely rolls, nice & fluffy and ready for stuffing with...well, just about anything!

Potato Scones

If there are two words I love, they would be potato and scone. So of course I firmly believe that they belong together. My first experience of having bread and potato together that didn't involve stew or the like, was on a trip to the Haight with family friend/older brother Steve. We had slices and he ordered potato pesto. This was so out there in my mind I simply didn't get it. One bite convinced me that he hadn't gone completely mad and gave me to new views of food.

Since that day I prefer to have pesto on my pizza and I love to make potato focaccia. The layers of pillowy goodness topped with potato and pesto is like a gift from heaven. But I digress....

While reading a Dead Man's Chest (A Phryne Fisher Mystery) by one of my favorite authors, one who has inspired me to bake before (Cardamom Rosewater Cupcakes and Impossible Pie) also rarely shares recipes in the series I was reading and what is shared is usually of the cocktail variety.

Lo and behold not one, not two, but three recipes! I made the Impossible Pie and if you don't, you will be terribly sad about it. The second recipe, which I felt was an absolute must is Potato Scones. Bread and potatoes belong together, like champagne and foie gras, chocolate and strawberries or really good jam and fresh mascarpone.

Gather your ingredients and get busy!

1 cup self raising flour (1 cup flour + 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt)

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup mashed potatoes

1/2 cup milk

Rub flour and butter together. Add potato and mix with milk to soft dough. Cut in rounds and bake 7-10 minutes in a hot oven.

Yes, you read that right, there is no temperature given in the recipe and I have shared it exactly as it was in the book. Also, my dough was so soft I was not able to cut the scones, so I used a cookie scoop. I baked mine for 13 minutes at 325 degrees, when the bottom of the scones were golden brown.

The consistency is more biscuit like rather than sconey these are so easy fast & easy to make! They are soft and moist, perfect for a nice bowl of stew, a lovely roast or as my friend Laurie suggested some good freezer jam & a cuppa! Off now to have a few more with some crispy bacon......

Fun with Spirits at St. George

While talking up St. George to my volunteer partner for the day at Eat Real, a guy stopped to drop a few pieces of info on us. I laughed and said 'I'm a local, and a huge fan, so I know!' Just my (awesome crazy) luck that it would be one of the distillers in the flesh!

The distillery is magnificent. Let's make something!

Now we've been fans for close to 10 years and essentially love each product more than the last. I got a chance to try a sip of the Mt. Tam gin and I all I can say is that I fell in love. I have never been much a gin drinker, but this is not your ordinary gin, by any means. This is the sort of gin that makes blues singers leave their lovers for a quick cuddle with a bottle, the sort of spirit that doesn't need additions to make it palatable. Even better, there are three to choose from, each distinctly different from the other.

My personal suggestion is take the time to visit them. If you take the bus, you have a rather nice, peaceful stroll in almost utter silence. It is a great reset with just a few minutes of feeling as though you are walking through a ghost town, before you enter the warm, loving embrace of St. George. I'm not being funny: these people spread their love through the air and it comes through with every sip. Passion for their product appears to be true love: Dave, Andie, Lance, Sasha and Paulie, the members of the St. George family I have met, are a true pleasure to be around. Their enthusiasm is 100% genuine.

Buddha's Hand lurks in a jar

Paulie started me off with some great advice for trying spirits:
1) Don't swirl
2) Don't swish in the mouth
3) Take a deep breath, sip, swallow and breathe out

This made a huge difference, there were subtle hints I might have missed in the flavor if I hadn't been told that from the start. What a difference from any other tasting I have ever done! For instance, I not only felt like I had just taken a bite of pear, but I could tell there was more than one in there.

The Breaking & Entering Bourbon is sexy with a smooth, spicy finish with a scent of toffee. And the name? Well, let's just say there was a little of that going on to get their hands on some Kentucky barrels.....

Firelit Coffee Liqueur made me want to bust out cheesecake with this as caramel sauce. Created from brandy and single origin cold brew beans, this is the one that will make coffee lovers stand up and sing.


And then there's the Absinthe. I'm a bad girl. I have had the stuff no one ever talks about and no one's supposed to have. My opinion though, is that this is the one to beat. There are some botanicals in there that are not traditional and will make purists shout about the wrongness of it all. While they shout, I will be enjoying my glass of the green liquid and having a lovely time.

The cloudy goodness

Really Paulie?! With root beer?! Okay, well, you're in charge....

 This tasting will be some of the best use of your time, ever, trust me on that. They don't mind if you ask lots of questions, which means I was in heaven. Be sure to try the Buddha's Hand vodka, which I swear is better than the first time I tried it years ago. Big thanks to the entire gang for being so super amazing, you rock!!