Challah

Glad to be making (and eating!) bread again. And, for the occasion...even though this is about two months late, here's Anne's request for another braided loaf!

First, put 1 1/3 cups of warm water in a large mixing bowl, and add 7 teaspoons of yeast. This might seem like an exorbitant amount of yeast...I think it is, and after making this bread I wonder if the recipe I was using might have a typo there. But not to worry! No doubt it'll all work out in the end.

After the yeast has proofed a bit, add 3 eggs, 3 tablespoons of butter, 1 tablespoon of salt, and 1 tablespoon of sugar, and mix thoroughly. Then slowly stir in about 5 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour (one cup at a time), until the dough is fairly stiff. The dough will be fairly easy to work with, but the shear quantity of it might make kneading a fairly, let's say, aerobic experience. Anyway, once the dough is ready, put in a buttered bowl, cover, and delight in the fact that it is finally warm enough to not need an oven for the

First Rising (1 hour)
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There was an earthquake here last week! Just a minor one, fortunately (the only damage was a collapsed porch about a hundred miles south or so). But still, for someone who grew up in New England and hence unused to natural disasters of any sort, fairly exciting...It happened in the middle of the night, so I was woken up with the whole house shaking. But it was sort of surreal, since on the one hand it was only a small earthquake, so it wasn't as if things were falling off of the wall and out of the cupboards. And in my sleepy-groggy state I was pretty sure that Illinois wasn't sitting on any major fault lines, so I just decided that it was probably just one of those remarkably lifelike but bizarre dreams, and promptly went back to sleep. But then the aftershocks came and kept waking me up. I thought it weird that I would keep having the same dream, and it wasn't until the third time this happened that I realized I probably wasn't imagining all of this... And it was very nice to hear on the radio that morning that there had in fact been an earthquake (which saved me from what I was imagining would be a fairly sheepish conversation with whichever of my friends I ran into first that day..."So, um....was there an earthquake last night?" After all, that seems like the sort of question you shouldn't really ever have to ask; and earthquake would probably be something you'd notice, no? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Punch the dough down and cut it into six equal pieces. Take each piece, and roll it out (just like making a snake out of clay!) on a lightly floured board until it is about an inch in diameter. Pinch the six strands together, and do our standard braiding procedure that we figured out in February. Cover and let it rest. But keep a sharp eye on it lest it spill over the edge of the cookie sheet during the

Second Rising (45 minutes)
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So, the "first rising" was an action-packed update (well, relatively speaking), so now permit me a slightly nerdier paragraph or two... As you may know, my difficulties in finding an advisor have been a bit frustrating for me this semester. Much as I enjoy taking classes, after all, one goes to grad school to do research. Frankly, t was getting a bit disheartening not having any luck finding a research group to work with. Fortunately, though, a pair of events over the past two weeks did much to restore my spirits.

First, I was in a friend's office, chatting a bit (and, admittedly, stealing the use of her office printer), when my friend had to step outside for a few minutes. So, I just picked up the nearest book lying around, which happened to be "The Art of Electronics." Not something that I particularly care about, but a classic textbook (well, it's in a field I haven't studied but I had still heard of it before, so I assume it's a classic). Anyway, I was just leafing through the pages when I started reading about the different types of noise that can interfere with electrical signals...pretty dry stuff, right? Well, I kept reading, and learned all about this bizarre type of noise ("1/f" or "flicker" noise), which apparently we do not have a good theoretical understanding of, but which is pervasive not just in electronics but throughout nature. A quick browsing of papers on the net led me to articles on this noise in everything from classical music pitch spectra to yearly floodplain deposits of the Nile river. It sort of reminded me of a weird, frequency/noise version of the statement of Benford's Law. Anyway, like I said, fairly nerdy, but I really enjoyed reading about it for a while, and the whole experience reminded me of why I'm in graduate school in the first place: I find all of this stuff irrationally interesting.

And, more directly related I'm sure to why I'm more optimistic these days, is that I might have found a group to work with, at least for the summer. Not set in stone yet, but hopefully the details will be finalized this coming week. Just see the "currently reading" section for a flavor of what I'll probably be doing for the next few months at least.
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Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. While it is warming up, beat together an egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of cold water. Brush the bread with the mixture, and then liberally sprinkle with poppy seeds -- Sorry Anne...I know Wegmans makes theirs with sesame seeds, but I didn't have any in my kitchen. Bake for 35 minutes.

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Tasting verdict: Well, first I have to say, as my parents have just learned about this blog, that of course this is nowhere near as good a challah as Mom could make. No surprises there, of course! But still, I am quite proud of this one... a fairly crispy crust (have I mentioned how much I like the egg yolk wash?), with an awesomely chewy middle. As far as egg-breads go, I like this one a bit more than the "Country Style" loaf, which was also quite tasty but was perhaps a bit too rich with both the milk and half a stick a butter. This recipe I think hits a much better balance. But I do think the next time I make it I'll have to remember to use a bit less yeast...this bread rose probably a third over again while it was in the oven, and very nearly ended up both colliding with the top of the oven and spilling over the side. Neither of which would have been so good.

Currently reading:"Collisions, Caging, Thermodynamics, and Jamming in the Barrier Hopping Theory of Glassy Hard Sphere Fluids," "Dynamical Fluctuation Effects in Glassy Colloidal Suspensions," and other such elaborately titled papers.

Currently eating: Gelato!! (or should that be, "mmmm...gelaaaatoooooo"?) Anyway, it feels like it's already summer here, and I just had my first gelato of the season: Cappuccino Chocolate Chip. Very tasty.