Myself As Another

I’ll be spending Thanksgiving at my brother’s house (twenty miles away in Crestwood, KY) and I wanted to share with you all a recipe that I’ve been making for the last ten years: challah. Not only do I love the taste, but I also love the way I need to braid it with my hands without over-working the dough. I love the golden finish from the egg wash and poppy seeds. Hopefully, we’ll be eating it with some of the mocha cherry jam I made this past spring. I’ve included a pic of the finished loaves. Here’s the recipe (From The Silver Palate Cookbook):

INGREDIENTS:
	2 cups milk
	8 tablespoons (1 stick) sweet butter
	1/3 cup granulated sugar
	2 packages active dry yeast
	4 eggs, at room temperature
	2 teaspoons salt
	6 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
	1/3 cup cornmeal
	1 tablespoon cold water
	poppy seeds

1. Bring milk, 6 tablespoons of butter, and the sugar to a boil together in a medium-size saucepan. Remove from heat, pour into a large mixing bowl, and let cool to lukewarm (105° to 115° F).

2. Stir yeast into the milk mixture and let stand for 10 minutes.

3. Beat 3 of the eggs well in a small bowl, and stir them and the salt into the milk-and-yeast mixture.

4. Stir in 5 cups of the flour, 1 cup at a time, until you achieve a sticky dough. Flour a work surface lightly and turn the dough out onto it. Wash and dry the bowl.

5. Sprinkle additional flour over the dough and begin kneading, adding more flour as necessary, until you have smooth elastic dough.

6. Smear the reserved 2 tablespoons of butter around the inside of the bowl and add the ball of dough into the bowl, turning to coat it lightly with butter. Cover the bowl with a towel and set aside to let dough rise until tripled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.

7. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and cut into halves. Cut each half into 3 pieces. Roll the pieces out into long “snakes” about 18 inches long. Braid three of the snakes together into a loaf and tuck the ends under. Repeat with remaining snakes.

8. Sprinkle a large baking sheet with the cornmeal, and transfer the loaves to the sheet. Leave room between the loaves for them to rise. Cover loaves with the towel and let rise until nearly doubled, about 1 hour.

9. Preheat oven to 350° F.

10. Beat the remaining egg and 1 tablespoon cold water together well in a small bowl. Brush this egg wash evenly over the loaves. Sprinkle immediately with poppy seeds to taste.

11. Set baking sheet on the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when their bottoms are thumped. Cool completely on racks before wrapping. Makes 2 large loaves.

Before this weekend, I’d never made an apple pie. Now I’m still not sure if I’ve made an apple pie. Y’see, the thing is every time I find a new Cook’s Illustrated in my mailbox, I get preoccupied with at least one of the recipes. This time, apple pie. But it’s a different kind of apple pie. It’s called a skillet apple pie.

Apple pie has always been one of those foods that didn’t really interest me for two reasons. First, it seemed like a lot of work. Getting the crust right. Finding a filling that tastes just right. Lot’s of time involved. And so on. Also, I had never really found apple pie to be all that interesting. Always on the menu. Always mentioned as the Americana cliché. At least in North Dakota, it wasn’t all that uncommon to order a slice with cheese. Well, it’s American cheese, and from what I understand, that’s not really cheese. But I digress. Apple pie. Yawn.

There seemed to be something different about his apple pie. Something masculine. Stop laughing. Yes, I know that’s weird. Seeing those spiced apples all caramelized and bubbling sweet syrup up through a flaky crust makes my mouth water. But all of that goodness resting in a big, heavy cast iron skillet that almost takes two hands to life as a whole extra element of cool. Sort of like a monster truck of apple pie.

My friend Chris and I cooked up a version and brought it to a party this weekend. It was a big hit. And Cook’s Illustrated was right. Filling with great texture. Flaky crust. Fast. Easy. Yeah.

Maybe what’s most important here, though, is that I found out just how interesting apple pie can be. Red apples don’t work; it’s the green ones. But there are so many varieties (thus the term “variety,” right?) with such a wide range of flavors. The website recommends a sweet green apple mixed with something more tart. Also, the filling can get pretty complex, too. For instance, I didn’t know that some apple pies have maple syrup. What about substituting something like a strong honey or one of the specialty preserves I make?

I knew about the cinnamon, but it hadn’t occurred to me that there could be substitutions here, too. I’m going to have to look this up, but I’m curious.

Although we didn’t try any of these variations with our first attempt, we did add an extra little something. Raisins. I know, not exactly shocking, but we were a few ounces short with the apples, so we just added raisins to make up the difference (about two ounces, I think). We could definitely taste them.

The recipe is so good that I’d love to post it, but I just don’t feel okay about it. However, I’d be willing to send a pdf to anyone who asks. Better yet, either subscribe to the magazine (beautiful) or the website (media rich with recipes and videos of hundreds and hundreds of recipes). Neither one is all that expensive, and it seems like a great magazine to support.

Regardless. Get started learning how to make this stuff. It could really become a signature dish. Something you could really make your own.