becoming Jewish

It was supposed to be a quiet weekend and I wanted to have the easy Sunday with some sweet bread for breakfast. I was also craving olive bread for some time and my stash of olives was slowly getting smaller, since they are so delicious in our salads. The latter one was not problem, I made it sourdough style many times before. I wanted to have the advantage of fast rising and yet sourdough soul, so I started the biga with my sourdough starter and let it go really long, the next day I made the dough and kneaded in the kalamata olives and it just looked exactly as it should have.

The bread is small, though, about a pound or less of the raw dough, so a bit less after baking. Since the rising was fast, I went for a free-style round boule, meaning it was round and it rose unsupported by anything round... not in a basket. Just sitting on the parchment paper.

The vanocka, however was a bit different story. Rose Levy suggested for her challah using 2x her brioche recipe (for the non-kosher challah). Since it is a breaded bread, I went for this recipe, hoping in a little miracle. Miracle was that I did not throw it away in the middle of the process. There is about 500g of flour and about 220 g of butter in this, not mentioning 6 eggs, making the dough very runny and sticky.

It did not toughen up after refrigerating, as it should have. I could not knead it and so there were little chunks of butter distrubuted randomly throughout. I braided the vanocka as I refreshed my memory about 6-braid vanocka online, and it looked awfull and needed tons of flour to prevent stickiness. I wonder if I have not forgot something during making the dough, but I cannot come up with anything, really. So since the braided version looked awful, I put it to a babovka form and let it rise there

and baked that way. It turned pretty good, very airy, not too sweet and with crispy edges, which is unmistakeable sign of fat in the dough.

 

The weird things on top are sliced almonds and the brown spots in the dough are raisins. I'll make vanocka again, but I guess I'll go for a Czech recipe.

My friends also left for India, for a 500-people wedding (pretty small for Indian customs, I hear). Miss them already a little. I am sure they are not missing my crazy dog.