Sweet Pumpkin Challah

)You could make this, for, um, Passover? I'm a bad Jew, when's that? Oops. It's April 16. I should probably delete those last sentences. I could swear passover was coming. Oh, oh right! It's Chanukah. Spellcheck says I spell it wrong. How do I spell Chanukah wrong? There are ten million spellings!

Alright, so I should definitely delete everything and start over. But I'm too lazy, so let's continue on, shall we?

You could make this challah for passover. Or not. You could make it for sunday breakfast. You could make it for french toast. You could make it just to rip into chunks and sink your teeth into.

Challah is a very easy bread to make. You can do it all with a kitchenaid, and it only requires one rising. It's a bit of waiting, but not too much active time. It's good for when you plan to stay in the house all day anyway because you don't have any jeans to wear outside because it's sunday and the one pair of jeans you own without any holes is in the laundry. Is that too specific? It happens to me all the time. Like, every sunday. So this recipe is good for me.

 Very good. It's a sweet eggy bread with pumpkin in it. Mmm.

And the maple glaze can't hurt, can it? No, no it can't.

Sweet Pumpkin Challah
2 small loaves
adapted from Sugar Plum

Dough
1/4 cup warm milk (100°-110°F)
1/8 cup maple syrup
1/2 packet (1 1/8 tsp) active dry yeast
scant 1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree
scant 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs

2 tbsps milk
1 tbsp canola oil
3/4 tsp pie/cake spice
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups unbleached bread flour

Glaze
1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

To make the bread dough, in the bowl of a stand mixer, using the dough hook on medium speed, mix together milk, maple syrup and yeast until combined; allow to sit for 10 minutes or until bubbles form and you get that yeasty smell. Add pumpkin, brown sugar, 1 egg, milk, oil, spice and salt to yeast mixture and mix until well combined. Mix in bread flour until combined; continue to mix for an additional 5-8 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic. Form into a ball and place in a large, mixing bowl; lightly cover with plastic wrap or a damp cloth and allow to rise in a warm area for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Punch dough down, and divide in half. Divide one half of dough into 3 equal portions. On a lightly floured surface, shape each portion into a rope. Place ropes on a greased baking sheet; shape into a braid and pinch edges to seal. Repeat process with remaining dough. Lightly cover braids with plastic wrap or cloth and allow to rise in a warm area for 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk remaining 1 egg together with a tablespoon of water; evenly brush on surface of braids (fingertips work fine). Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool before spreading glaze on bread.

To make the glaze, in a medium bowl, whisk together butter, confectioners’ sugar, maple syrup and vanilla until well combined and smooth. Drizzle and spread glaze on top of bread (it hardens after a good 10-20 minutes).

Blood Orange Olive Oil Loaf

I made this cake at night, so the images are a mite grainy.

 And by the morning, with sunny light, I had eated it. Eated. It.

 I love blood oranges, don't you? So, red. Like blood.

 Ooh, and I like olive oil cakes too. Moist and not too sweet. This one was mighty good. Slice after slice, I eated it. All gone.

Blood Orange Olive Oil Loaf
makes one 9 x 5 inch loaf
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

3 blood oranges
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup yogurt
3 large eggs
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Grate zest from 2 oranges and rub with your fingers in a bowl with sugar to make blood orange sugar. Set aside.

Supreme an orange: Cut off bottom and top so fruit is exposed and orange can stand upright on a cutting board. Cut away peel and pith, following curve of fruit with your knife. Cut orange segments out of their connective membranes and let them fall into a bowl. Repeat with another orange. Cut each segment in half.

Halve remaining orange and squeeze juice into a measuring cup. Add yogurt to juice until you have 2/3 cup liquid altogether. Pour mixture into bowl with the blood orange sugar and whisk well. Whisk in eggs and olive oil.

In a measuring cup, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Gently stir dry ingredients into wet ones. Fold in pieces of orange segments. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake cake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until it is golden and a knife inserted into center comes out clean. Serve warm with a spot of yogurt and honey, or continue to eat from the pan all day until it is all eated up.

Mango Bread

 It sounds a bit odd, but it's delicious. A steaming loaf from the oven for breakfast. I feel tropically overcome, in the middle of my kitchen on the tenth floor of an apartment in new york where the smog rises by my window, and many feet below the cars honk and the bagels sell.