As most of you know, our dear friend Ivoryhut has been carrying on an illicit love affair with homemade bread as evidenced by this blog post, and this one….oh, yeah and this one. Yesterday, my resolve failed me, and I couldn’t take the pressure of denial anymore. There’s only so many photos of tempting homemade bread any poor soul can take! So with Challah recipe printed and in hand, I went to my kitchen to stir up some dough.
I jumped right in assuming I had everything on hand to make this wonderful treat….then realized I didn’t have anymore unsalted butter, enough honey, or a stash of sesame or poppy seeds in the house. No matter. Not wanting to leave my house, and not being prone to delayed gratification, I decided to make do with what I had. Hmmm…no unsalted butter, and only vegetable oil? Oh, well, in goes the vegetable oil. Hmmm….only 2 tablespoons of honey when I needed 1/2 cup? Oh, well, throw in the honey and make up the difference with corn syrup. They’re both thick and sweet right? Hmmm….no seeds for the topping? Well….assuming this bread might be on the sweeter side, how about some cinnamon sugar on top instead?
So I stirred it up, crossed my fingers, and let it rise through the afternoon having to give it a boost in my bread proofing drawer after about an hour of no action at room temperature. Refrigerated overnight, formed and baked this morning, and OH MY YUMMO!!!!!
I can only imagine….
…what this bread must taste like…
…with all the right ingredients.
Yeah, and I couldn’t wait for it to cool either.
I am SOOOO buying this book!
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg MD and Zoe Francois
A Half Hour a Day 
That’s just cruel, posting these pictures on your blog for all to see… that looks soooo good!!! If only I could invite myself over!
Your version with the cinnamon sugar topping actually sounds better than the original.
I actually wouldn’t do the cinnamon sugar again…I actually sprinkled a teeny bit of salt on the second loaf of the day and it was REALLY good. (Yes, I had to make a second loaf for dinner with the family cause I ate 3/4 of the first loaf all by myself throughout the day.) lol
Okay…you pulled me out of lurkdom again! lol I am so buying that book too!:-) What a great post. Winter is tough to get through sometimes, and baking is a favorite past time but I always found bread to be intimidating. Now I really wanna try it. LOVED this post.:-)
Welcome back Roni! It was SOOO easy….really. I’ve made homemade bread a few times, and it’s never been quite worth the bother to me. THIS bread on the other hand, was a piece of cake (bread?) lol Enjoy!
That looks so good. Great, now I’ve got two blogs ploying me homemade bread! And here I am at home on a “snow” day – school was concelled due to the potential snow fall, a rarity around here. Usually they don’t cancel til there’s inches on the ground. Its 8:40 am and not a flake has fallen, but the clouds look potent.
We weren’t supposed to get more than 1-3 inches because it wasn’t due to start this far north until late afternoon/evening. However, it’s snowing pretty hard right now. I’m thinking they might have underestimated this storm’s reach.
Drool…..isn’t anything covered in cinnamon bound to taste delicious?? My husband was JUST saying the other night that he wants to make bread. I must show him this! 🙂