CHALLAH

                                                        Tis the season for some Challah!!

Challah  is pronounced Há La. It is a  Jewish bread  that is served on Friday night for the Sabbath dinner, and for holidays. The Sabbath dinner is special and sacred so only the best ingredients are used , for example-white flour and eggs.
The bread is traditionally made with water rather than milk, because Jewish dietary laws wont let them eat meat and dairy products served together. Typically Friday night Challah is braided, and can be very fancily braided, and topped with sesame or poppy seeds.

Challah dough makes a delicious pastry that can be used for other things as well. I am about to make a very large batch tomorrow for the dough to wrap the Bierocks, as well as make small rolls for our Kulua Pork sliders we will be serving tomorrow!

So what is all this Flax about???

So what is this magical healthy seed we keep hearing about?? And what do you do with it???

Whole flax seeds are one of the most nutritionally-dense foods. They are rich in the B vitamins and the minerals magnesium and manganese, and they are an excellent source of fiber, antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids. Even though they have been around forever, its just more recently that mainstream society has begun to really understand its relevance to a healthier lifestyle.

Apparently because ground flax seeds are easier to digest, it provides more nutritional benefits than whole flax seeds. Which in fact whole flax seeds may pass undigested through the body. The only disadvantage of ground flax seeds is they may go rancid so they need to be stored refrigerated in an airtight container.

The light, nutty taste of flax seed enhances the flavor of food, and adds nutritional value to your diet. Flax seed may be eaten on its own, sprinkled on cereal, popcorn, and salads, or added to oatmeal, yogurt, and blender drinks. Adding flax seed to baked goods adds flavor, extra texture, and good nutrition. Milled flax seed may be baked into a variety of products including breads, pancakes, bagels, muffins, and cookies.

So what do you do with it? Well, it can be as easy as sprinkling whole flax seed on top of a loaf of bread, or sprinkle on your peanut butter on a sandwich or toast, add flax meal into a casserole or other main dishes.

Uses for baking: you can use a small amount by just adding a TBSP of ground flax per 1 cup of flour, or for a larger amount, if you have a recipe with 2 cups or more of flour, replace ¼-1/2 cup of flour with whole flax meal. Depending on the recipe you might want to increase the liquid in your recipe a bit, because flax has a higher absorption.

I have not tried this yet, but apparently you can substitute eggs and fat (one or the other) with flax meal. I get many request for these kinds of things so I am excited to try this out. I will let you know in the future how it works for me!

Below is a loaf of Blueberry flax bread. I used whole seeds, and flax meal in this bread, and it was so good!