I live in Denver and I make yeast Challah every week for the Sabbath using an organic hard red winter wheat that I grind adding some vital wheat gluten to help it rise... I am just beginning to enjoy sour dough baking thanks to your new book and recipes I download from your FB and internet... I love to eat and feed my family healthy food!

I had quite the experience last night and this morning with this recipe... First off after I added 1 quart of my bubbly sour dough starter (seemed like a lot compared to other sour dough recipes) I mixed and mixed the whole wheat pastry flour that I freshly ground and could never get the dough to cling to the dough hook??

Wondering if my starter was too thin?? It is a starter my sister gave me and I have roughly kept it the same thickness each time I feed it and it has always worked fine... maybe for this bread the starter has to be thicker/less hydrated?? I added almost a cup of extra flour and realized I was in trouble... Put it in the oiled bowl anyway overnight... in the morning it had doubled so I had hope.

Dumped it on a floured surface and was up to my elbows in super sticky dough, what a mess... wondered if I should cry or laugh, did both. I kept kneading flour into it until it finally formed a dough of reasonable firmness. What a mess I made in the kitchen!

I Let it rise again for two hours, it doubled and I shaped it... I have made enough braids to know that this dough was not going to hold a braid very well, too soft but otherwise it felt nice. I made one loaf and the rest into twisted rolls... The braid was not too pretty going into the oven after rising for an hour nor coming out of the oven and the cooked loaf a bit flat. The rolls looked better... We just ate one, they are ok, reminded me of a sour dough biscuit, real butter and honey on it helped... So what was my problem??? I really would like to make sour dough challah each week!

Thanks for your help,
Donna

So much fun to make! I really enjoyed the braiding process. The crust is great and crumb is nice and soft. Like Annie, however, I found the EVOO flavor to be a bit strong and would be interested to hear how the butter/coc oil worked out, as well as potentially more honey! Also, upon first putting ingredients together my dough was stiff and a beautiful ball, but after the first rise it was very wet and sticky. I kneaded it in the stand mixer along with the added ingredients and it came together some, but never fully. After the second rise it was extremely wet and I had to knead it with several cups of extra flour to stiffen it enough to shape. Do you think this could be due to over-oiling my bowls? I generously oiled them for the rises (it overflowed my bowl both times!) or is it something else. Hoping to make these again for Thanksgiving, so any advice would be much appreciated!

Yes - it should work very well!

Secondly, I realized when I started putting this dough together that you didn't mention what the hydration is for the levain. The difference between a thin one and a thick one would change the amount of flour to be added. My starters are pretty thick so i don't have to add so much un-soaked flour to make a dough.

Some more photos of the dough at different stages would help. I don't have a stand mixer (some day maybe) so I'm doing it by hand. Not knowing how thick or thin the levain is I didn't know just how this dough is supposed to look before letting it sit for 12 hours.

I sure hope I hear back from you soon because I really want to make this for Easter. Today's Challah is my first run and truly an experiment in the dark--sort of!
Thanks,
Annie