challah bread

so, my husband is pretty awesome. very awesome. for christmas he surprised me with a kitchenaid pro. the bread one. the one with the new and improved (and it really is new and improved) dough hook that more accurately mimics hand kneading, the one with the crazy awesome motor, the one that doesn't break down when you make a batch of Peter Reinhart pizza dough, and the one with the HUGE mixing bowl. wow. what a difference. i didn't have a clue how much i really missed having a mixmaster in the house since ours broke down (just a $10 piece that blows out to save the motor when stressed... did you know that i can't find ANYONE licensed to fix a kitchenaid? since they never break down, they just make you buy a new one when there's a problem) over a year and a half ago.
this thing really is awesome. a huge difference, and will never short out when trying to push through a thick dough; it will just stop working and will turn on again after a 10 minute break. my hands are very warm normally, so hand-kneading raises the temperature of the dough more than 10 degrees higher than it should be going into the first rise, which makes a huge difference. this dough came out perfectly cool (one degree above the expert's listed temp).
i bought two bags of king arthur's bread flour (and a bottle of wine... ahem) to prepare for the breadexplosion that's going down this week. peep:



challah bread was 5 degrees above recommended temp, after less time than the minimum listed... my oven must run really hot, as i baked it on 360 instead of 375, so from now on will try baking out at least 25 degrees below what it lists and see how things work.