Something Mocha-y: best vegan blog and bread

Amazingly I had never seen cup cake wars until the other night which is very hard to believe because I am obsessed with anything to do with cupcakes, cakes, and baking! I love ace of cakes and the food network so how I over looked this wonderful little show is just unknown, but go figure the first time I watch there is an adorable vegan girl who makes the best vegan cupcakes, Chef Chloe. She has some amazing award winning recipes on her blog so check them out

http://www.chefchloe.com/blog.html

Any ways after watching her I got the baking bug and was just itching for exams to be over so I could get home and start making some delicious food with my family! Later that night instead of studying for my exams of course I was surfing the net looking at vegan blogs and I stumbled on another blog, which so far has been the best vegan blog I have found http://www.meettheshannons.net I some how found their challah bread recipe and since it was the last night of Chanukah and my family occasionally celebrates jewish holidays I decided it would be perfect especially since my jewish grandparents were coming to town. Any ways I ended up staying up all night with nothing else to do (nothing to study for the next day) kneading my bread and it turned out perfect so here is the recipe taken from

The Betty Crocker Project: Challa Atcha'! on http://www.meettheshannons.net/2010/12/betty-crocker-project-challah-atcha.html

Challah Bread

3 Cups Flour
1/4 Cup Sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Nutritional Yeast
1 Package Quick Active Yeast
1 Cup Very Warm Water
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Applesauce
Olive Oil Cooking Spray - for baking sheet
Vegan Vegetable Shortening - for greasing bowl (I just used some vegan butter and it worked fine)

Vegan "Egg Wash"

1 Tablespoon Water
1 Teaspoon Olive Oil
1 Teaspoon Apple Juice (I used fresh juice from a juicer)
1 Teaspoon Nutritional Yeast

In a large bowl, mix 1 1/2 cups of the Flour with Sugar, Salt, Nutritional Yeast and Quick Active Yeast. Add the Water and Oil and blend with an electric mixer for 2 minutes. Be sure and scrap the sides of the bowl often to make sure all the ingredients are mixed in. Then blend in the Applesauce and remaining Flour until the batter is smooth.

Place Dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. Grease a large bowl with Vegetable Shortening. Place the Dough in the greased bowl and spin it around a few times to get a light coating. Loosely seal the bowl up with plastic wrap and place in a warm place to rise for an hour or until it doubles in size. We let ours sit overnight.

Heat oven to 375.

Spray a light coating of Olive Oil Cooking Spray over a cookie sheet.

Once the Dough has doubled in size and is springy to the touch, remove it from the bowl and divide it into 3 equal segments. Roll each segment into a long rope - try to keep them about the same size. Here's a tip : Don't stretch your dough. We did and you can see it caused the bread to have that pulled and well just not smooth appearance. Just roll it out.

Lay the 3 ropes in a row and start braiding them loosely from the center out. Then pinch the ends under to secure them. Brush a light coating of Olive Oil over the bread and then place the Loaf on your greased cooking sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for another hour.

In a small bowl mix mix all the ingredients from the Vegan Egg Wash with a whisk. Once the loaf has risen, brush the Loaf with the Vegan Egg Wash.

Bake 20-30 minutes (I baked mine for 15 minutes). Remove from the oven once it is golden brown. Thicker braids may take longer to bake.