I agree with Mark Judman about sourdough Challa. I bake a wide variety of
breads using commercial yeast and sourdough and I've tried producing eggy
fat-enriched sweet breads (brioche, Italian milk bread, English (Blackpool)
milk roll) with a sourdough culture and the characteristics that make
sourdough so good in lean, flour and water doughs (Acid taste, elastic crumb.
large holed structure and hard crispy crust ) clash (in my opinion almost
uneatably) with the richness and sweetness of typical European celebration
and festival breads which, when made with commercial yeast, should have a
light, fine textured almost silky crumb and a soft crust.
Because of the lightness of structure and taste required of enriched doughs I
also find high proportions of wholemeal flour make an unnacceptably heavy
bread. I've never managed to make an acceptable wholemeal brioche for example
(perhaps just a limitation in my skills).
I'm not trying to be prescriptive here, my taste is no more inherently
"right" or "wrong" or "better" or "worse" than anybody else's but the word
Challah, to me, produces a vision of a light, golden braid (Mark - I always
braid my Challah) with a texture that melts in the mouth - not a description
that can be applied to sourdough breads.
John Wright
Yorkshire, England