Notes: I couldn't find a sweet potato challah recipe that I liked. Many used way too much honey (½ cup), didn't use enough sweet potato or had a wide variation in flour. As an experienced baker, I should be able to compensate and adjust recipes, but I also want things to turn out the first time, and would rather find a "good" recipe that I can just follow.
In the end, I adapted this Martha Stewart recipe for pumpkin challah, omitting all the spices so it wouldn't taste like pie. On Friday morning, I made a half recipe, all in the mixer with a dough hook. I didn't feel like I needed to bust out the paddle to combine some of the ingredients. Less cleanup = happy. 3/8 cup of egg yolks was 5 large eggs for me. The dough was extremely easy to work with, and formed a nice ball completely in the mixer. A minute or two of hand kneading afterwards was sufficient to get to the windowpane stage.
After an accelerated proofing in a warmed oven, I weighed out six balls of dough, and Dr. S and I made quick work of forming the ropes for braiding. I used this YouTube video as a refresher on 6-strand braiding. It also demonstrates a neat idea for applying the sesame seeds, by using your finger to tap them on each lobe.
The photo doesn't quite capture the beautiful coral colour of the bread's interior. It puffed up beautifully during baking to a nice high loaf. You can't taste any of the sweet potato flavour, but this bread is a nice change from the usual. I'm going to make it again using whole eggs, instead of yolks and see what happens.
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