Ep 6: Not your bubbe's Challah - Baking with Mandylicious

Mandylicious (Mandy Silverman) is a social media baking sensation and self-described "carbologist" known for her inventive, gourmet challah and babka recipes. 

She joins Micah in her home kitchen to create some challah magic.

Operating out of Sharon, Massachusetts, Mandy has created over 500 unique flavors, ranging from classic sweet honey to savory options like fried pickle or Reuben.  She is well known for making traditional Jewish baking fun, accessible, and inclusive for bakers of all skill levels. Her community and business have grown through:The "Butterfly Technique": Teaching her unique, butterfly-shaped braiding methods.  Online Community: Providing troubleshooting, tutorials, and support to tens of thousands of followers on Mandylicious Instagram.  

Classes & Cookbook: Hosting hands-on braiding classes and scheduled to release her debut cookbook in September 2026.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome Mandy. Thanks for coming. We're gonna make Lemon Blueberry Hala. Lemon Blueberry Hala. I have already made the famous Mandelicious dough. I have overproofed the Mandelicious dough. Yeah. So how would when I say I overproofed it, why don't we tell people what that means? You know, it's easier to tell when it's already been braided. When it's been braided, you the the strands melt together. Um it's just it's the yeast has been done. Like it's just worn out and the bread has spread too much. That first rise, you do have a little bit more give. So like sometimes you can see if it's like the dough is like piling out of your bread machine or pouring out of your bowl. If it's no longer contained, then it is um, it might be slightly overproof, but usually that first rise, as long as it's not been out for like three hours, you can get away with a little bit extra. It's that set, like that second rise. And every hala recipe is different. My second rise is only 20 or 30 minutes. It's that second rise that there's the most chance for a sad ending. But not it'll still be delicious, just the texture might be. I feel also because this one is rolled, we might have a little bit more leeway as well, because it's not gonna become like I imagine, like a big, tall, lofty hala. It's gonna be a little bit more compact. Yes. And mine Khalala recipe in general, this is important to know, usually does not double in size. And like it's uh hala recipes you'll often see. Let it rise on the counter or in a warm spot for four hours or until it's doubled in size. Mine's an hour and a half. Okay. And it's not usually gonna double in size at all because um it has the most sugar and the most salt that it can handle without killing the yeast. Because salt and sugar sort of mess with the yeast a little bit. So I push them all the way to the end. So it'll be the most delicious hollow. The sweetest halal. The sweetest is yes, and there's enough salt, it's just very balanced, but it also means that when you're going to look at it after that first rise, oftentimes you don't see a huge rise at all. Like it's not double usual. Fair. So yours is not, doesn't look so like I've seen it worse, and it should be okay. I definitely made it earlier this morning. So let's make this lemon blueberry hollow. Okay. So the first thing we're actually going to do before we divide the dough is we're gonna make the blueberry let's do it. Because the blueberry filling has to cool a little bit before we start rolling it into the trans. And by the time we divide, exactly, just throw it. You have plenty of space. Yeah. All right, let's move on. So we've got the blueberries. Okay. Yeah, I did find blueberries. I don't understand. You can also use frozen. Okay. I also bought those just a couple of years. Okay, good. So we're going to be using the zest and juice of one lemon. I do like, like it's it's supposed to be like um like the lemon, the zest, the couple teeth, just all the zest and all the juice of one lemon. Okay. Because I like you can add a little more zest if you want, but I like a zesty lemon. Yeah. I love that tartness. This is like people love lemon and blueberry. People who don't like blueberries, but don't like lemon, you put them together and it's like the most joy and happiness. I also feel like it just makes it taste more like a blueberry. You don't need it. You need the balance. The zest. Yeah, but start putting lemon and strawberry or any berries. I actually recently learned that lemon, or sorry, no, raspberries help out to bring the strawberry flavor. So putting a little bit of raspberry in like a strawberry jam. That's amazing. I know. Wait, really? Okay. Okay, so I'm just gonna squeeze these in here. Then I measured our corn serch already. Oh, little look at you. Like, we're on our special teen show. We are on our special little time. The MM baking show. I just came over that right now. I am gonna whisky. I'm gonna list that in. Right. And then what's gonna happen is we're going to um you're going to add the epic cornstarch, and then you're gonna put the lemon, and then there's sugar and salt also. Yes. So I've got sugar in this bowl. Oh my gosh. You're all. Yeah. This is now I should have done this on off from distilled first, but it'll be fine. And everything will pop up together. Basically, what's gonna happen in. And a little bit of salt. You need anytime you make anything sweet, you always need salt. Yeah, and I'm thinking you always made salty, you need a little sweet. Yeah, I put brown sugar in my chicken soup. Oh no, it's a little thing. Interesting. I guess that's what that's why we put like parsnips and carrots in. Now, should I put this entire pint of blueberries in? Two cups. All right, and then there's gonna simmer on here, mix it all up, and then it's gonna start exploding and popping and all that business. But as blueberries do. We're kind of making like a little compote basically, and then it's gonna thicken because there's cornstarch in there. Yeah, and it'll all come together. So we're just gonna let that do its thing. Yeah. Well said. Welcome back. How do my bloobs look? You have those are some nice bloobs. Oh wow, yeah. No, they're great because you want them to sort of be like gloopy and thick, because we're gonna be spreading these in between the holes. You're not gonna do too much in every one. Um, and I imagine with a frozen blueberry, they'd also be a little bit more mushed for lack of better terms. These are cool because they keep their shape a little, but you can squish, you can you can if you want to have it be more spread out, you can totally squish them down more. It's completely up to you. You know, one thing I don't own in my kitchen, which shocks people, is a potato masher, which I feel like would benefit me in this setting. Yes, it would. Also, a meat masher, do one of those. I mean, I don't have meat, but I use it every single thing that's not meat. Like you, it's like a sm like like a circular one. Like a circular, like blueberries. Like you mash potatoes, like anything that I'm like trying to like pound down, like it's small. It's like a mashed potato masher, serious. The meat mashers, they less smaller. But this one's bigger, but it's so handy. I use it all the time for all the things I did not even know I needed. You don't even have to eat meat. They just they're called meat mash. Okay, now I know. So meat mashers can sponsor us. Yes, they can't meat masher's anonymous. Yeah, no, that's a whole other thing. Perhaps hello, my name is Mandy, and I am a meat masher anonymous. So this this looks good to you, Mandy. Perfect. So this needs to cool, right? Yeah, definitely should cool all the way. Okay, so let's take this and put it into a bowl so it can cool a little bit faster. And we can pop it into the fridge if there's space, which probably not. I'll be all right. Just it just should be by the time we're done rolling those things out, perfect. We'll be good to go. Amazing. Sensitive. You don't want to, you know, do the yeast. Very sensitive. Okay. This looks wonderful. Sorry. I love a glue tea. So tell me how you want to roll your dough. All right, so we're gonna do this is enough for two halas. Okay. So we can just work on one, but this is so you're gonna divide this into six equal pieces. You got it. Do you want to use a scale or do you want to eyeball it? It's if you have a scale, I always recommend scale. Scale. I love using a scale. Because I want a pretty hala. Yeah, it's true. Because you don't, it doesn't even have to be a fancy scale. But no, people like this is great. These are great because people like in my apartment, like before I, you know, got um like moved into her house, like this was the scale I had, and it was just I didn't have any room in my kitchen. I just like left it in between the books. Honestly, we use this half for cooking and half for mealing packages. This is the only scale. I don't own like a person scale. This is the only one you own in the house. It still looks great. Um 1100 divided by two. Oh, you haven't left 550 and a little bit. All right, so that's fine.

unknown 7:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Whatever you said. Perfect. Very good at the math. Perfect. Math is a strong suit. Will you open up that cabinet and just grab a knife? This top button, yeah. Which a knife so many buttons. Oh, beautiful. Okay, so so 550 should be my halves. Oh, it's right on the button. It's a game show button. If it's a game, I'll make it a game. Okay, we did it. So now, okay, now 550 divided by three. It's two. 175. Yeah. Yeah. Just eyeball it. I always ask Alexa. I never do the math. 180 great. It's almost like I've done this before. Weird. I'm not scared. My scale is my dog is choking. My scale is thinking. Oh no. Are you okay? But I'm fine. Don't talk concerning. Okay. So out of all the book halas or the halas in your new book, which one would you say is the most well might be the most surprising to people? Maybe the most out there. Because you do some pretty out there stuff with your halas. I do. I did. I tried to rein it in. Okay. This is the first cookbook, and I've tried to make it not the most pain in the petunia ones, like the most welcoming. Okay. Um, there's a kung pao cashew one. Ooh. That's very interesting. It's vegetarian. Whereas the kung pao is. So you season the cashews with a kung pao um seasoning. And it calls for like, you know, fancy peppercorns or even like just regular peppercorns and a little lemon zest. And that those cashews are so delicious that you stuff inside of it like it's crazy. Because it's first of all, nuts and a half isn't so crazy, but it is, you know. And the fact they're a little spicy, they're a little sweet. And if you double the recipe, which you should, because the cashews are so I'm like obsessed with them. Um, they you can serve them on the side with as an appetizer with salads later. Like it's so, it's just it's surprising because first of all, there's no meat in it. Because it's kung pao, they got kung pao chicken, but it's not. I love that. Yeah that's so fun. It is. It's the kung pao cashews. I I don't even know why they're not a thing. I don't know. It's maybe they are so no, we're just gonna. Yes, now they're they are a thing now. I have divided our dough into six little so let's begin talking about rolling out the dough. So we have a rolling pin, you do. So we're gonna roll each piece. I always like so this, so there's two ways you can stuff a fala. There's the up and over way, um, which you just put the filling in the center and you list the sides and you pinchy pinch. Um, or the way this one's written, but it doesn't necessarily have to be, is if you roll it out a little bit wider and then you roll it up like a jelly roll. And that has a more even distribution of the filling. This is quite similar to a babka. Yes, one. So it's it toes the line. Yes. That one. That at least that's so that's how I exactly. That's how you would roll a babka. Like you would roll it. So when you roll it a little wider, you get more swirls. Now, the thing is to know um when you're rolling it out, is that you want to not roll it too long because that's something that I see a lot. People are like, why is my solid not rising? It's because if you roll your strands, just like 10 inches is the longest. I think you can roll them in the this recipe, do a bigger recipe. Um, because the dough only has so much dough in it. Like you can't, it's if you roll your strands out 15 inches long, they're not gonna have any. And dough remembers. It remembers it just does. It does. And you never I feel like I say that all the time when I'm doing a hollow thing. Like, dough remembers what you did to her. She told she gimps, but she does not forget. You know? Now I'm scared. Please don't think that I'm gonna gently. But it's true, like once you like roll it and play with it, you can't always come back from it. No, if you've done it too, if you've braided it and you're like, I don't like the way that braid is, and you unbraid it, it's not, it's you your dough is going to, it's not gonna, your strands are gonna separate, are not gonna be separate. And it's not just not gonna be nice. I'm gonna take another one of this. But I will also say that oh, you're rolling out 10 of everything. Yeah, it's hot bread is good bread. So any hala, even if it's ugly, I'm sure it'll still taste good. It just may not look the same. Exactly. So I'm a big believer that hot bread is. It's just because um chala is something that's can so easily be made in advance. Yeah. And people, they spend their days trying to work around the chala. So that's their the Shabbat table is there, then they are able to like, look, it's freshly cake out of the oven. And they're driving themselves crazy because it's really hard to time it. And also, you can't eat your cala the second it pumps out of the oven because it needs to pull because it needs a few minutes to finish baking. If you cut it right when it's hot like that, it's gonna be gummy delicious. So, what I like to do is I always make my fala, at least. Sometimes I make it like on Monday and freeze it because it freezes so well, and then you warm it up before you serve it. Yeah. So then it tastes exactly the same. You know how I do that? I put it in, I wrap it in foil, but then in the foil, because we're vegetarian, I put butter and it just like melts into the hala. So genius. And it's then some flaky salt on top. And so it's so in the foil, you just butter and then salt.

unknown 13:14

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Yeah, that is, I'm gonna tell that to people. But also, I'm a big butter girl, so like you put butter on anything. Butter is is the chosen food, really. It is. We thought hollow was, but turns out better and hotter. How does my rectangle look? Oh, it looks great. Okay, it does not have to be perfect, and I'll do one more. Okay. Similar vibe. Nothing, everything is ish. Everything is ish, adjacent. Whatever it is, you want it to be not too long, you want it to be wide enough where you're going to be able to. And yours is quite thin. Yeah. Well, it also depends how wide you roll it. It doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be so thin. It'll be fine. The a big mistake people do make when they're stuffing their collars is one, not rolling it wide enough. You've done great. Um obviously you've been around. I no, I just like to get um words of after we should do everything for positive. I do too. Yeah. Oh, you're making fun of me, or you actually feel like admiring. Admiring. At least I'm self-aware enough to know that that's I could do it. I that's but that's the way to do it. That's like a confident way. You know, me, I'm just like, I guess it's all right. It's not perfect. But you're that's good. I'm so awesome. You're not that see. I'm that chick. So another thing that I I think when I see people making hala, nine times out of ten, they're putting too much flour. That is a hunt because you know why people are like, oh, the dough is sticky, the dough is sticky. Um, if I put, or it's hard to, it's hard to handle if it's too sticky, and that's fine. But that's why we've worked so hard to make sure that that dough is the right consistency before the second rise. And if we added more flour now, for example, which is the place that people do right now is where they added too much flour, specifically right now, because they're like, oh, I want to make sure that I have nice even braids or whatever. Yeah, the flour doesn't have enough time to get sucked in and the dough tastes heavy. Um, also, you're using this countertop as traction. If you have too much flour, that's gonna mess up too. And too much flour, so you won't be able to get the traction to roll your spans wide enough. And when you're sealing your seams together, then you also don't it'll be too floury and it won't do it. So you're messing it up in six different ways if you use too much flour. First of all, like the taste and the texture and the rise will get messed up. Second of all, you're not gonna be able to roll it properly. Second, you're not gonna be able to seal it. All these different things happen when you have too much flour. Flour is an enemy. Flour is the enemy and too much. I always tell people when they're making their dough that it should feel like sticky tack before the first rise. Like it should it should stick tacky button in it. Stocky, but it shouldn't gloop on your hand. Yes. It should be your finger should be able to touch it and you should feel it sticking. And the flour I use today, I might need more or less tomorrow. Exactly. Because tomorrow might be more humid. That's the biggest, another big mistake people make is they follow the recipe exactly without they like put it in their bread machine and they're just like, well, sucks to suck. It's just no, you have to watch it. You're putting your doors every time you're gonna need more flour, more water. And that's totally normal and it's totally okay. What's not normal is it always unless you're in a bakery with like perfectly the same studies every time, but people will make me feel bad because I don't, I mean, I we don't measure by grams. Like if you're making a cake or whatever, cookies, that's totally fine. But for chala, it's so different every time. You just be like, right this time, this is enough. And then next, if by the time you weigh it down to the gram, you've oftentimes have taken so much time away. Yeah. Just trying to get when really it's never gonna be that exact gram that you're trying to measure. Then every time you make hala, it'll be a little different too. Oh, yeah. Sometimes you might be angry. Yes, you well, you shouldn't ever bake angry. You bake angry? Sometimes I may stop when I bake angry. I do too, but I still gotta make half for Shabbat. You take this holl. That's when you can tell it's being overworked because I'm like, I am everyone, stay away from mom tonight. The scholar tastes a little extra chewy. It's always terrible, but it's terrible. No, they would never tell me. They are too smart. Okay, and it's not terrible. Yeah, genius. Okay, so we have these rectangles. Yeah, fabulous. So let's take around one half of this, and we're gonna um leave a border. Now we okay, we don't want to overstuff. That's important too because especially this is a tricky filling because it's a little liquidy. Yeah. All right. And this is how you could do like a cinnamon banjala. This would be delicious with like peanut butter and chocolate chips inside, or these are the ones that you have in here. So I have my cinnamon roll. I I don't I have a peanut butter dough suggestion. Peanut butter chips are hard because for a lot of people, because they're I can't find any good ones that are not dairy, and a lot of people who in Mandeland like them meat or the meatk'll callas. Um, and if you cook, so peanut butter is on my list of foods that you want to work well in a cala. Good thing of wearing black. Uh that's totally fine. Um that's how you know you've done blueberry in your collar. Are you just happy to see me? Um both, really. Yeah, baby. Oh my gosh. So the wish do we need like a tag, like not safe for work? Yes. Yes, oh, that would be great. This is an X-rated hollow. I could make a thousand when you're a little too. This is for old collars. Oh, imagine what I want to make. I'm gonna make an only holo site. Oh my gosh. It'd be so funny, right? Um left, left, and left. Would they? Well, but good people would. Yeah. It's people that don't like, you know. Do you think I put too much filling on mine, perhaps? Well, so you you'll be all right. So I'm always a Jewish mother. I struggle, even though I know it's too much. I struggle in the overfilling department. Don't even worry about it. So, like, you'll so as I've written these recipes for like people who've never made a holofore. If you've made a holofore, you can often handle more filling. You can roll your strands wider, you understand how it works when things are a little bit more liquidy. So this is like a safe amount, right? This is like, okay, it's not too much. It's gonna be not so blueberry-ish. Like it'll be blueberryish when you cut into it, but it's not gonna be like a thick, grippy layer of blueberry. Like the next time you make it, you're like, you know what, Mandy? I could totally do handle more blueberry. So you could totally do that. But um people always tend to go a little crazy. All right, something like this, I feel like you could also save time by using a blueberry jam. Yes, you could if you wanted to, but then it wouldn't be it wouldn't be as like fresh and fresh. Oh, you have to be careful, it has to be very high and high in sugar. If it's too, if it's jelly, it has to be preserves because jelly melts out and makes a hot mess, um, literally and figuratively. But um, blueberry preserves, like that, they're more cooked down actual fruit, similar to this. You have to be careful because blueberry, because jelly is on my list of things you have to watch out for when you stuff a collow with because it can easily there's a whole watch out list at the front half of the book. Be careful. Peanut butter is on the list of things that decided to help with the belt to make it more like it was very easy to take off. All right, excellent. Okay, I'm gonna follow your lead. All right, so we're gonna do is we're just gonna take it. We're jelly rolling it. We're gonna jelly. So gentle, gentle up and see. And then over. And it's just nice and slow, and not too tight, I imagine. Well, I think for this one in particular with those thick blueberries, you definitely don't want to go too tight. I like that you do the four egg yolks in there. No messing around with whites. No whites, and it's so funny because a lot of people I'm so happy and grateful that a lot of people make it recipe. It's wonderful. Um, but it is annoying to make it with I understand the four egg yolks is a time consuming project. Um, so one woman one time was like, don't just make me licious cala, but just use two whole eggs instead of four egg yolks. And I was like, and then it became a whole thing, but it's not the texture is so insanely different when you use two. White is not exactly white doesn't have the fat. Exactly. Yes, that is how, and it's not it's fine, but it's not the same thing. So I actually had to make a whole video saying if you want to not make four egg yolks, I'm never gonna judge you. I'm the last one to judge anyone who doesn't have time or any or anything like that. Just make the vegan. The vegan made dishes recipe is excellent. Some people can't even tell the difference because it substitutes egg not with like something unique. It's just more oil. We've just put in more fat and it makes it taste so good. I you like to use tahini sometimes as my egg substitute in that delivery one because you still get that like the richness in the body. Oh, smart. But also, there's so many ways to do it. This looks great. Little flour. So what I like to do, yeah. I just like to do on my fingers is just like a little and then it's like a fairy dusting on top. So you don't have it. So this is how do you braid your follows? I do a four-strand. It's usually fancy. I'm incredibly fancy. Exactly. We did a three-strand. Okay. But with a filled hollow, I think that would be too much. Because with a four-strand, you need them to be thinner and a bit longer. It's a it's a level up. You can do it. I do it six-strand and stuff, but it's not um, it's a little easier to do three-strand. Let's do it. So um I always brain mine from the middle whenever I do it, which is interesting to some people, but I'll I will go through my little story I tell myself. Okay. So you have three strands here, and every strand wants a turn to be in the center. All right. I'm gonna start in the bottom half of the dough. And because we're working on the bottom half of the dough, when the when the strands go to take their turn, they're gonna go on the bottom of the center strand. Right. And we'll start on the right. So we're gonna lift this guy up and he's gonna go underneath. And now look, he is in the middle. He's very excited. Yay, I've had my turn in the middle, hurrah. And then this guy, oh no, I'm so sad. I haven't gone to the middle at all. Well, don't worry because it's a it's a life lesson. Everyone gets a turn in the middle. So it's your turn now, Mr. Magoo. So this up, it's on the bottom and it goes underneath. Are you ever a teacher? No, but my mom is a nursery school teacher. Okay. She's pretty ingrained in all this. But it's good because honestly, um, true story. When I started falling, needless and all that, I got the fala, figured all that out. Could not figure out braiding. And Danny, my husband, who is completely bald, there's zero hairs on his head, had to do all the braiding because I he was he was and he also had to do our daughter's hair. That's so funny. Because I'm so bad at braiding, but this way actually helped me. So I had to tell myself this story, so now I tell all of you this story. So yes, I do have to talk to myself like a nursery teacher sometimes. All right, so now we've done so. Now we just repeat that pattern over and over again, right? Okay. So this isn't right, he's pulling underneath, take his turn, left, right, and then underneath again. And underneath again, and then you pull and tug a little bit, go as far as you can, and then pinchy, pinch, pinch. Oh, that's a technical term. Yes, pinchy pinch, pinchy pincharoo. Oh, all right, and now something a little spicy to it, you know? This is it's for our our only collis page. Yes, you can go and sponsor now $18. It's wholesome. Exactly. It's very, yeah. All right, now this top is exactly the same, but because we're on the top, when the strands go to take their turn, they're going to go on top of the center strand. Okay. And because um work on the opposite side of the cloud, we're gonna start on the opposite side. So we start on the right on the bottom, so we'll start on the left here. He's gonna go over, yay! I'm in the middle, hurry. And then the right, he's gonna go on top, so he has his turn in the middle. Yay! It's amazing. Over and over, and over on it. Pinchy pinch. And then we sort of squish it a little. She's beautiful. Ta-da! Now you have the option of baking it in a loaf pan, baking it on a sheet pan. I tend to usually bake mine unless I'm like if you're making like for sure when we make colour French toast or sea lunches out of it, or you are like having a large event where you want to be able to make sure you can portion every single person exactly the same, then um the loaf pan girl. Yeah, or I'm not a sheep pan. I might I did not know people baked them lunchies my whole life. I always saw them in loaves. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, that's so interesting. We cut them with knives too, which was fascinating. Which I apparently know now people frown upon the knife. I'm I'm a tearer. Yes, everyone's a terror. But it's a little bit different with um stuffed hollas because imagine tearing this and then oh. Okay, make a sexy face.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

I don't know how it's very sexy.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

It's for our only falls page. Of course, of course. That's where all there is. We may as well do our our second one while that eye rises. Yeah. So then you can do a second file. You can make this into stuffed rules too. You don't do a second foul if you don't want. Um, because all this will freeze. I'll do it. I'm posting Shabbat. Yeah, you are every week. As if it's something different. So this week, let me mix it up. I'll host what you know. I for like like all the cooking in my kitchen. I just get so dynamic. Like, you know what? I need to host so I can get rid of my leftovers. Oh, that's nice. So I'm hosting this Friday. There's two families coming, and that's how I'm getting rid of some of the leftovers in my freezer. Yeah, I should do that. I just I get so tired, I can't clean my house. Oh, I don't do that. And I always like, I'm always like, let's do potluck at someone, or it could be potluck and then I can clean my house. Or I can bring all the food to someone else's house. I don't I am too much of a control person. Don't bring me food. If you want to come to my house, bring me flowers. Not carnations, I'm allergic. Oh, I'm just allergic because I kind of like them. Yeah, they're also not the nicest ones. So you can bring me flowers, wine, or a dog toy. Oh, a dog toy. Those are my three things you may bring to my house on occasion. You may bring a fruit plate. You bring anything else, you're dead to me. Oh, wow, that's very strict. I do not have bad policy, you know. I mean, come and bring whatever you want. Just don't bring cards. That's my job. Yeah, no, I don't bring me food, bring me flowers because nobody buys me those except for me. Well, then you definitely and I do love getting flowers. Now they are special, specialty. Sometimes I ask a friend, I'm like, bring me a fun smooth you've been enjoying. And they can bring me like make them think. I do better. I like I like a little homework project for people peddled to my house. Do they like it? Can you tell it how it reminds you of a historical figure? Because that's how that would be great. That would be a truth. Once we had a pizza party with our like pizza oven outside, and everyone had to come with their own toppings, but the toppings had to represent them as a person. So, like, I think on mine I did like dates and preserved lemon and goat cheese, and I had to explain how it represented me as a person. I'd be hot, honey. Hey yeah. India, you would be. I don't feel too small. It'd be mildly hot, honey. Mildly hot. I thought a little bit, but I can't. No. There we go.

unknown 28:30

Awesome, sauce.

SPEAKER_00 28:32

Oh, perfect amount of blueberry. How many times did it take you to figure out the exact amount of blueberry filling that you needed for this recipe? That is an excellent question. I don't really know. I feel like I like to start with things in an even like you know, a cup of blueberries. That's not because it's technically, this is also interesting. Is that I do the one cup rule, right? Okay. One third cup filling per straw. Okay. So if you're making chocolate chips, you don't want to just like do a tablespoon. You want one third cup at least of your filling. But so this is two cups. So this is one third cup filling. So that's and that's a good rule of thumb, also, for if you're getting creative, is if you're doing a three-strand poly, you need a cup of filling. Yeah. Think it like that. And then as you get this liquidy ones, you sort of have to be more careful. I mean, which I know you're not going to do, you have to be a little more careful because like it's heavy and won't bake. But like chocolate chips or Oreos. Yeah, you can work your way up even like half a cup or three-quarter cup per string. It won't mess it up. But right now, again, this is our gateway fala adventure at cookbook. I love that. You want to make sure that have you ever done one with like uh smoked salmon and cream cheese and chives or anything we're doing? You don't eat fish. You don't eat fish. Okay. But I ate sushi. But um, I don't know how I I can't quite imagine how it would be in a chala. But I made cream cheese in a fala. Um, well, a really great thing that I used to do for my kids' teachers was a thank you for everything salah. And it would be you put everything seasoning inside the dough. It's cute. On top, and then sometimes you would do like a cream cheese filling, you know, like just like balls of free. Yeah, but make sure when you're using your everything seasoning that you put in the dough, make it yourself or get salt free. Yeah. Before I made that mistake.

unknown 30:12

It's just it really's the dough.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

Because the salt will kill it. All right, yeah. Now, um, but also another interesting thing you too, so this the cup rule for the filling, and it's actually, I don't even think I put this in the cupbook, but I'll just share this with you. There's a double check it, we're still going. Can you try? Once I did this and it stopped. We're good. Okay. So um is the two tablespoon rule for your dough. So a tablespoon of cinnamon per, so two tablespoons of cinnamon per batch, two tablespoons of lemon zest. So this dough would make a nice lemony flavored dough. Interesting. Two tablespoons of garlic powder is enough just to casually flavor the dough. Two tablespoons of um vanilla. That adds a nice little, that's the that's the like base amount to give it a little bit of. I'm gonna get you to test the hala recipes for my next box. Woohoo. To see. Because I feel like I need a professional hala maker. I'm so not professional. I just or someone who's done it 10,000 times. I have done it 10,000 times. I do, yeah, because I think I make a thousand lows a year. Yeah. If I and I do oh not brushed out a little, that's okay. Um, and I do well. Right. So a thousand, that's a while. It's a lot of years. So yeah, so it's not your first time. Okay. Now they're gonna uh you sit, you let them rise. Let's have a little snack. Yay! Yeah, okay. Look lovely. Maybe a little overproof because I can see that the strings they might have been a couple into each other. Summer is time. We can always um you can always untuck them. Why have I never done this before? Untuck, untuck, and then you can prove you won't even spring a little bit. It helps a little.

unknown 31:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

Perfect. Brings them back if you give them a little unwash egg wash. Yes, we I forgot to take into account that the dough sat out a little bit extra, so probably gonna cut back the decorator. And then we were enjoying lunch. Oh, yeah, we did enjoy the lunch. It was that thank you. I think it was worth it. Do you want to put some water? Do you usually do water in here? What do you usually do in your egg? So I usually everyone does it differently, which is interesting. So I just usually um whisk this together. I actually use, you know, those um GM jars? Oh yeah. I keep those and I shake an egg up and down inside of it, and it works perfectly. So this is good enough. Amazing. Um, and then but because um you just have to mix something with the yolk, then I brush from the outside in to help keep um egg from pooling smart in the cracks. Very small. See, I have this crazy thing where I think how if you make it, if the strands bleed together, if it's a little too flat, if it's a little too tall, if it's a little too, it doesn't matter because you made it and you should feel proud because it's not easy and you work so hard on it, no matter what. But since being Mandylicious, I've learned people are Mandy, my strands are doing this thing with the line. I'm like, that's how it's supposed to look. No, it does not look like the bakery. So I've learned all these little things to help people who really want to have a perfect thing. And one of the things that people are noticing sometimes is if they when you sh with your egg brush over your hala, sometimes little egg bakes in the crevices and does, yeah. This which is I think is not a big deal. But if you want to but to some people it feels it feels like a bitch, it's important. So this is a way to keep it from students. It's been, you know, happening. It's a great idea. Yeah. It's almost like you've done this before. It feels vaguely familiar. I love how you can see all the blueberry coming out. It's like ready to burst. It might burst. We'll find out it's looking a little dicey on this one. I mean, it has already burst. It's just shh. But whatever. So we're gonna bake it, then we'll glaze it. You can bake this one actually in a loaf, if you had a loaf pan, if you were worried, we don't have to worry about it. But I'm saying if you're genuinely concerned about anything that you anytime you stuff a hala, and it's it happens all the time, that leaks out, bacon in a loaf pan because you know why? I call it sphinx for cala. Oh, sphinx. I was like, I thought I thought you were trying to say sphinx. No, no. Why don't I let's glaze one and then the other one? Let's put some coarse sugar off. Okay. I thought that'd be absolutely you can also do more lemon zest too. If you want to have more lemon or do lemon zest mixed with the sugar, to wait. This will be kind of cute. Oh, it's gonna be beautiful. And then once this one bakes, then I feel like I'll put it in the freezer because this will freeze and race, so then we'll have to think about it. But that's perfect. That's it. Okay, let's keep it in the oven for how long do you bake them for? Uh I know yeah, 30 to 40, but we'll check after, like, probably uh probably on 35, and we're gonna end up deal. And they look so nice. Yeah. Amazing. They're so beautiful. They did, they got a little excited, and yeah, I think that's so. Sometimes our holl is spread because well, this was well, our dough's a little reproof. Yes, that is that is definitely something that happened. Yeah, and that's usually when you get that stretching in between. But I kind of think with the fill-in, it looks kind of nice. I kind of think it's our love how it looks because I'm just gonna get it. Yeah, it's a little hot, yeah. It's toasty. We should wait till they're cool. You should wait. Some of us are much like a professionals. It's fine. Um, so yeah, it's spread out, but we're also gonna cover it with stuff, so it's fine. That's fine, especially when you serve it. So you can um slice it and then glaze it or glaze it before. So it depends. Like if you're gonna have, you know, you're gonna have a lot of leftovers, then you can just slice it and glaze. But I like to do it before the presentation is glorious. And I in the any other day I would wait till it's totally cool to do this because it will probably rub it off. But we can make it and then reapply. Reapply. Because who wants to wait? I don't. I certainly don't. I certainly don't. So don't like zest. I'm gonna put in like half a lemon of zest. Perfect. Just to because I'd like it to be very bright. You do a much nicer zesting job than I do. So that's we're gonna cut your fingers. I feel like I've cut my fingers so much in a zester before. No, it's nothing, anything compared to a mandolin. Those are those are scary. Those are scary. And we use the just a little juice in this little half guy. There's always half-zested lemons in order. If you have a fork or you do. I know I don't own any forks in this. Darn it, actually. We eat it exclusively with our spoons and pinkies. Make it seem classy that way. I'm incredibly classy. All right. So we want to just you I like you add whatever liquid you're adding. I use lemon juice in my lemon glaze. Um, you want to add it slowly. This is a healthy amount of um powdered sugar. So yeah, I didn't measure. It's fine. I figure if we have to do it a couple times. Also, it's so easy with powdered sugar to overdo the liquid. Oh, it's so weird. You could add all of a sudden. Literally a split. Yeah, I've used a whole bag for like this much. I don't know what happens. Yeah, sometimes it just happens so fast. Just slowly add. So just adding a little bit. So if you're re if a recipe says two tablespoons, start with half of that. That's that's actually excellent advice. You're very good advice. Thank you so much. It's very true. All right, here we go. Do do do do do. I'm left-handed, so I need my soaking together. The evidence together. This is why we're standing together and we're not taking elbows. No, but actually makes a lot more sense. Okay, we should eat together for the rest of our lives. It is a sacred thing. Every restaurant we can sit next to each other at. Wow. But this is eye-opening. The rest day of my life. Really, it might very well be the best day of my life. All right, hold on, we're almost in.

unknown 37:34

There we go.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

Oh, it was glorious. I'm glad I don't have any cuts in my fingers. Yeah, seriously. So now the glaze, you have options. Like some people like to slather. Like if you wanted to like take it and like spread it like a frosting, you could stop now. If you want to like really make it like a legit glaze, make it a little thinner. I think because our hala is hot, also, I would do a thicker one anyways. So that'll just sit or slip right off. Yeah. Here we go. All right, I'm gonna put this guy down. I'm going to wash my hand real quick. Taurus. Beautiful. Do the honors. All right. So, what is your kids' favorite hala that you ate? I get so much salah. They really like meat stuff ones. Like the salami one is you have a Korean hot dogs hala. That is you can use the veggie dogs. I could use my favorite veggie dogs. The Korean hot dogs hala one is is pretty special. Um they and then, you know, I think that like the cookie dough one is also like. So you send them halas to school for no, well, Angel's moving out now. Baby comes home, but they get enough hala where it's not it was special for that. They're probably like, oh thank goodness I have this bread. Oh my god. Everyone's like, oh, your mom makes bread. You must be they know. All right, here we go. So I'm gonna glaze this one. Stunning. And it's a good thickness for the heat of the holler right here, too. It's a great fala. Do you have a favorite one in the book that you are most excited about? Hmm. That's a great question.

SPEAKER_01 39:13

Answer.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

But like picking a favorite child because I I work so hard on all of them. I really do like the um the rye fala is really good for like the sandwiches and things like that. Um I have one model of like sexy page sweets on it.

unknown 39:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

Anyways, yes, the lemon blueberry is always a classic. Then oh, there's a cookie butter latte. Oh wow. That is great because you can make, so you're we're used to making cookie butter or using like speculos, like special biscuits, and you totally can use those, but you can make cookie butter out of any cookie. So you can take like cream crackers or nilla wafers or Oreos and you blend it together with like coffee, and then it the swirls that it makes are so cool when you do it, and then um also a I have a um lemon dumpling one. I like lemon a lot. So it was a coconut curry hala too. So I guess I like the sharper flavors, yeah. Anyways, yes, this is our beautiful hala. Thanks for waiting this with me, should we? You want to tear it or do we're a tear? Cat is cat, you gotta blow. So this ulder mouth. Yeah, or take it. A taco. I'm gonna get um. Oh yeah, delicious. Good Brad. That's really done.