I decided that this week’s challah should be a Swedish Vanilla Bread. Why? Oh there are a couple of good reasons:

• The wonderful vanilla beans I got from @JonathanBergman and @AvivaVanillaBeanCompany
• My oldest daughter and her husband are living in Sweden and about to have my first grandchild!

I am quite excited as I connect my baking with my grand baby.

The only problem was that I used a recipe that was a bit “off”: I first started having my doubts when I noticed there was no salt in the recipe ( water, flour, salt, yeast – those are the bread necessities); then, the cooking temperature and times seemed high and long. Although I caught the omission and added salt, I only cut 10 minutes off the bake and did not not change the temperature the recipe called for. The result was an overcooked bread, but still, it was delicious.

Look at the beautiful flecks of vanilla in the crumb. I was a little surprised, the bread was equally suited for both sweet and savory uses, whether it was butter and jam, a good brie, or a tuna melt.

For how overbooked it seemed, the bread was great to use for a day and a half. It simply dried out quickly and needed to be turned into French toast, or more correctly, pain perdue (lost bread). I will not give you the recipe for this until I make it again with my corrections. Once I do that, I will amend this post.