Challah is a dense, sweet Jewish egg bread that’s perfect for toasting, snacking, sandwiches, and more. It’s shiny golden crust is achieved with an egg wash before baking. It’s a bread everyone should have in their repertoire and makes an especially beautiful addition to holiday tables.
Ingredients Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
Bread
- Warm water
- Honey
- Bread machine yeast – Also sold as “rapid rise” or “instant” yeast.
- Kosher salt
- Butter – Use real butter.
- High quality margarine – Such as Smart Balance.
- Eggs
- Bread flour – Bread flour has higher protein content than all-purpose flour, which is vital in bread like this.
Egg Wash
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Sesame or poppy seeds – For sprinkling on top, optional.
How to make Challah Bread
- In the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer, combine some water, honey, and yeast.
- Allow to stand for 10 minutes or until the yeast is blooming. Add the kosher salt, melted butter, melted margarine, and eggs and mix to combine.
- With the mixer running, add bread flour, 1 cup at a time, until the dough is very soft (too soft to knead with your hands), is pulling away from the sides of the bowl, and barely sticks to your finger. Allow the mixer to knead the bread for 7 minutes, then let the dough rest for about 10 minutes.
- On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into four equal parts (or two if you want to make two giant loaves of challah). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and spray lightly with non-stick cooking spray.
- Take one of the portions of dough and divide it into thirds. Roll/stretch it into a rope about 15-18 inches long and repeat with the remaining 2 pieces. Lay the three ropes next to each other and braid the dough, tucking the ends under the loaf.
- Place the braid on the prepared pan and repeat with the remaining dough portions (you’ll have 2 braids per pan). Cover the pans and allow to rise for 1-1 1/2 hours or until doubled.
- While the dough is rising, whisk together the egg and vanilla. Before placing in the oven, brush the dough evenly with the egg wash. If desired, sprinkle with poppy seeds or sesame seeds and bake until golden brown and the loaf sounds slightly hollow when you tap on it. Remove from oven, cool, and enjoy!
Storing and Other Tips
- Store cooled bread, tightly covered, at room temperature and enjoy within 3 days for best results.
- Challah bread is great for sandwiches, toast, snacking, and gift-giving.
- This bread is a fantastic slightly-sweet multi-use bread–in addition to making challah (4 smaller loaves or 2 massive loaves), it makes amazing rolls (in a 9×13″ pan or in muffin tins), sweet roll dough, hot cross buns, smaller individual loaves, and white sandwich bread (in a loaf pan). Just bake at 350°F and kind of keep an eye on the brownness for time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make this bread ahead of time?
Yes, you can make it up to a day ahead of time. Cool completely and wrap or place in an airtight container. Store at room temperature until ready to serve.
Can I freeze challah bread?
Yes. Wrap tightly in plastic and then foil. Label with the date and pop it in the freezer. For best results, use within 2 months.
Challah Bread
Challah bread is a slightly sweet braided Jewish egg bread, perfect for toasting, snacking, sandwiches, butter and honey, butter and jam, or just butter and more butter!
Servings loaves
Equipment
- electric mixer this recipe is too large for a standard home-use machine; see notes
Ingredients
Bread
- 3 cups warm water about 105-110℉
- 1 cup honey
- 1 ounce bread machine yeast 4 0.25-ounce packets, or just shy of 3 tablespoons
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt
- ¾ cup butter melted
- ¼ cup margarine, kosher high-quality, such as Smart Balance, melted
- 4 eggs
- 11-13 cups bread flour
Egg Wash
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- sesame seeds or poppy seeds for sprinkling on top optional
Instructions
- In the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer, combine the water, honey, and yeast. Allow to stand for 10 minutes. Add the salt, butter, margarine, and eggs and mix to combine. With the mixer running, add the flour, 1 cup at a time, until the dough is very soft (too soft to knead with your hands), is pulling away from the sides of the bowl, and barely sticks to your finger. Allow the mixer to knead the bread for 7 minutes, then let the dough rest for about 10 minutes.
- On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into four equal parts* (or two if you want to make two giant loaves of challah). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and spray lightly with non-stick cooking spray.
- Take one of the portions of dough and divide it into thirds. Roll/stretch it into a rope about 15-18 inches long and repeat with the remaining 2 pieces. Lay the three ropes next to each other and braid the dough, tucking the ends under the loaf. Place the braid on the prepared pan and repeat with the remaining dough portions (you’ll have 2 braids per pan).
- Cover the pans and allow to rise for 1 – 1 ½ hours or until doubled.
- While the dough is rising, whisk together the egg and vanilla. Preheat oven to 350℉. Before placing in the oven, brush the dough evenly with the egg wash. If desired, sprinkle with poppy seeds or sesame seeds. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and the loaf sounds slightly hollow when you tap on it. Remove from oven. Great for sandwiches, toast, snacking, and gift-giving.
Notes
- This bread is a fantastic slightly-sweet multi-use bread–in addition to making challah (4 smaller loaves or 2 massive loaves), it makes amazing rolls (in a 9×13″ pan or in muffin tins), sweet roll dough, hot cross buns, smaller individual loaves, and white sandwich bread (in a loaf pan). You could braid it with cinnamon sugar and raisins, or add in herbs like rosemary. Just bake at 350 and kind of keep an eye on the brownness for time.
- This is a HUGE dough recipe and will be too large for a standard KitchenAid or similar machine. A Bosch or KitchenAid professional 600 is large enough, but even then, it’s pushing it. However, it’s very easy to scale this recipe down by 1/2 or even 1/4.
- Nutritional information was calculated per loaf.
- Store cooled bread, tightly covered, at room temperature and enjoy within 3 days for best results.
Nutrition
Calories: 1997kcal, Carbohydrates: 323g, Protein: 50g, Fat: 56g, Saturated Fat: 27g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 8g, Monounsaturated Fat: 17g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 255mg, Sodium: 3972mg, Potassium: 536mg, Fiber: 10g, Sugar: 71g, Vitamin A: 1816IU, Vitamin C: 0.5mg, Calcium: 100mg, Iron: 4mg
Calories: 1997kcal
Cost: $8
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Questions & Reviews
Ooh and question… what machine did you use to make it in?
This brings back good memories from the Artisan Breads class I took in culinary school 🙂 The bad ones include never, ever being able to make a baguette. But I could make a gorgeous challah 🙂
Kate, this bread looks yummy. I just read your freezer jam recipe and was wondering if you ever tried the less sugar pectin, or just using honey? I’ve never made freezer jam, but strawberries are going to be in season soon and I want to try it out.
Did you use the dough hook on your mixer? Or the paddle attachment? Thanks! Love this site — you ladies give me courage to try making so many new things!
So excited to try the recipe! I have a European recipe from my time in Germany and Switzerland, but it is difficult to translate into American equivalents without a kitchen scale. Although, they braid theirs with four strands per loaf and it creates the most beautiful knotted pattern!
This is gorgeous … I’m sure I’d have to make it a dozen times to get it to turn out this beautifully!
So exicted to try this one! I have been anxious for the recipe since you posted the pic on Instagram.
I will be making this very soon! I’m glad to know that it works well using margarine, I don’t eat dairy and I want to be able to eat it!
I think I’ll at least halve or maybe even quarter the recipe though – that looks like it would be too much dough for a standard KitchenAid mixer.
Could I use wheat flour instead and add gluten to make up for the difference in protein?
I haven’t tried it with wheat flour. I’m sure you could do at least part wheat flour, but all wheat flour might be too heavy.
Hi! Any idea if it will turn out the same if you swap the margarine for butter?
I’m sure it would still be good, it just might be heavier. The recipe I started with used all margarine, which makes it lighter and fluffier, but isn’t as flavorful. I replaced almost all of it with butter with just a little margarine for texture and I felt like I got the best of both worlds. 🙂