This eggy, hearty challah bread is easy to make and sure to be a hit! Tastes amazing straight out of the oven or as french toast the next day!
It was a bread-bakin', pasta-makin' weekend, folks. I made what felt like a zillion rigatonis (read: 10 servings or so) and a billion buckets of bread (read: 3 loaves + a batch of biscuits), not to MENTION a gigantic breakfast of everything I could think of on Saturday just.because.I.could.
Among the masses of bread I whipped up this weekend was my favorite challah recipe, adapted from Deb at Smitten Kitchen. And FRIENDS. It is THE BEST. So I decided to share it with the world (well...the part of the world that doesn't already creepily stalk Smitten Kitchen's recipe archives, anyway) (not that I do that, whatever) and also with a few select friends who came to dinner yesterday.
The braiding part is tricky, folks - I won't lie to you. It took me a few tries and several batches of challah before I got it to look somewhat right. There's a good tutorial on six strand braiding here - I won't try to explain it myself, because I will fail. But watch the video - it helps! She starts braiding around the 1:40 mark.
Here's what my braided loaf looked like:
WINNING.
I actually started making challah because of a restaurant in Portland called Gravy that makes the BOMB DIGGITY-EST french toast on the planet. (On the PLANET, folks.) They make it with challah bread and a super secret custard-y egg batter recipe that I have been determined to recreate for YEARS. Seriously - I know a lot of places make custardy french toast with challah bread.
But there's something magical about the one at Gravy. It's one-of-a-kind and will never be bested. Stay tuned for my copycat version of their super-duper french toast, though - I'm close to a breakthrough, I can feel it!
And now that I have fresh challah on my counter, I'm pretty sure it's about to be french-toast-o'clock in my apartment (friends and/or french-toast-testing-guinea-pigs welcome).
But until then, make yourself some of this bread. Slice yourself off a piece and butter it up real nice. Sit on your couch, eat your challah, and pat yourself on the back for being so bread-savvy. Refusing to share is totally acceptable - this bread just does that to people.
Print📖 Recipe
Simple Challah Bread
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Inactive Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 2 loaves 1x
- Category: Bread
- Cuisine: Bread
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
This easy challah recipe is perfect for weekend or holiday baking!
Ingredients
- 5 tsp. active dry yeast
- 1 ¾ cup warm water
- â…” cup sugar
- ½ cup olive oil, plus extra to grease a bowl
- 5 eggs, plus 1 extra for an egg wash before baking (6 eggs total)
- 1-2 Tbsp. salt, depending on your taste (I use 1-½ Tbsp. or so)
- 8 to 8-½ cups flour, plus extra for kneading/dusting
Instructions
- In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Let sit for 5 minutes or until yeast begins to foam.
- Mix oil, sugar, and salt into yeast.
- Add 5 eggs, one at a time.
- Add 8 cups of flour in 1-cup increments, mixing the dough a bit between each flour addition. (If you're using a stand mixer, use the dough hook attachment here. If you're working without a mixer, stir in as much flour as you can with a wooden spoon and then knead the rest in by hand).
- When you've added 8 cups of flour, take a look at your dough. It should be slightly sticky but should still hold together and pull away from the sides of your bowl as you mix. If the dough is too wet, add more flour in ¼-cup increments until dough reaches the right consistency.
- If you're working with a stand mixer, add an additional 1 Tbsp. of flour to the mixer and continue to knead the dough with your dough hook attachment until the dough is smooth and holds together. If you're working without a mixer, turn the dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface and knead it by hand until it reaches a smooth consistency.
- Oil a large bowl and place your dough inside. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean towel and let it rise in a warm place for 1-½ hours or until it has doubled in size.
- When dough has doubled, punch it down and turn it over in your bowl. At this point, you can either let it rise again on the counter or let it rise slowly in the fridge overnight. I ALWAYS do one rise overnight in the fridge, no matter what kind of bread I'm baking. It gives the flavors more time to develop and makes for a much richer end product. If you're in a hurry, though, re-cover the dough and let it rise again for 45 minutes on the counter. If you have the time to wait, re-cover the dough and place it in the fridge for 7-8 hours or overnight. After the dough has risen in the fridge, take it out and allow it to come back to room temperature before you proceed with the next step (about 3-4 hours).
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, punch it down slightly, and cut it into 12 equal pieces. (Each loaf will use 6 of those pieces). Set 6 pieces aside while you form the first loaf.
- Roll each piece of dough out into a long rope, about 12-14", and place the ropes parallel to each other on your floured surface. See this video for great instruction on how to braid the pieces. Braid one loaf, set aside, and repeat the process with your remaining 6 pieces of dough. Transfer the loaves to a large baking sheet.
- At this point, you can freeze one or both loaves for baking later or you can let them rise a final time. If you freeze a loaf, remember to let it come back to room temperature and rise before you bake it. If you're moving straight onto baking, cover each braided loaf and let it rise a final time - in a warm place for 1-½ hours or until the loaves have nearly doubled in size (they should be puffed up pretty significantly).
- Beat your remaining 1 egg with 1 Tbsp. of water to make an egg wash. Brush it liberally on each loaf. Place loaves into a 375 degree oven and bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes have passed, pull the baking sheet slightly out of your oven and give each loaf another liberal brush of egg wash.
- Return loaves to the oven for 10-20 minutes or until loaves have developed a deep golden color. Fully cooked loaves should make a hollow sound when you tap them and will have a sturdy outer crust. (Don't worry, the inside will be soft!)
- Let loaves cool for 15-20 minutes. This bread tastes UN.BE.LIEVEABLE. when you eat it warm, but it's pretty dang delicious at room temperature, too. Enjoy!
Notes
*Note: I make challah in my stand mixer, a KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-quart-er, but even my supercharged motor slows down and pulls a bit with the amount of dough this recipe produces. If you have a smaller, standard mixer, I’d recommend cutting the recipe in half or foregoing technology and kneading this by hand.
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Nutrition
- Serving Size: â…™ of a loaf
- Calories: 462
- Sugar: 11.4 g
- Sodium: 615 mg
- Fat: 12.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 75.5 g
- Protein: 11.9 g
- Cholesterol: 77.5 mg
Rachel
I wish I could leave a photo here, they turned out amazing!!
Jessie
I'm so happy to hear that! Thanks for letting me know!
Phyllis
Can I use my bread machine on the dough cycle? Will the recipe still be the same?
Jessie
I haven't tested this recipe with a bread machine so I can't say for sure. Sorry I can't be more helpful!
Katie
I just made this recipe using my bread machine on the dough cycle, it worked very well! I braided it then let it rise a touch more in the oven at a super low temp for about 15 minutes then baked it.
Jessie
I'm so glad you liked it - thanks for letting me know how it worked in the bread machine!!
MacKenzie Walsh
I love this challah bread - very straight-forward and delicious. I feel very capable to make it, even if my braid turned out less than gorgeous. Thanks for this recipe!
Karen
I'm worried about the raw eggs sitting out on the counter that long at room temp! Am I crazy? I made the dough yesterday, let it rise on the counter once, put it in the frig overnight, and now letting it sit on the counter again, as you have said. Is this safe with raw eggs?
Jessie
I've never had a problem with the eggs in this recipe. The U.S. is actually unusual in the fact that we refrigerate our eggs (from what I understand, this is because U.S. eggs are washed before hitting our shelves and so shells are stripped of a protective layer) and the real concern with leaving whole cold eggs out is that the shells will "sweat" and make it easier for bacteria to seep into the egg. The USDA has a whole fact sheet here if you're curious about their recommendations. If using an egg-based dough worries you, though, you can always shorten the rise time (although the flavor of the bread won't be as developed) or opt for an egg-free dough. Hope this helps!
Isabel DeLong
Ok, this recipe is simply amazing. I've been searching for the best challah recipe on the Internet for months now. After reading the reviews that people would leave I would try these challah recipes only to be disappointed. I came upon this recipe by doing an image search on Google. I was looking at images of challah and when I came across your pictures I knew I had to try this recipe! This is the ultimate challah recipe! Friends and family go berserk over this bread, I will pass down this recipe to my children.
Jessie
I'm SO so happy you liked the recipe! This is one of our faaaaaavorites 🙂 Thanks for letting me know how it turned out!
Katie
Hi Jessie....I've never heard before that rising twice, or rising overnight in the fridge develops deeper flavor....I will try that! Just so I understand correctly....you raise it once on the counter, then the second time in the fridge? Then in the morning let it come to room temp and proceed w/ the braiding?
Jessie
Yup, you've got it, Katie! 🙂
Nadine Uys
Definitely the best Challah recipe on the internet! Thank you for sharing Jessie 🙂
Jessie
Thank you so much, Nadine!
Antonio C. Mesquita
First of all " Happy Easter" Jessie!
This is my first time that i will make this bread, if i choose to do as you recommend on step 8, leaving it on the fridge overnight, how much it will rise again ? Also what size bowl do you recommend, or it could be place in a large ss pot? I wonder how important it's to have the roundness shape as the bowl does, compared to the flat surface on stock pot. Do you think that the dough placed on the stock pot will not raise as fast as if it was in the round shape bowl? Just curious about it. Thanks!
Antonio
Jessie
The dough will rise much more slowly in the fridge than it does on the counter, which is why it's important to let refrigerated dough come back to room temperature.
The dough will continue to rise as it warms up after you take it out of the fridge, so you will still end up with a dough that's just about doubled in size!
As far as bowls go, use whatever you have on hand to let the dough rise - I use an oiled mixing bowl that is large enough to accommodate the size of the risen dough. I would probably recommend letting the dough rise in a mixing bowl rather than a stock pot. Hope that helps!
Gail
Tried this today, made two; froze one and the other is so very good. Thank you!
Jessie
Thanks, Gail! I'm so glad you like it!
lillilang
I just tried making this and my bread turned out really, really dense. Did I do something wrong? I've eaten lots of challah in my lifetime but none that was as dense as what I made.
Jessie
I'm sorry to hear that! It's hard to say what may have gone wrong without being in the kitchen with you - I make this recipe all the time, and in my experience it tends to turn out dense when I either overwork the dough (making the gluten in the flour overdevelop) or don't let the bread rise enough before baking.
Jenna Legge
its so funny because the only reason why I want to make Challah is because of the restaurant gravy in Portland Oregon. I visited Portland a few months ago and went to gravy and it was delicious and I had the French toast. Looks like a beautiful recipe I will be trying it soon!
Jessie
How funny! Gravy is my FAVORITE. I have a great copycat recipe for their french toast as well - if you give it a try, let me know how it compares to the original!
Shar R.
I started baking bread after getting a mixer for Christmas. This is one of my family's favorites. My 5 year old calls it "pretzel bread". It's so much easier to make than I thought it would be. My friend suggested a 3 braid challah as an easier option. I think the 6 braid is prettier.
Jessie
I'm with you - I love the look of a six braid challah. The more you make it, the easier it gets! I'm so glad you and your family like the bread - it's one of our favorites, too! Enjoy your new mixer!
Mckenzie
I just made this, and it came out amazing! Thanks for the recipe!
French toast for breakfast tomorrow! Woohoo!
Erin
I don't care for the taste of olive oil - do you know if vegetable oil or canola oil can be used instead?
Shar R.
I made it with Grapeseed oil, and it tasted great.
Jessie
I'm so happy to hear that! Thanks for letting me know!
Regina
How do you make half of this recipe when the original calls for 5 eggs?
Jessie
I never make this as a half recipe, but if you'd like to halve it, just use two eggs and reserve 1/4 cup of flour. Check the consistency of the dough and add the reserved flour a bit at a time until dough is smooth but not sticky.
shannon
I halved it and when doing the eggs I used 2, then cracked the 3rd in a cup, beat it slightly and poured half in re mix, reserving the other half for my egg wash later! Worked out perfectly!
Jessie
I'm glad to hear it! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out!
Duby
hi,
im famliar with this recipe from Smitten Kitchen -- and yours looks so good !!! im wondering - what does the extra egg do to the overall bread consistency? (Smitten Kitchen's recipe calls for 4 eggs + 1 for egg wash)
Thanks !
Jessie
Honestly, I adapted this recipe so long ago that I'm not sure why exactly I added the extra egg. My best guess would be to make the bread a bit stiffer and sturdier - I usually freeze one loaf and use a lot of the bread for french toast or stuffing, and eggs lend a bit more heft and body so that the bread can hold up to all that abuse.
Elaine Cook
Hi Jessie,
I've heard it's hard to take photos of food that look appealing. But you can do that! looks great!
I want to try this one. and others!
annammohr
Thanks for this ammmazzzing recipe. I have never made any bread and your instructions were well laid out and easy to follow. I am having one difficulty after having made this recipe a few times---my bread bakes too quickly on the outside before it cooks on the bottom and on the inside. So the top will be turning nearly black but the bottom will still be dough-y. Any ideas on how to fix this?
Jessie
I'm so glad you liked the recipe! If your bread is baking unevenly, you could try baking smaller or thinner loaves, or try lowering the oven temperature. You could also lower your oven rack if the top is cooking too quickly.