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.
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
- ⅔ 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: ⅙ 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
Keywords: baking, bread, fall
Sarah Horne
Amazing 🤩 challah recipe! Made the fluffiest, softest challah which my family adored! I’m even giving this recipe to my husband who occasionally bakes challah!
Thanks so much! Thanks- I think letting it rise over night really made the difference and finding the dough explosion in my fridge was funny too!
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
WAHOO! We're so glad you enjoyed it!
Kayla
Waste of flour eggs and sugar. The melted butter and honey recipes are much better and more traditional. This is a very unfriendly dough and zero fun to work with. If you already have a trusted recipe do not switch.
★
Team Life As A Strawberry
Sorry to hear this didn't work for you!
Elisa
I'm not sure how this is going to come out because I'm in the middle of it - the recipe says it takes 20 minutes! I knew it had to be longer than that but I was not prepared for the 4 hours and/or overnight!!! Guess it won't be ready in time for dinner...
★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
Thanks for letting us know! The total time is usually around 2 hours and 45 minutes unless you want to add an overnight rise.
Olya
Can I add honey ? If so how much
Team Life As A Strawberry
We haven't tested this recipe with honey, but a few other readers have added honey substituted the sugar in the recipe with honey! Scroll through previous comments to see what worked for them!
Rachel
I make challah bread each week for Friday Sabbath dinner and this recipe is one of the few I have found that produced gorgeous pillowy soft golden challah bread. I think I stopped at 7cups of flour then added more while kneading by hand and lastly a drizzle of oil on the bench so there's no sticking. About 5 Tbsp sugar and 1 Tb salt. Everything else was the same. Definitely a keeper!
Team Life As A Strawberry
WAHOO! We're so happy to hear you love this challah bread!
sandra
I love this recipe as a base - The first time- following instructions exactly, my challah was dry and overcooked (maybe its my oven). Since them, I have made it a few times with modifications and it is the bomb. I am sharing them here in case you have a similar experience and/or like me prefer a moister challah....
Same recipe but
replace all sugar with same quantity honey
add slightly less flour - usually about 1/2 c. less (I am hand mixing)
cook at 360 20 minutes and then typically another 5-10 after brushing with egg wash.
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
We're SO happy you love using this recipe and we love the addition of honey!
Rose
I am about to try this and super excited! I make a lot of challah but this recipe looks like what I have been missing! I wondered what type of flour you used here? Would a high protein bread flour be best?
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
We use all-purpose flour to test this recipe (typically King Arthur and Bob's Red Mill), but bread flour would also work well!
ellen rubinowitz
i have already shaped my loaves. I wud like to put them in the fridge overnight and bake tmrw fresh for the holiday.
should I let them rise now at room temp or put them in the fridge prior to rising and let them rise tmrw OR put in fridge right away and let them rise tmrw am???
TIA
Team Life As A Strawberry
We haven't tested an overnight rise after shaping, but if you can't bake until tomorrow we recommend placing your loaves in the fridge to slow the proofing process. Then allow them to warm to room temperature before baking!
Mailin Stewart
I’m currently in the process of making this bread. I’m not sure why but I used 1 3/4 of water. I read the measurements wrong. Will that affect my loaves???
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
You're correct using 1 and 3/4 cups water, so your loaves will be perfect! Happy baking!
Denise
Yummy! Instructions and ingredients right on point-just added a tiny bit of flour. Made it with my niece who never made bread before. Lots of fun!
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
WAHOO! We're so happy you both had fun. Happy bread baking!
Lexi
Hello! Can you freeze half of the dough if you don’t want to bake two loaves? Would you freeze it after the second prove?
Team Life As A Strawberry
You can freeze the dough right after you braid it (don’t give it any time to rise!) by placing it on a flour-dusted baking sheet and sliding that into the freezer for an hour or two, then transferring the loaf to cling wrap or an airtight container and returning it to the freezer. If you're able to, we recommend freezing the bread after it’s already baked, though – it holds up SO well in the freezer and it’s much easier than dealing with the unbaked dough! Just wrap a cooled, baked loaf in plastic wrap or put it in an airtight container, throw it in the freezer, and defrost when you’re ready to use. I also like to slice the bread and freeze individual slices – just pop a slice in the toaster straight from the freezer whenever you want a piece. Hope that helps!
gemma
This takes forever I think you should make a less time consuming one.( it was great though)
Team Life As A Strawberry
We're so happy you enjoyed it, Gemma! Challah can be a labor of love, but we find it's always worth it!
Ava
Do you fit 2 loaves on the same baking sheet or one on each baking sheet and bake on after the other?
Sarah
Great recipe! I wish you included an estimated time for kneading in the stand mixer - just for an approximate idea. Mine turned out great, though, I wish I had kneaded it longer.
★★★★★
Juliet LeGo
New baker here....why would extra kneading make it better?
Karin
Hi can I use instant yeast or does it have to be active? And if I can use instant how would I add it.
Michelle
Hi Karin! Did you make it with instant dry yeast? Hoy many do you use? Thanks 🙂
Elise Waldman
I have never made challah myself. I searched for a recipe that looked good and I loved yours plus your easy to follow 6 braid YouTube video. After three rises, my loaves were huge and baked in 38 minutes. What a special challah for Shabbat!! Delicious! Excited for French Toast!
★★★★★