Challah Bread is a popular braided bread recipe made with eggs and honey. It is lightly sweet and makes the most incredible French toast!
While this recipe does take time, most of that is hands-off proofing time! Made with basic pantry staples, the dough itself is so easy to prepare.
What is Challah Bread?
Challah is a braided bread that is so delicious, yet so easy to prepare.
Made with pantry staples like honey and eggs, this slightly sweet bread is braided and brushed with an egg wash before being baked until the perfect golden brown color!
While it does take time to proof, this recipe takes little skill to make.
How To Make Challah Bread
This recipe works best with a stand mixer with a dough hook! You will also want a digital thermometer since you’re working with yeast and temperature is very important!
- Prep – Using a stand mixer, prepare the dough (per recipe below) and transfer it to a greased bowl. Cover with a damp dishcloth to proof.
- Braid – Make evenly sized dough strands and braid together. Place bread on a greased baking sheet.
- Egg Wash – Brush with a prepared egg wash and let proof. Repeat once more.
- Bake – Brush with a final coat of egg wash and bake!
To check for doneness, use a kitchen thermometer to ensure the internal temperature of the bread has reached 190°F.
Delicious Additions
Mix-Ins: Add up to 1 cup of raisins, dried cherries, or other dried fruits to the dough. Just add it in with the eggs while preparing the dough!
Toppings: Top the bread with poppy seeds or sesame seeds after the final egg wash is applied and before baking, or leave it plain (which is perfect for French Toast).
How to Braid Challah
Braiding challah is the hardest part! To start, try a classic 3 strand braid. Once you have the hang of it try braiding in 4, 6, or even 8 strands for beautifully baked bread!
- Divide the dough into equal portions (3, 4, 6, or 8 depending on what you have chosen).
- Roll into evenly sized strips by working from the center and rolling with your hands, tapering the dough at the ends.
- Secure one end of each dough strip together and braid.
I recommend doing a YouTube search for braiding Challah bread for the number of strips you chose. It’s good to have a visual guide to follow for this part.
Tips for the Perfect Loaf
While this dough is easy to prepare, there are a few helpful tips to remember for the perfect loaf every time!
- The bread does not rise like a traditional sandwich bread recipe. It should double in size but it will not expand over the top of a large bowl. The dough gets most of it’s rise in the second round of proofing after it has been braided.
- DO NOT skip the egg wash process. I know how tempting it might sound to just let it do the second proof all at once and just apply the egg wash right before baking, but the egg wash helps apply moisture to the dough which helps it rise and gives it the glossy topping Challah breads are known for!
- If you like Challah bread heavy on the egg flavor, add 1 additional egg yolk to this recipe with no additional changes.
How To Serve Challah Bread
Challah bread is delicious on its own, and it’s even more when paired with honey butter or cinnamon butter.
Serve it alongside eggs in purgatory or with a plain poached egg.
It’s also a great bread to use to make homemade croutons, bread pudding, or French toast with!
To Freeze
Prepare the dough through the braiding process then freeze!
Place it on a baking sheet until frozen, then wrap with plastic wrap and aluminum foil until ready to use. To use, remove it from the freezer, unwrap immediately and place it on a baking sheet. Plan for it to take 6 to 8 hours for it to fully rise.
Challah bread can also be frozen by allowing it to cool completely before wrapping and freezing.
Easy Bread Recipes
- Easy Beer Bread – no yeast required!
- Homemade French Bread – made with pantry staples
- Easy Banana Bread – classic quick bread recipe!
- Irish Soda Bread – perfectly dense bread
- Monkey Bread – sweet, sticky, and so easy to prepare
How did your Challah Bread turn out? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Homemade Challah Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
Bread
- ½ tablespoon Instant yeast (also called Rapid Rise Yeast) *dry active yeast alternative below
- 4 cups bread flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup whole milk heated between 120-130°F
- ¾ cup water heated between 120-130°F
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 large egg
- 2 large egg yolks save whites for eggwash
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Egg Wash
- 2 large egg whites leftover from the bread
- 1 teaspoon water
- 1 tablespoon honey
Instructions
- Mix together the yeast, flour, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment.
- With the mixer running on "stir" speed, pour in the milk and water. Then add in the honey, egg, egg yolks, and vegetable oil. Increase speed to medium and knead for 5 to 6 minutes until the dough completely pulls away from the bowl and is no longer sticky to the touch.
- Shape the dough into a ball and transfer to a large greased bowl and cover with a damp dishcloth and proof (rise) for 1 hour.
- Remove the dough from the bowl with the top right side up on a lightly floured surface. Pull the edges of the dough from 4 points, flip, and work in a circular motion on the counter to seal, then place back in the bowl. Cover the dough with the damp dishcloth again and proof for an additional hour.
- Remove from the bowl and evenly divide the dough into the number of braids you want, I like to use 4. Shape the dough into logs. Cover the dough logs with the damp dishcloth and let the rest for 20 minutes.
- Roll each log out into 1 1/2-inch strips of dough, working from the center and rolling with your hands, tapering the dough at the ends. Secure one end of dough strips together and braid. Place bread on a greased baking sheet.
Egg Wash
- Make egg wash with the leftover egg whites, water, and honey and brush it on the bread. Proof uncovered for 40 minutes.
- Apply another coat of the egg wash then proof for an additional 40 minutes.
- Apply a final coat of egg wash before baking.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F and reduce it to 325°F as soon as you put the bread in the oven to bake. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove from the oven and place an aluminum foil tent over the top and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes.
- The bread should sound hollow when you tap on the top and the top should be golden brown when done. Challah bread should have an internal temperature of 190°F when baked let cool completely before cutting.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Bread
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I have never braided before but it is easy once you know how. The bread turned out amazing, the family loved it. I make it once a week now for family supper.
Thank you very much.
You’re so very welcome Wayne! I’m so happy that you tried it!
I’m confused about step 4 where you describe pulling the dough in from four points?? If you could provide photos/video to explain that would be very helpful!
Hi Coleen, you would take the dough from four sides (like a square) and pull it to the middle of the dough. You then flip the dough over, and shape it into a ball, sealing the bottom together. Hope that helps! Enjoy the delicious bread!
Overall, this recipe worked very well! There are a minor issues to note:
* The egg wash (2 egg whites + oil + honey) works great, but you end up with too much of it. That’s fine, just be aware that you’ll be discarding half the egg wash.
* The bake time is ~10m more than listed.
* Pro-tip: Don’t slice Challah. *Pull* it! The whole point is that the dough pulls apart in lovely wispy tufts! :)
This is is beautiful recipe for Brioche, not really Challah. As Challah is a jewish bread made to be eaten next to meat dishes, Challah is always Parve. Meaning No Dairy can be included in the recipe. My challah is still brioche like, but without milk, butter etc… So it is still delicious in the morning with fresh butter and jam, or with cream cheese and lox. But on Friday evening it goes perfectly with all the meat dishes. Only on special occasions like the jewish New Year(Rosh a Shana) do we make it sweet with honey (to have a sweet year)and other (raisins, dry fruits,…)BUT still Parve (no milk/no meat products). Of course you can decide to make Challah with milk…but then you oven is no more kosher for cooking meat dishes for at least 48 hours… Therefore almost never done unless you don’t keep kosher. I thought you might enjoy the info.
Corinne.
Thanks for sharing Corinne! We will have to try it with raisins or dry fruits next time :)
could you replace the milk with oil to make it dairy free?
I haven’t tried it Carly so I can’t say for sure.
Wow, this one took some time but it is worth it! I’ve been trying my bread making skills and this one looked interesting! I even watched some videos on different braiding! SO FUN! I used the 4 braid and it really came out well! Love your recipes!
I’m so glad you loved it!! I have to agree, making bread is so fun (and satisfying)!!