Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Rich, ever so slightly sweet, and perfect with dinner or as French toast in the morning.
Texture: Moist and tender yet firm.
Ease: The steps are relatively easy they just require some patience. I always thought challah was extremely difficult to make but after watching someone do it in school I realized it shouldn’t be that intimidating.
Appearance: Challah is one of the most beautiful loaves of bread and this recipe creates a fantastic but uncomplicated braid.
Pros: So much better than store-bought challah and much more satisfying (both in terms of taste and accomplishment).
Cons: Requires pretty much a whole day to make,
Would I make this again? I’ve made challah probably 5 times at home already.
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I’ve made challah bread way more times than I care to admit after learning how to make it in culinary school.
It’s such a gorgeous and complicated-looking bread that I was never really confident enough to try it.
This recipe is actually pretty easy, even if you’re not a super experienced bread baker.
I wanted to make a video about challah because I feel that once you see how easy it really is your at-home challah baking will be much more successful.
Be sure to save some day-old challah because it makes killer French toast!
*Please note: I am not Jewish so I am not claiming this is traditional or authentic challah.
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Challah Bread
Ingredients
- 3 to 3 1/4 cups (15 to 16 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 envelope (2 1/4 teaspoons) instant yeast
- 1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) sugar
- 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
- 3 large eggs, one egg separated (reserve the white for the egg wash)
- 4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon water, at room temperature
Instructions
- In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, mix together the 2 whole eggs and 1 egg yolk, melted butter, and 1/2 cup of the water until combined. Gradually add the flour mixture. Increase the speed to medium and mix until the dough comes together. Knead for about 5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic, adding up to a 1/4 cup more flour if the dough is too wet and sticky. Mix the egg white and the remaining 1 tablespoon of water and cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Shape the dough into an even ball and place in a lightly oiled ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Gently press down on the dough to deflate it then cover with plastic and let rise until doubled again, about 40 to 60 minutes.
- Transfer the dough to a floured work surface. Divide the dough into 2 pieces, one about half the size of the other (the small piece should weigh about 9 ounces, the larger should weigh about 18 ounces). Divide the large piece into 3 equal portions. Roll each portion into a 16-inch long rope. Line up the ropes and pinch them together at one end. Braid the rope pieces, pinching the other end together to seal the braid. Place the braid on a parchment or silicone mat-lined baking sheet. Repeat the exact steps with the remaining 3 smaller pieces of dough. Brush egg wash onto the large braid then carefully place the smaller braid on top. Loosely drape the loaf with plastic wrap and let rise until puffy, 30 to 45 minutes.
- Meanwhile, adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and preheat to 375°F. Brush the loaf with the remaining egg wash. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown and registers an internal temperature of 190°F with an instant read thermometer. Let the loaf cool completely before slicing.
si es muy rico se parece al pan fino de colombia
I made this twice this week! I wanted to make French toast out of it but only had a little left so I will have to make a double batch next time. The teenagers LOVED it! Thank you for posting this recipie and video I absolutely loved it!
Made this last night eat it today for Easter very good. Thank you for sharing God Bless you.
I will make the french toast with the rest of it.
will let you know how it comes out.
THANK YOU AGAIN HON HAPPY EASTER TO YOU
wish I could do something for you for sharing
.
I love this recipe!! Is the second time I have made your recipe,It was easy to understand and it was great!
Thanks!!
Hi Tessa,
I found your recipe on reddit and decided to give it a shot. After adding half of the flour mix the dough became insanely dry and impossible to work, my mixer started making weird clicking sounds… I ended up adding 1 more egg (to be fair my eggs were more medium than large), 2 ts butter and 50ml milk, to be able to work in the rest of flour and have more normal consistency of the dough. I am not sure what happened. I am European so had a bit problems with the weights of ingredients but I used my 1/2 cup measure and stack with spoons for the rest (which should be of universal size I guess). Anyway, after that the dough rose but had visible flour lines when I was rolling it into strands for braiding. I wet my hands in water to help with that.
In the end I baked in 190 Celcius degrees for 25 minutes and that was aprox. 2 minutes too long! Challah got slightly too burned from the top in some places.
All in all – I am happy with the end result! Shame I can’t post a crumb shot here! It looked really nice, tasted great, nice soft middle. Next time I’ll start with 3 eggs and probably reduce the amount of flour to 2,5 cups.
I’m glad you made the recipe work for you! Thanks for letting me know how it all turned out 🙂 And I’d love to see a photo! Maybe on Instagram (tag @handletheheat or #handletheheat) or on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/HandletheHeat/
Bonjour Tessa 🙂
I just watched your video on how to make Challah Bread. I have tried to make Challah Bread before and it was a disaster! My future son-in-law is Jewish and I’d love to surprise him with a delicious Challah Bread. I am French from France and make croissants and baguettes no problem, so I hope, with your recipe, to be able to add Challah Bread to my répertoire.
Thank you so much and keep up the good baking!
Danielle
I suck at baking [ seriously, even when I make brownies they come out bad 🙁 ]
I gave this bread a shot today and I had not one drop of hope hahaha, but it actually came out pretty good. Thank you so much!! Will be looking at your other recipes also! Maybe your videos will better my baking skills 😀
Awesome, Lina! Happy to hear it 🙂
This is the second time I have made your recipe and it was great again. It was easy to understand and my daughter had a ball helping.
Love to hear that!!
Looks perfect going to try this.ty.
Oh and also it had only been in the oven for 20 minutes? What’s wrong?
Hi!
I love this recipe so much but I just had a quick question. While I was in my kitchen and the challah was baking I smelled something burning. And sure enough the bottoms were completely black! I even only had it on the middle rack. Is there anything I might be doing wrong?
Thanks
this was the best ever bread! I am making it again for Thanksgiving tomorrow!