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Challah Bread is a satisfying and impressive bread to make at home. The dough is wonderful for cinnamon rolls and day old bread makes amazing French toast and bread pudding.
I used to take it for granted. The smell of yeast as it foams in the bowl, gnawing away at the sugar feeding it. It is a smell I’ve always known, one that would greet me as I walked into either of my Grandmother’s kitchens as they prepared loaves of bread for sandwiches or rolls for Sunday meals with the family. And the site of my aunt’s green bread bowl gently draped with a crispy pressed flour sack towel sitting by the warm oven is one I won’t likely soon forget either.
After I’d married, I was given a fancy bread machine to make homemade bread. It now sits idle in a top cabinet of my kitchen, having been moved from home to home over the past 16 years and only having baked a couple of loaves. After using it, I quickly realized that I enjoyed the process of making bread as much, if not more, than I enjoyed eating the results of the effort. Something was missing in the translation from the ingredients to the finished product for me.
When making bread, I’m right back in the kitchens of the women I grew up admiring. Scuffed floors polished to shine as best they could and counters worn from years of meals made and served on their tops. Just the thought of those kitchens makes my shoulders immediately go slack as I relax in the rhythm of mixing simple ingredients of yeast, water, flour, and eggs together and then later as I roll and knead it on my counter top.
It’s a peacefulness that I don’t quite feel when making brownies or cookies even.
Biscuits? Maybe.
But the smell and the feel of making yeast bread takes a bit more patience and allows me time to think. I believe you could say it is a therapy of sorts. Maybe I’m trying to learn to be a bit more patient as I grow older. Or maybe I’m just realizing that like fine wine and cheese, there are other things that just get better with time.
Lately, I’ve noticed that I choose a certain type of bread and then make it over and over for my family. At least one Friday afternoon a month, you will usually find a bowl of my favorite Challah Bread Dough rising on the counter top to ensure French toast, bread pudding, cinnamon rolls, or other tasty treats throughout the weekend. By Sunday afternoon, the loaf has disappeared only to have me thinking of my grandmother’s homemade yeast rolls or a sturdy loaf of bread she would bake for the week’s sandwiches and such. But the Challah Bread is definitely one of our favorites. Easy to prepare, it most certainly is a versatile dough. In it’s true form as a loaf though, each flaky, buttery, eggy bite can not be mistaken.
No heavy mixers or fancy equipment are required to make this Challah Bread. A bowl, a spoon, a few traditional ingredients, a warm oven, and time are all that you need. Well, that and your hands. Maybe that’s where the therapy part comes in.
Here’s how I make my Challah Bread.
Combine yeast and warm water in a large stainless steel or glass bowl. Add sugar to begin feeding the yeast and allow to sit for about 10 minutes to bubble and foam. If your yeast doesn’t bubble and foam, throw it out and make sure you have fresh yeast.
Pour in your melted butter.
And add your eggs.
Whisk to combine your wet ingredients with your yeast.
Add flour, one cup at a time, and salt and mix into your wet ingredients to form a dough. Mix well until all ingredients are well combined, but do not overmix your dough. Cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place until it has doubled in bulk, about 1-2 hours.
Once dough has doubled in size, pour onto a floured surface and gently knead about a minute.
To shape your dough, cut it into three to four long strips and braid as if you were braiding long strands of a hair or ribbon.
Place the braided dough onto a lightly greased baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise again until has doubled in bulk, at least an hour.
Brush your dough with an egg wash and bake.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly on a wire rack before slicing or allow to cool completely before using in a bread pudding or French toast recipe.
Regardless of how you use this dough or finished bread, you’ll find pride in your ability to make what is sure to become a family-favorite. At least it has in mine.
Here is my Challah Bread Recipe. I hope you make it soon!
Challah Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 cup warm water
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 8 tablespoons melted butter
- 3 eggs
- 4 – 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon salt
For the egg wash:
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup water
Instructions
- Combine yeast and warm water. Add sugar, stir gently and allow to sit for about 10 minutes to bubble and foam.
- Add melted butter and eggs to yeast mixture. Whisk together.
- Add flour, 1 cup at a time, combining well after each addition.
- Add salt and stir well.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to double in bulk, at least 1-2 hours.
- Pour dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently. Cut dough into 3-4 strips and braid. Place onto a lightly greased kitchen sheet pan and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise again to double in size, at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 325º F if using a convection oven and 375º F if standard.
- Remove plastic wrap and brush lightly with egg wash made of egg whisked together with water.
- If baking in a convection oven, bake for about 35 minutes. If baking in a standard oven, bake for about 45-50 minutes.
- Bread will be done when it is nicely browned on top and when tapped on the the bottom, the bread sounds hollow. If checking by thermometer, the internal temperature should read about 200º F on an instant read thermometer.
- Cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes prior to slicing.
Notes
Nutritional Information
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
This is definitely my favorite bread of all time. I looove this!
Isn’t it the best? It is requested frequently here! 🙂
I always want to make bread but I never get around to it. Challah is something I REALLY want to make because it it THE best for french toast. Looks wonderful!
Oh, I can’t wait to hear how you like it once you bake your very own loaf!
Absolutely gorgeous! I love hearing about your memories from long ago 🙂
Aww, thanks so much, Rachel.
Oh how I LOOOOOVE Challah. And you make it look so easy!!
It really is pretty easy. The yeast and time really does all the work for you.
LOVE Challah, never made Challah-but can eat alot of Challah-just say’n. I need to give this a go.
Great recipe and I always love the step-by-step pictures.
Thanks so much, Naomi. I know exactly what your sayin’. 🙂
You know we lurve this! And it’s so pretty.
Thanks, sweet Amy. I wish y’all lived closer and you could just pop in for French toast on the weekends.
Definitely one of my favorites! Love eating it while sipping my favorite coffee! Thanks for the recipe. I can make my own now, instead of buying in the bake shop.
Definitely! I can’t wait to hear how you like making your own. Bakery bread is wonderful, but there is something about making it yourself that makes it taste that much better. Thanks for stopping by.
Challah is the bread we make time and time again too. And my family has bowls for dough rising too – ours is a light brown crock. So many memories stored up in that crock.
I do love my bread machine, but I love kneading by hand too.
Beautiful loaf, Robyn!
It’s amazing how those memories come flooding back too, isn’t it? I don’t think I ever gave myself time to get used to my machine, and honestly, I need the kneading time most weeks! 🙂
What an absolutely beautiful loaf of bread Robyn. I grew up in a family of bread makers too. It’s sad that I did not inherit that gene for some reason, my experience with yeast has not always been positive. Though, I did make Artisan Bread in 5 with success. Maybe I’m not trying hard enough.
I would love a nice slice of this for a snack right now 😉
Aggie, if I can make bread you most definitely can, girl! Just make sure your yeast is fresh and don’t rush things.
There are times when I know exactly what a hick I’ve been my life. I grew up in a really small, rural town and I’ve never even heard of challah bread. But you know what they say? Better late than never! I can’t wait to give it a try. Thanks for the post and recipe!
I did too, Marly. We lived 10 miles from the nearest town that only had one traffic light and only local grocery stores until after I left for college! My aunt always just called this butter bread and made it a little bit differently, but the taste of my challah bread recipe is very, very similar to hers.
I can’t wait to hear how you like it!
So glad you shared this recipe! I had two recipes recently call for challah bread and I had to go on a hunt to find some. I finally found a loaf and it was delicious. But I was just thinking I really need to get a recipe for it so I can just make it instead of having to track it down again!
I can’t wait to hear how you like it, Laura.
What a lovely loaf this is, Robyn! You did a great job on it!
Thanks so much, Georgia.
That looks so good. My hubs calls me strange- but there is something so satisfying about kneading my own dough, smelling it baking in the oven & tasting all it’s goodness & knowing that I MADE it. Nothing quite like that feeling.
Absolutely!!! I’m with you, Gina. It is so very satisfying!
A meal isn’t a meal without bread, and you posted SOME bread!! The photos are gorgeous, as usual. You make it seem so easy! I’m going to have to make this asap!!! Thanks once again for a first-rate recipe.
What a perfect bread and it looks so delicious. I can’t wait to try this. Thanks for sharing your recipe. Love it!
Robyn, that in one gorgeous loaf!! There’s is just nothing quite like fresh made bread, sigh…
I’ve always wanted to try making challah bread — looks delicious!
I must try this, it looks absolutely wonderful!
I first discovered Challah when I was a teenager, flipping through my mom’s old copy of The Joy of Cooking. I was going through a major baking phase at the time, and I fell in love with Challah. I don’t think I’ve made it since I was 17 or 18 though. Lately I’ve gotten back into baking, and started making my own sourdough (using a starter that I made from scratch). I would love to combine the two if possible. How well would it work to make Challah using a sourdough starter instead of store bought yeast?
Such an impressive looking bread and the rewards of fresh homemade bread are so worth the little bit of patience it takes to make them.
You know, I’ve heard a lot about Challah, but I’ve NEVER tried it! This is going to have to be my excuse to make it. Thanks for the recipe!
BTW, I feel the same way about making bread. My hubby has asked me if I wanted a bread machine a ton of times and every time, I’m all “NO way!!! Anytime you want bread, let me know cause I LOVE making bread.
I suffer from fibromyalgia and on my good days I try to cook/bake so there is plenty of meals for my family on the days I can’t do it. This bread looks delicious! If I make it can I make multiple loaves and freeze them?