The Best Challah Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What kind of flour is best for challah bread? ›

Myrna's original recipe calls for all-purpose flour, and you can substitute that here. But I find bread flour gives the challah a nice chew without making it tough, and also helps the braided loaf maintain its shape after baking. For some novice challah makers, that braid can seem like the hardest part.

Oil: Vegetable oil, generally used in making challah, is fine—and produces neutral-tasting bread. I prefer olive oil and love the slightly herbal note it imparts to my bread. If using raisins: Make sure the raisins are plump and not desiccated, if using.

Be careful not to over proof your loaves; if they proof too much, the air bubbles get too big, causing them to pop and then deflate in the oven.

Make sure the dough is in a large enough bowl or container and has plenty of room to rise, because it will. Refrigerate it overnight. When ready to bake, remove the dough from the fridge and let it come to room temperature. Braid it and let it do its second rise for 20 to 30 minutes before putting it in the oven.

TIPS: If your dough is STILL too hard: This can happen if you used too much flour by accident or if you are using whole wheat flour that has a higher bran content.

All purpose flour contains about 8-11% gluten whereas high gluten flour contains 12-15%. Here's the good news, you can use either flour for this recipe and it will still come out great!

Amount of flour: The key to a soft loaf that isn't dense is to use as little flour as possible.

If the dough contains at least 1.666 kilo (a little more than 7 cups) of flour, one should take challah with a blessing. If the amount of flour in the dough is more than 1.2 kilo but less than 1.666 (5-7 cups), challah should be taken without a blessing.

The best baking temperature for *most* challahs is about 190°C / 365-375°F.

Knead on medium-low speed until you have a sticky dough that clings to the bottom of the bowl, 5 to 7 minutes. The dough may seem too wet but have faith—it's supposed to be. Dust your hands generously with flour, then scrape the sticky, elastic dough out onto a lightly floured work surface.

How do I know when my challah is done? ›

Place the loaf in the oven and bake. After 35 minutes of baking, check the internal temperature of the loaf with your Thermapen ONE. If the lowest temp you see is 195–200°F (91–93°C), the bread is done. Let the bread cool before slicing, then serve and enjoy!

Your dough is a bit too loose, and too wet. While this will yes net you airier challahs and those that rise a lot, you need to put a bit more flour into your dough so it will hold its shape after rising. I suggest adding in another half cup to a full cup of flour to your dough when you are preparing it.

Our solution was to make two three-strand braids, one large and one small, and place the smaller braid on top of the larger one. We brushed the loaf with an egg-water mixture before putting it in the oven to produce an evenly brown, shiny crust_the finishing touch to our handsome challah.

“Cracks” or “challah stretch marks” are caused by the dough pulling, which means active gluten and live, happy yeast. You may think your challah has taken a long enough second rise, but your yeast and dough might disagree with you.

Why? So the challah can be dipped right after the beracha is recited. The Mishnah Berurah (167:27) explains that dipping in salt or condiments makes the first bite tasty and adds honor to the beracha.

Kneading for 10-12 minutes by hand or 8-10 minutes in a mixer are the general standards; if you've been massaging the dough for that length of time, you can be pretty confident that you've done your job.

The process involves two long room temperature rises: the first, 8-10 hours and the second, 4-5 hours. I suggest kneading the dough Thursday evening, letting it rise overnight, then forming the loaves Friday morning. With this timing, you are ready to break the challah around 12/1PM on Friday.

When bread dough contains too much gluten it loses its extensibility and springs back too much, making it difficult to work with and resulting in a bread that is tough and has lower volume and a compact crumb.

Strong Bread Flour is Higher in Protein

Strong bread flour is made from “hard” wheat varieties and has more protein, from 12 to 14 percent. This creates more rise and structural support in the dough, allowing the final product to lift and hold shape. It also creates a chewier texture and more browning in the crust.

All-purpose flour has 8-11% gluten in it. It can be used to make things like waffles, pie crusts, pastries, and cookies. Bread flour has the highest amounts of gluten at 12-14%, and works well in yeast products.

What kind of flour do bakeries use for bread? ›

While bread flour is more than adequate for everyday breads, some professional bakers use high-gluten flour with a 14% protein content to provide extra strength to dense, chewy doughs like bagels and pizza dough. High-gluten bread flour gives milk bread it's taut structure and compact (but tender) crumb.

While bread flour is the best option, it can sometimes be used if you don't have bread flour. “Check the protein content,” advises Chef Jürgen, since it can vary from brand to brand, and an all-purpose flour that contains protein on the higher end of the range, 12 to 13 percent, will produce a better outcome.

Once again, self-rising flour is not the same thing as all-purpose flour nor is it the same thing as cake flour, bread flour, or pastry flour. Self-rising flour is almost exactly like all-purpose flour, but it has added salt and leavening mixed into it.

Challah is almost always pareve (containing neither dairy nor meat—important in the laws of Kashrut), unlike brioche and other enriched European breads, which contain butter or milk as it is typically eaten with a meat meal.