A fantastic recipe for arthritic hands that can no longer readily knead dough! The recipe is designed to produce 1.5 pound (700 gram) loaves in a bread maker. This dough should NOT be baked in a machine. Use only the pasta/dough setting. The machine can’t handle all of the fully risen dough.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 35 mins |
| Additional Time: | 3 hrs |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs 50 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
| Yield: | 1 loaf |
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- ¼ cup pareve margarine
- 1 egg
- 3 cups bread flour
- 2 ¼ teaspoons bread machine yeast
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon water
- ⅛ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Place the warm water, salt, sugar, margarine, egg, bread flour, and yeast in the pan of a bread machine in that order, set the machine to the dough setting, and start the machine.
- When the dough cycle of the machine is finished, place the dough on a floured surface. Divide the dough into 3 pieces, and roll them into ropes about the thickness of your thumb and about 12 inches long. Ropes should be fatter in the middle and thinner at the ends. Pinch 3 ropes together at the top and braid them. Starting with the strand to the right, move it to the left over the middle strand (that strand becomes the new middle strand.) Take the strand farthest to the left, and move it over the new middle strand. Continue braiding, alternating sides each time, until the loaf is braided, and pinch the ends together and fold them underneath for a neat look.
- Grease a baking sheet, or line with parchment paper, and place the braided challah on the prepared sheet. Cover the loaf with a plastic bag to prevent drying out, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Whisk together 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of water, and vanilla in a small bowl, and brush the glaze on the challah. Sprinkle with optional toppings (see footnote).
- Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped, 35 to 40 minutes.
- Toppings: Sesame or poppy seeds for Shabbat
- Sugar for Rosh Hashanah
- Chocolate or rainbow sprinkles for Simchas Torah
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 215 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 33 g |
| Cholesterol | 37 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 7 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Sodium | 417 mg |
| Sugars | 3 g |
| Fat | 6 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
The bread wasn’t eggy enough for my taste, and the dough was way too wet, so I had to add more flour. I think I would add another egg and substantially more flower. The extra flour should be added gradually during the first mixing stage to get the right consistency for a shapely dough ball.
Wonderful recipe which makes a moist and tender Challah. My new go to recipe – Definitely a keeper!
This was excellent. Even down to the vanilla extract in the wash. Light and fluffy and very good. Once you turn it out and shape it- quadruples in size. I’m a horrible bread dough braider but it did taste great! Added sesame seeds, salt and oregano to the top.
Great recipe, easy and results are delicious!
I love this recipe! Made it for Hanukkah this past December. My girlfriend is Jewish, but I’m not – I was nervous to make challah because it seemed complicated. This recipe is so easy and so delicious! I’ve made it at least 5 times now. Based on other reviews, I did adjust the flour to 4 1/4 cups. I’ve made different versions with about 2 1/2 tbsp of various spices:
This is the only challah recipe I use. When I bring it to an Oneg, people rave about it.
It was amazing I read previous comments and added one more cup of flour and increased the sugar to 6 tbls.otherwise I followed the instructions and it was perfect . Baked it for 30 minutes
I found that the recipe resulted in watery dough. I had to afd onpther 3/4 cup of flour and let the doe rise again.
I have been baking bread for years and this was the nicest loaf I ever baked. Tender, buttery flavor. I followed the recipe exactly, sprayed my hands with cooking spray while rolling out the ropes of dough and braiding and it looked and tasted terrific. The first loaf disappeared so quickly that I am going to bake another today.
This was my first attempt at Challah and it came out perfect. I added more sugar as others suggested, other than that I followed the recipe. Thanks!
insane. i used the 6 tbs of sugar per other comments. insane.
I liked the recipe, except I had a little trouble with it. First, it was too soupy and I had to add about 1 1/4 cups flour to bring it to the right consistency/texture. I also added a little more sugar as a few other reviewers mentioned, but I think I missed not having honey in this bread–an ingredient that all other Challah recipes I’ve tried have. I will try it again, though, because it seemed to work so well for others. Maybe I was just having an off night.
Too salty, otherwise perfect!
This recipe is FABULOUS!! Definitely the most favorite in this household. Made it exactly the way it says. Easy! Easy! Easy!
It was/is awesome! The bread didn’t take as long to bake as directed. 28 mins, but that could mean my oven is hotter or I made it longer and thinner than what they said. My ropes were about 16 inches long and thicker than a thumb. Next time I will take my time braiding it. I was worried I was handling it too much. I’m glad I kept an eye on it in the oven…not opening the door…I just turned on the light and looked in. I’m going to buy an oven thermometer. I can’t think of anything to change about this recipe. It was great hot with honey and butter soon after it came out of the oven and it was great cold the next day. I served it with some day aged 16 bean soup made in the crockpot. Delish….
This bread was a big hit at our last Rosh Hashanah meal! It came out absolutely perfect! The loaves were beautiful and tasted heavenly!
So good! I sweetened it up using 6 Tbsp. sugar (as another suggested) since I made this for Rosh Hashanah, added raisins, and sprinkled the loaf with sugar prior to baking. What a lovely, sweet (as I made it) loaf, that I will continue to use for Rosh Hashanah! FYI-it does need at least 1 1/2 c. more flour than recipe states. For weekly challah, I use one additional Tbsp. sugar, 1 c. whole wheat flour for part of the flour, and occasionally add raisins when bread machine “beeps,” then braid into 2 loaves. Baking at 350 for 10 min., then decreasing temp to 325 for 10-15 more minutes works best for my loaves.
I loved it the only thing I did differently was add 2 tbs. of honey
Finally found a great recipe for Challah. Even using 1 cup of w.w. flour and adding grains and seeds doesn’t diminish the correct moisture to dry ingredients.
Was very easy to make, I didnt braid it just put it in an oiled bread pan and let it rise over night. Everyone at my house loved it!! thanks for post!
I had never made Challah before. This was so easy and everyone was impressed. It was delicious!!