This sweet bread is quite simple to make. A 30-year-old man who was a guest at my Shabbat Table actually giggled while eating it because it is so delicious. The bread should be baked for a shorter amount of time the doughier you want it to be.
| Prep Time: | 1 hr |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs |
| Servings: | 20 |
| Yield: | 4 loaves |
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- 2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 eggs
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 cup white sugar
- 6 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons white sugar
- 1 teaspoon water
Instructions
- Mix the yeast, 1/3 cup of sugar, and warm water together in a large bowl, stir to dissolve the sugar, and let the mixture stand until a creamy layer forms on top, about 5 minutes. Stir in 3 cups of flour to make a loose sponge.
- In a separate bowl, beat 4 eggs, 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon of salt, and 1 cup of sugar together, and stir the egg mixture into the yeast-flour mixture until well combined. Continue mixing in flour, 1 cup at a time, up to 9 total cups. Dough should be slightly sticky, but not so wet that it leaves dough stuck to your hands.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead for 5 minutes to develop gluten. Form the dough into a compact round shape, and place in an oiled bowl. Turn the dough over several times in the bowl to oil the surface of the dough, cover the bowl with a cloth, and let rise in a warm area until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Punch down the dough and knead for another 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
- Grease baking sheets, or line with parchment paper. To make egg glaze, whisk together 1 egg, 1 teaspoon oil, 2 teaspoons sugar, and 1 teaspoon of water in a small bowl, and refrigerate until needed.
- Cut the dough into 4 pieces, and cut each piece into 3 smaller pieces for a 3-strand braided loaf. Working on a floured surface, roll the small dough pieces 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. Place the loaves onto the prepared baking sheets, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 30 to 45 minutes. Brush a coating of egg glaze onto the tops of the bread, and reserve the remaining glaze.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Bake the bread in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, remove from the oven, and brush another coating of glaze onto the bread. Return to the oven, and bake until the tops are shiny and golden brown, 5 to 10 more minutes. Let cool before cutting.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 328 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 57 g |
| Cholesterol | 47 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 8 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Sodium | 369 mg |
| Sugars | 14 g |
| Fat | 8 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I only brush glaze on once. Everyone raves about this challah when I serve it. My dogs even know to come over when they hear us saying Hamotzi (the blessing on bread) on Friday nights.
We live in the Boston area and Cheryl Ann’s has been our favorite bakery challah. Every time we bake one we compare it and it’s never as good as theirs. This one, however, my family thinks is even BETTER than Cheryl Ann’s!! Sweet, fluffy and delicious. Need to be careful not to bake it too long. Also, my dough never rises as much as I’d like, not sure if it’s me or my yeast. I usually get 3 challahs out of this dough, not 4. Definitely a keeper!
This is a beautiful recipe!!
This was the second recipe for Challah I’ve used. I am done looking. The only things I brought from first recipe was the braiding technique and adding honey to the egg wash and using it before the final rise after it’s braided, and then the two more times, before it goes into oven and another brush before the last 10 minutes. The Best Challah ever, it’s beyond!
I made it about half way through this recipe before giving up. There is too much flour, I ended up with a cement ball.
When covid hit last March, I jumped on the bandwagon of trying my hand at baking challah. This has been my ‘go to’ recipe since then and it always comes out delicious. I cut the sugar in half and add a 1/2 cup of honey. That is the only change I make. The challah is sweet and heavy. Exactly the way our family likes it! I make 5 challahs out of the recipe and freeze 4, using the 5th for the current shabbat. They freeze wonderfully and that way I bake every 5 weeks instead of every week. Thank you for the delicious recipe!
this is Such a amazing recipe! easy to understand and follow. it’s very sweet good for a breakfast bread or with some coffee.
Perfection! I made 2 round Challahs & 2 braided. 3 of them I made a cinnamon/ apple filling for the braid. Absolutely was a hit! THE DOUGH is so soft & aromatic. Thankyou!
Easy and very good
Absolutely delicious and wonderful! My daughter says it tastes just like Hawaiian bread.
This is my go-to challah recipe. I really want to branch out and try others, but I get so many compliments on this one. I usually make my challah loaves a bit smaller, so I can get at least 6 out of this batch.
I made this the first time for a dinner party and it was a hit. I almost wish I kept a kosher kitchen so I could see what my friends at temple would think. I love this recipe but it is a lot of bread. I tried halving the recipe at the beginning of this but I had some trouble remembering to halve everything and just ended up making a full batch to cover my mistakes. Each time I make this recipe I have a hard time incorporating the flour but this probably wouldn’t be a problem if you have a stand mixer.
Seems like a great recipe but baking for 30 minutes creates a taste like unbaked dough. Not sure how much more it should bake, but that’s not enough.
We made this hallah yesterday. It tasted so sweet and delicious. The recipe was very easy to follow.
This is the best challah bread that I have ever made. I am an experienced bread baker, and this recipe tops every other challah. It is very sweet (which is what I was looking for and other challahs lack), and when I first made it, I couldn’t stop eating it. The only note that I have is that I used one cup less flour than recommended. Great for French toast.
It looked very good but it didn’t taste good. I am not a bread baker usually so the failure could be on my end, but I ended up throwing this in the bin because even the dogs wouldn’t eat it.
I swapped the cup of sugar for a cup of honey, and put honey in the glaze. Would definitely recommend. The taste is strong, and it’s a more dessert-y bread but amazing for french toast after shabbat. It’s not quite as eggy as the challah I get at the local bakery, but that’s easily fixed by adding an extra egg yolk.
Turned out amazing! I wish I had risen and proofed it a tad longer than it suggested but it also rose plenty during baking. The bottom was a tad overdone but that was because I had all four in my oven at once so air circulation could have been better, and I left it in a few minutes longer to achieve better colour on the top.
Will definitely make again!
Delicious. I didn’t change a thing aside from sprinkling with sesame seeds before baking.
Instead of vegetable oil I used a light olive oil. The dough was really sticky so I added more flour until it was the right consistency. Next time I may use 1/2 bread flour and 1/2 all purpose flour. I also made 2 loafs of 6 strand braided instead of 4 loafs of 3 strand. It was two feet long so next time I will cut it into three loafs of 6 strand and see how that goes. The bread was sweet, but not too sweet. Update…. I made this challah again, but used bread flour instead of all purpose. The dough was less sticky, used less flour during the kneeling process which resulted in a lighter and better loaf. I recommend using bread flour. I used Lillys brand because King Auther was too expensive. Also I made 4 loaves of 6 strand braided. They were perfect sizes and were beautiful!