Easy Challah Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What makes challah bread different? ›

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.

Type of flour: A good-quality bread flour is ideal for strong dough. I personally use this one. If you don't have bread flour, you can use all-purpose flour (do not use a “self-rising” version). Amount of flour: The key to a soft loaf that isn't dense is to use as little flour as possible.

Jewish bakeries use oil so the challah can be eaten with a dairy or meat meal, but we use butter because it tastes so much better. To make a traditional loaf, you can substitute a neutral vegetable oil like canola, corn or sunflower oil.

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.

The term “challah” is applied more widely to mean any bread used in Jewish rituals. On the eve of Shabbat, two loaves are placed on the table to reference the Jewish teaching that a double portion of manna fell from heaven on Friday to last through the Saturday Shabbat.

In halachic terms, challah is a mitzvah in the Torah to separate a portion of dough from the baker's batch. Any dough meeting the requirements for hafrashat challah , taking challah, must have this portion removed, or the bread baked from this dough is not considered kosher.

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.

Once it looks like a smooth and elastic dough, STOP adding flour; too much flour will dry out the dough! Add a bit more OIL instead and your dough will be great!

Substituting butter: If you don't need to keep a kosher table, you can substitute melted butter for the oil in this recipe. Storage: Wrap cooled challah tightly in plastic wrap and store at room temperature for up to 5 days.

If substituting olive oil for vegetable oil (or another cooking oil) in your baking recipe, you can use a 1:1 ratio. Because of olive oil's distinct flavor, it might affect the flavor of the baked product.

What happens if you add olive oil to bread dough? ›

Does olive oil make dough softer? Yes - adding olive oil to sourdough bread will result in a softer crust and crumb. The oil as a lipid coats the flour and inhibits the gluten network resulting in a softer, tighter crumb and softer crust. This can be a desirable outcome if you do not like tough, chewy sourdough crusts.

2. Coconut oil can be substituted 1:1 for other fats. When it comes to baking, coconut oil makes a wonderful substitute for butter and other oils, like olive oil, canola oil, and vegetable oil. Regardless of the type of fat used in a recipe, you can swap in an equal amount of coconut oil.

The most important difference has to do with the fact that challah is part of Jewish tradition, and is kosher to eat with all meals—so it is not made with dairy, i.e. butter.

The key difference between challah and brioche, per Masterclass, is that brioche is typically made with all three enriched ingredients we mentioned before (eggs, sugar, and butter), but challah often replaces the butter with oil to keep kosher.

Yes, challah bread is similar to brioche. Challah bread is typically a Jewish bread that is kosher with no dairy in it. On the other hand, brioche is a french bread made with similar ingredients and it included butter rather than an oil such as vegetable oil. Overall, they taste pretty similar.

Challah loaves are often braided. The three strands of the braid may represent truth, peace and justice.