Sweet Round Challah Bread Recipe
Sweet Round Challah Bread is an essential part of Jewish Holiday menus. This challah dough recipe is sweetened with honey, so no sugar, and then divided and braided into round loaves. Perfect for Rosh Hashanah and all the Jewish High Holidays...plus, it makes excellent french toast!
Servings: 24
Calories: 147kcal
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup hot water 105-110 degrees
- ½ cup honey
- 2 ¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 large eggs
- 2 ½ cups whole grain bread flour
- 2 ½ cups whole grain all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Optional Wash and Sprinkle
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoon sesame seeds
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
Instructions
Proof Yeast
- Use a 2 cup glass measuring cup and measure 1 cup hot water. Use a thermometer, if you have one, to register around 110 degrees. Otherwise, make it hot to the touch, but not scalding!
- Pour the honey straight into the measuring cup, using the measurements on the side. Sprinkle in the salt and the yeast. Mix well. Let that sit for at least 5 minutes. It will get bubbly and rise up a bit.
Make the dough
- Mix the olive oil and eggs in the bowl of a food processor, fitted with the "S" blade, until frothy.
- Pour in the yeast mixture once it's proofed. Process.
- All at once, add in half the all purpose flour and half the bread flour and process until uniformly mixed. Measure the flour by scooping into a dry measuring cup and leveling it off. If you have a kitchen scale, the 2.5 cups of mixed flour will weigh about 10 ¾ oz.
- Sprinkle on the remaining combination of flour and let the processor knead it for about 3 minutes.
- If the dough is holding together and pulling away from the sides of the processor bowl, you're all set. However, it may be a bit too sticky still. If it's sticking to the sides or clinging to the blade, then sprinkle on 1 tablespoon additional flour and process again. Continue to add 1 tablespoon flour at a time, mixing well each time before attempting to add more flour. The dough should be a bit tacky, just not sticking to your hands when you touch it.
- ERR ON THE SIDE OF LESS FLOUR, NOT MORE.
- Turn it out onto the counter, using 1 tablespoon flour, if needed to prevent sticking. Knead by hand a couple of turns until it resembles a smooth ball of dough.
- Prepare a large bowl with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Transfer the dough ball to the bowl and roll it around, to coat all sides with the oil. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and leave it in a warm spot to rise for at least 2 hours.
- If you have a "proof" setting on your oven (the same as setting it to 100 degrees), you can leave it in there. I place mine in a sunny window.
Braid and Prep the Loaves
- Line a large rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment.
- This recipe will make 3 medium sized challah. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. They will weight about 3 oz. each.
- Take 4 dough balls to work with and cover the remaining dough with kitchen towel, so it doesn't dry out.
- Use the photos above as a guide. Roll each ball of dough into a long snake. Make a woven grid with two strands across horizontally, and two vertical, going over and under. You can also cut each ball into half to have 8 strands and dip half the strands into water and then sesame seeds. See photos.
- Work your way around, crossing the over strand underneath on each side. Continue as shown on the photos until the strands have come to an end and then tuck whatever is remaining underneath. Transfer to prepared baking sheet.
- Repeat with remaining dough balls until you have 3 challahs on your baking sheet. Cover with the kitchen towel and set the timer for 1 hour.
Baste and Bake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Whisk together an egg and then brush onto top of dough. If you didn't dip in seeds before braiding, then sprinkle them onto the challah now, if desired.
- Bake for 30 minutes, until golden brown.
- Transfer to wire rack to completely cool. Then, store in airtight bag until ready to serve. These are freezer friendly. Make sure they're COMPLETELY cool before storing. Wrap in plastic and then in foil for best results. Defrost at room temperature for 6-8 hours. Gently reheat in 300 degree oven for 10 minutes, if warm challah is desired.
Notes
Flour:
I use whole grain stone milled flour from mighty mill. They sell their organic flour online, in their shops and in many grocery stores. There are local mills in many communities that sell stone ground whole grains. It's totally worth finding a great source of whole grain flour.
I like to use a combination of whole wheat bread flour and whole wheat all purpose flour. Seems to be the right consistency. All bread flour will result in really dense loaves.
5 cups should be the right amount, if you carefully measured and/or weighed it out. You will possibly need 1-3 tablespoons additional if the dough is too sticky. I usually use the full 5 cups and then dust the counter where I'm going to knead the dough with 1 tablespoon flour so it doesn't stick.
Nutrition information is based on one recipe making 3 challahs and each challah divided into 8 portions.
Nutrition
Calories: 147kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.003g | Cholesterol: 23mg | Sodium: 34mg | Potassium: 112mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 36IU | Vitamin C: 0.04mg | Calcium: 24mg | Iron: 1mg