Challah Bread

Challah bread has a long and rich history. In the Jewish religion challah is placed on the table to represent the manna that fell from heaven to feed the Jewish people during the 40 years they spent in the dessert.

The strands represent arms intertwined and symbolize love, truth, peace, creation, freedom, harmony, family connection, unity and justice. The twelve humps representing the 12 tribes of Israel. How cool is that?

The name “challah” was given to the bread in South Germany at some point during the Middle Ages when it was adopted by Jews for Shabbat and special holidays. 

Not only does this bread have a rich and symbolic history, but it is utterly delicious! It has a delectably sweet, but not too sweet taste. It is not a dense heavy bread, but has a light airy texture that melts in your mouth. Wanna give it a try?

It is really a very easy bread to make (especially if you have an electric stand mixer); you just need plenty of time to allow for the dough to rise. But trust me…your patience will be rewarded!

Don’t let the fact that this recipe calls for yeast scare you from trying this recipe. It’s really very simple to do. Lets walk through it, step by easy step…

First get out a measuring cup and fill it with 3/4 cup warm water. Stir in a packet of yeast.

Let this sit for 5 minutes until slightly bubbly.

Place brown sugar, honey, egg, salt and vegetable oil in a large mixing bowl.

Add foamy yeast water. and stir together.

Pretty simple so far, right? Alright, let’s keep going.

Using the dough hook attachment on your mixer start adding flour to the yeast/sugar/honey/egg/salt/oil mixture.

Begin with 2 cups flour and continue adding flour a little at a time until the dough forms a ball. 

Continue to mix in flour until dough is not too sticky.

Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

Let dough rise for 3-5 hours; until dough has doubled in size.

You still with me? Nothing complicated so far, right? Easy peasy!!!

Once the dough has doubled in size it should look something like this.

TIP: Turn your oven on for about 2-3 minutes and then turn it off. Open the door and let most of the hot air out. Then place the bowl of dough in the oven and close the door, trapping in the residual warmth. Allow the dough to rise. The residual warmth will significantly speed up the rise time.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surace.

Divide dough into 3 equal portions.

Using your hands, roll out each portion of dough into a long rope. Try to roll dough out into 3 equal lengths and thickness. 

If the dough sticks to your hands, just coat them with a little flour.

Now for the fun part! Braid the dough together, tucking the ends under the loaf.

Carefully transfer the braided loaf onto an oiled cookie sheet.

Brush loaf with beaten egg. 

Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds if desired.

Allow dough to rise again until puffy, about 30-60 minutes.

While dough is rising for the second time, preheat oven to 350°F.

Bake loaf for 25-30 minutes or until loaf is a deep golden brown.

Not only is this one of the prettiest loaves of bread I have ever baked, but it tasted heavenly! Light and airy with a hint of sweetness…divine! Topped with a little butter…mmm good! Kinda what I imagine manna must have tasted like. Can you imagine something that tastes this good falling from the sky? And everyday for 40 years? God is good!

Let me know when you bake up a loaf and I will head on over with some soft butter and a nice bottle of red ☺️. Cause you’re gonna share…right?