Name: Kosher Challah Bread Recipe
Prep time: 1 h 40 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 2 h 20 min
Ingredients: 8 cups flour; 3 eggs; 2.5 cups warm water; 1/2 cups honey; 3 tbsp yeast; 1 tbsp salt; poppy seeds or sesame seeds (optional)

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Learn how to make this easy Kosher Challah Bread recipe and impress your family for any Jewish holiday. If you end up with leftovers, you can also use it for bread pudding the next day.

Make this easy Challah recipe for Hanukkah or Passover. — Make this easy Challah Bread recipe for Hanukkah or Passover.

Challah, also known as Jewish egg bread, is an enriched yeast bread that is very straightforward to make. As far as bread making goes, this is an easy Challah recipe to follow and only takes a couple of hours. There is minimal kneading involved and no fussy techniques.

Ingredients:

Flour: While all-purpose flour isn’t technically kosher product, it is considered one when it is made into a matzo flour.
Eggs: Eggs are considered pareve, also known as neutral, by Jewish law. Eggs are considered kosher and can be eaten during Jewish holidays such as Passover.
Warm Water: Using warm water will help active the yeast.
Honey: Pure honey is inherently kosher.
Oil: Use a neutral cooking oil such as a grapeseed oil.
Yeast: Typically yeast is not considered kosher, but there are special yeast created just for Jewish holidays such as Passover that utilize molasses to help your bread rise.
Salt: Add a kosher salt to bring out the honey flavor of the challah.
Sesame or poppy seeds: Adding a topping of sesame seeds or poppy seeds

As you can see in the directions below, making Challah is pretty easy, it just takes time. The best part about this bread is how diverse it can be- after making it you can freeze it or use it for a bread pudding the next day.

How to Make this Kosher Challah Bread Recipe:

Challah is a crowd-pleaser that everyone will enjoy slathering with butter and honey, especially when it’s straight out of the oven.

Ingredients for how to make challah bread — The yeast, water, honey and oil mixture. Eggs are waiting to go in.

1). Put your water in a large bowl and sprinkle the active dry yeast into it. Add your honey, oil, salt and 2 eggs to the bowl. Begin to beat the mixture.

2). Add the flour in slowly, one cup at a time. Continue to beat thoroughly after adding each cup. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic and until no longer sticky.

3). Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for 1.5 hours.

This easy Challah recipe is fun to make.

4). After rising, punch the dough down and take it out of the bowl. Divide into half. Bring onto a floured surface and knead each half for about 15 minutes, adding flour as necessary until no longer sticky.

Connect the ends of the braid to make the Challah circular.

5). Braid and arrange the Challahs as you see fit. After braiding and arranging, cover the Challahs with a cloth and let the bread rise for another hour.

6). After rising, beat the remaining egg and use as an egg wash and brush over the loaves. Sprinkle with seeds if you desire.

7). Bake for 40 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. The bread will turn a deep golden color. Challah will be done when it sounds hollow when you knock on it and when it easily comes apart from the baking sheet.

Let the bread rest for about half an hour before cutting into it. Serve warm with butter and honey.

How to Tell if Your Yeast is Alive

There’s few things worse in bread making than using a dead yeast packet. It’s important to remember that yeast is a living organism, and should be treated as such! You have to activate your yeast before adding it to your dough.

Take your warm (not hot!) water and place it in a small bowl. Add your honey or sugar, anything that the yeast can eat, even milk will work, as long as there is sugar in it. Add the yeast to the water and honey mixture and whisk for thirty seconds, until all ingredients are combined. Let the mixture sit undisturbed for five minutes. When you return to it, the mixture should be bubbling and it should look “alive”. The bubbles mean that the yeast is eating the sugars in the ingredients and is active. You can use this mixture and it will make your bread rise.

If you return to your mixing bowl and there is no movement in your mixture, such as it is the same as you left it, your yeast is dead and you will need to start over with different yeast. Double-check the expiration date on your yeast package and also ensure that it was stored correctly, in a cool location like in a pantry. If the yeast was overheated or past its expiration date, it has gone bad.

How to Braid Challah Bread

Challah really comes alive when it is braided. If you know how to make a simple braid, then you know how to braid Challah.

Braiding Challah bread can be as simple or as complex as you’d like it to be. You can make the simple three-strand braid, the more complex 5 or 6 stranded braid.

When braiding the loaves, try to keep the same consistency of pressure and tightness throughout the loaf. You can see in the picture that I started with too much pressure and it warped the sides of the bread. When it baked it just exasperated the mistake.

When you come to the ends of the braid, just pinch the ends together and fold them under themselves. The bread will stick to itself.

When baking the bread, remember to lightly grease the sheets and add the egg wash to the tops of the Challahs!

There are many options for braiding your Challahs — There are many options for braiding this easy Challah recipe.

What to do with Leftover Challah Bread

There are many ways to use leftover Challah bread before it goes stale. This recipe is for two loaves of bread, and sometimes (not always!) there are leftovers.

I usually use the leftovers for a bread pudding the next day. French toast is always another good option for leftover Challah. Making grilled cheese with the leftover bread is also easy as well.

Did you want to learn how to make Challah bread? How did it turn out? Tell me in the comments below.

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