Gorgeous Challah bread that’s perfect for the holidays to share with your family and friends. Perfect for French toast or bread pudding the next day.

Challah is a special Jewish braided bread and it’s similar to the easter bread as in they both have eggs. Traditionally they are braided in 6 pieces, so I struggled to figure out how to braid in 6 pieces, I had to watch many videos on youtube before I got the hang of it. You can braid them in 3 pieces as well, or 5 pieces, it’s totally up to you. Personally I think the 6 pieces braided one looks gorgeous.
This challah turned out like a masterpiece. It is art and nothing less. It looks so beautiful, I could not stop taking pictures of it. Trust me, it may seem like a lot of work, but when you see that beauty come out of the oven, it is all worth it. It’s so beautiful you won’t even want to eat it.
As I said after many youtube videos, a lot of sweating, and basically after some magic I finally managed to braid this bread. I managed to braid one with 5 strings and one with 6 strings. In case you’re wondering why the dough is so yellow it’s because I added a bit of saffron in the dough just to give it this beautiful yellow color. Of course this is totally optional.
You have to brush these babies with egg wash then sprinkle with some sesame seeds and honestly, it’s probably the most beautiful bread ever.
After I baked them for about 35 minutes, look what happened:
Can I get a holler for some challah…
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- Frittata Recipe
- Air Fryer French Fries
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Challah Bread
Ingredients
- ¼ cup water lukewarm
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon instant yeast
- 3 large eggs
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 egg for brushing over the loaves
Instructions
- In a small bowl, add the warm water, 1/4 cup of the flour and the yeast, whisk all together well and let it sit and proof for about 10 minutes until the mixture starts growing and bubbling.
- In the mixing bowl of a mixer, add the yeast mixture, the eggs, vegetable oil, salt and honey. Mix well together then using the dough attachment gradually add the remaining 3 1/4 cup of flour, adding 1 cup at a time.
- Remove the dough from the mixer and place it onto a floured surface and knead it for a couple more minutes. Place the dough in a greased bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place until it doubles in size.
- After the dough doubled in size, divide the dough into 2 equal portions. In turn divide each piece into 3 equal portions and each of these into 2, so you’ll end up with 6 pieces for each loaf. Braid it in 6. Place the breads onto a baking sheet, and let the bread double in size again. Once doubled, brush the breads with the egg wash. At this point you can sprinkle either poppy seeds or sesame seeds on it.
- Bake the loaves in a preheated oven at 325 degrees for about 25 to 35 minutes or until nice and golden brown.
I thought the braid would be so complicated but it’s really easy! Wow thank you!
Thank you Jo, i will store it that way.
Can i prepare the dough in the night and allow it to rise in refrigerator overnight, so that i can bake it next day morning?
I would love to try out all your recipes. You have an amazing collection!. Thank you so much for such detailed recipes.
I’ve never tried refrigerating the challah dough in the fridge but I have tried it with other types of dough, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Give it a shot and let me know. Good luck and thank you. 🙂
Thank you for the wonderful recipe..it came out really good.. but were bit dry next day. I baked it them for 30mts. Would you please tell me what might have gone wrong? Thank you in advance.
Hi Nandini,
What I usually do is store the bread in a plastic bag, that way it stays nice and it doesn’t dry out.
Thanks.
This looks wonderful, I think I will make this and then use it in making your french toast recipe as well!!! Delicious!
Thank you, hope you enjoy it. 🙂