We love celebrating everything, and Shabbat (the Jewish sabbath) is no exception. One of our favorite parts is this challah recipe–especially when Dan makes it. The only problem is that you need to start it around noon on Friday in order for it to be fresh and warm at dinner. Most people who don’t work from home will make it on Thursday nights for that reason, but we’re lucky enough to have plenty of bakers working from home every day.
Combining egg and butter 
Combining all ingredients with dough hook 
Weaving the five strands for the braid
Challah
I make this challah when we're having Shabbat dinner (Friday night). It's a welcome addition to the meal and makes great French Toast the next day if we don't finish it. It makes a pretty large loaf that i've divided into two loaves at times. One of the things I'm proudest of is that both Dan and Erica now make better challah than me!
Servings: 1 loaf
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with dough hook
- Baking sheet
- Silicone baking sheet liner or parchment paper
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 large egg separated, room temperature
- 1/4 cup butter melted
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
- 1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
Instructions
Make the dough
- Combine whole eggs and egg yolk in bowl of stand mixer. Add melted butter and warm water and hand whisk to combine.
- Whisk remaining egg white in a small bowl with 1 Tablespoon water, cover and set aside in fridge until ready to bake loaf.
- Whisk flour, sugar, yeast and salt in a medium bowl until well combined.
- Add flour mixture to egg mixture in stand mixer bowl. Mix and knead on low speed with dough hook until dough ball forms, about 5 minutes. It will be a slightly sticky dough.
Proofing dough
- Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turning dough over to coat. Cover with a towel and set aside to rise until doubled in bulk, approximately 2 hours.
- Punch down dough, re-cover, and set aside again to rise for another hour.
Shape and Bake
- Place oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove reserved egg white from fridge.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 3 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope approximately 18-24 inches. Braid together and place braided loaf on parchment or silicone lined baking sheet. Cover and let rest 30 minutes.
- Uncover, brush with reserved egg white, and bake 25-35 minutes until well browned and temp is 195-205
Notes
If you use active dry yeast instead of instant, add the yeast to the warm water to bloom instead of adding to flour mixture. After yeast blooms, combine with egg and butter mixture, then add flour mixture and proceed with remainder of recipe.
You can make as many strands as you like to braid and there are lots of good videos of 4 and 6 strand braids on Youtube. You can also sprinkle the egg white brushed loaf with sesame or poppy seed as you like.
If your kitchen is too cool to allow the dough to rise reasonably, place the covered bowl in the oven with the light switched on – the lightbulb will provide enough heat to help it rise.
For Rosh Hashana I make this recipe adding 1/2 cup plumped raisins to the mixer when the dough is mostly mixed. When braiding I will do the braid and then coil it into a round for a traditional round raisin challah.
You can also add orange zest and juice to the challah for a sweeter dough – substitute a few tablespoons of the water with orange juice or use orange oil or extract.