Challah bread . . . it’s looks super fun and fancy and hard to make but let me tell you a little secret, it’s actually fairly easy to make and quite forgiving. Don’t let all of the steps turn you away, just make sure you’ve got a bit of time in the kitchen so you don’t feel rushed. I have been making this recipe for over a decade and I am not even sure where I got it. It’s on a random scrap of yellow paper in my recipe binder and covered with bits of food and scribbles of other recipes that I have created. Over the years I’ve tweaked the original recipe a bit and made it my own. I hope you enjoy- I promise it’s worth all of the steps..

Foolproof Classic Challah Bread

For Proofing-

1 tablespoon dry active yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 1/4 cup warm water

For the Dough-

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, slightly beaten

5 to 5 1/2 cups all purpose white flour

For the top-

1 egg yolk plus 1 tablespoon of water, lightly beaten together

Directions

Proof Yeast- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine yeast, 1 tablespoon of sugar and warm water. Let yeast dissolve/proof for 10 minutes.
Proof Oven for a warm place to let dough rise- While you are waiting for the yeast to proof, prepare your “proofing oven”. Place your racks as low as they can go and turn you oven onto 170. As soon as it’ reaches 170, turn it off immediately and open the oven door for 3 minutes. Close it and now it’s ready. One of the best ways to get great dough is to give it a warm, draft free place to rise. If the oven isn’t an option that’s fine- find a warm draft free place to let it rise.
Make the dough- Add oil, salt, eggs and sugar to the yeast mixture and mix to combine.
Slowly add the flour- 1 cup at a time for the first 4 cups, mixing fully between each addition. From this point on, you want to add flour slowly until the desired dough consistency is reached. Challah dough is a stiff dough and you want to keep adding flour slowly until the dough comes off the sides of the bowl and it’s no longer super sticky to the touch. Once you are there, knead dough on medium for 2-3 minutes until dough is smooth and satiny. **Remember to add the last bit of flour needed carefully, you can always add more but you can’t take any out.
Place the dough in a large greased bowl and knead a few times with your palm to get out the air bubbles. Cover with a damp cloth and place in warm oven (it should just feel like a hot day in there, if it feels too hot leave the oven door open for a few minutes before you close it). If you can’t use your oven to let the dough rise this is fine. Find a warm, draft free spot in your home and let it rise there.
Let the dough rise for about 90 minutes or until doubled in size.
Punch the dough down and place on a lightly floured board, pastry cloth or silpat mat (I have done it all 3 ways and like the silpat mat best but any option will work great).
Divide the dough into 4 equal portions and make 4 balls.
Roll each ball between hands to form a strand about 20 inches long. You can also roll the dough on the mat. Try to keep the dough stands an even diameter but don’t worry if it’s not perfect (as you can see in the pictures bellow, mine is not and it still turns out great).
Place the 4 strips lengthwise on a greased baking sheet.
Pinch tops together and then braid the bread.
To braid a 4 stand dough braid- Pinch tops together then weave the strands. Stariting with the strand on the left (always start with the left most strand) braid over-under-over-under the other strands. When you can no longer weave the bread, tuck the ends under .
Brush the bread generously with the egg mixture.
Bake at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes until loaf is a light golden brown.

Step 1- this is what it should look like when it’s ready to cover and let rise.

Step 3- Punch the dough down and make 1 lovely big ball of dough

Step 5- Of course when I take a picture my strands really suck- rest assured the loaf still turns out lovely if your strands don’t look great at this step.

Step 6- The pinch. This doesn’t look pretty but it’s important you give the tops a good pinch as this is the base of your braid. From here you take the far left strand and braid over-under-over-under repeating the process until there is no dough lef… — Step 6- The pinch. This doesn’t look pretty but it’s important you give the tops a good pinch as this is the base of your braid. From here you take the far left strand and braid over-under-over-under repeating the process until there is no dough left to braid and then tuck in the end of the loaf.

It’s not perfect but once you let the oven work it’s magic it will look great.

Don’t forget to apply the egg yolk wash, this is what gives it the beautiful color and shine. Traditional recipes have you add yellow food coloring but I love it with just the egg yolk wash. Now it’s ready to bake.

Let if cool for at least a few minutes before transferring to a cutting board. While it makes it easier to let it cool all the way, it’s so yummy when it’s still warm.

Cut yourself a big thick slice, it’s great plain or with butter or homemade jam (my personal favorite).