The Best Bread Machine Challah

"This recipe originally comes from Kosher by Design by Susie Fishbein. I've been making this challah every week for the last two months, and it makes a delicious, rich challah. I don't use the bread machine method, making the dough in my Kenwood mixer and giving the final knead by hand, then braiding the challah and baking it in the oven. I'm posting this as a bread machine recipe at the request of Miraklegirl. BTW, I don't use all the water called for in the recipe, I usually add a bit at a time until I'm happy with the consistency of the dough."
 
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photo by betsyberger18 photo by betsyberger18
photo by betsyberger18
photo by KOSHER KOOK photo by KOSHER KOOK
photo by Amanda R. photo by Amanda R.
photo by HotPepperRosemaryJe photo by HotPepperRosemaryJe
photo by Susang photo by Susang
Ready In:
2hrs 30mins
Ingredients:
9
Yields:
2 challot
Serves:
12
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ingredients

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directions

  • Place the water, egg yolks, salt oil, flour, sugar and yeast in the bread machine pan, according to the manufacturer's directions.
  • Process the ingredients in the dough cycle.
  • Remove immediately when the machine beeps.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Divide the dough in half.
  • Divide each piece into three sections.
  • Roll each section into a long strand.
  • Braid the three strands, pinching the top and bottom ends together.
  • Place on a parchment-lined or lightly greased baking sheet.
  • Repeat with the remaining dough, making the second challah.
  • Let the challot rise, covered, for 30 minutes.
  • Brush the challot with the beaten egg.
  • Sprinkle with the sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or a combination of both.
  • Bake for 30 minutes.
  • Cool on a wire rack.

Questions & Replies

  1. What Recipe can you Reccommend baking with 5 Egg Whites as the folks were used to make Challah? Felicity Isserow
     
  2. This was the worst challah recipe ever!!! WAY too much water! No matter how much flour I tried to add it was impossible to fix. Very expensive fail….eggs are over $8.00 a dozen here in Hawaii and I wasted 5! Couldn’t get the dough dry enough to handle. Very disappointed and frustrated .
     
  3. Who wrote this recipe? I’m gonna find every recipe they’ve posted, and trash it. Get this off the website, it ruined my day...
     
  4. What am I doing wrong? I am a very 'follow the recipe' type of person. I have made this twice and both times, it 'exploded' or basically flowed over the sides and made a huge mess in the bottom of the bread maker. The dough is very sticky and thin ... not dough like at all. I know adding more flour will help it thicken but why is it overflowing? =( I have a two pound loaf pan and let it go through the whole dough cycle.
     
  5. Help! My family loves the taste of the challah but the top keeps splitting when baked. Has anyone else had this problem? Suggestions for solving it? Thank you in advance!
     
    • Review photo by Allison T.
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Reviews

  1. Mirj, must tell you that this has become my go to recipe every Friday. I have made it using brown sugar and I've tried using honey though I do use less sweet than called for in the recipe. I do have to add quite a bit more flour after the cycle is done to make the dough workable. My trick for a beautiful brown challah is to bake for 10 minutes at 375 and then the next 20 min. at 350. Turns out beautiful every time. Last week I made chocolate meringues out of the left over egg whites. They were a hit also.
     
  2. Wow! This was so good and really suprisingly easy. We buy challah bread whenever we can because I thought it would be too hard to make, but I was wrong! I did use regular white sugar because I wasn't sure if you use packed or loose brown sugar. TIP for the NOVICE BAKER LIKE ME :) The dough is very easy to work with and you don't need to put flour down on the surface to roll it out. Just take each strand in your hands and roll it between them like you would to make a play-doh "snake" - letting gravity do some of the work. Next time I might put some foil on top for part of the baking because we like a really light colored crust, but the bread does turn out really beautifully so don't feel that you have too. Thanks so much for the awesome recipe, Mirj!!!<br/><br/>Update: I made these again today - wonderful - but I added a cup less flour than it needed, so I kneaded about a cup into the dough after the bread machine cycle. Then I let it rise for about an hour in a slightly warm oven. I baked it at 350 for 20 minutes with the convection oven and it was To-Die-For!!! Thanks again!
     
  3. This is great, thanks for the recipe, only thing I changed was I added 4 teaspoons of vital wheat gluten. It baked up great and looks pretty tastes good toooo !!!
     
  4. I read the comments carefully and followed the recipe almost exactly. The only thing I changed was slowly adding more flour as the dough kneaded in the machine--just until it stops sticking to the side--probably 5 cups total flour. The dough came out perfectly and was very easy to handle with just a little flour to prevent sticking as I rolled the pieces. Definitely the best challah I've ever made. Very easy!
     
  5. I add the full amount of water, and yes it makes a very wet dough. It just needs more flour added until it holds together into a smooth ball. This is super common with bread recipes (depending on the humidity inside of your home and other variables). Once you get used to tweaking the flour amount to get the dough to the proper consistency, this is the best and easiest foolproof challah recipe, that makes 2 giant gorgeous loaves!
     
    • Review photo by Kerry M.
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Tweaks

  1. I split this recipe into 3 total loaves of Challah. They bake a lot more even throughout. I have also found that once I add the water, egg yolks, salt, oil and brown sugar into my machine, I whisk it all together using a fork before adding my flour and yeast. I also do an egg wash with the leftover egg whites. I do not feel that it needs a yolk added to the wash. I re-apply the egg wash at the 15 minute mark while baking so that any middle section that has turned out also gets a nice coating. Turns out great. This recipe has never failed me. My family really enjoys sharing this with others!
     
    • Review photo by Amanda R.
  2. Have extra flour on hand and add it as needed, a little bit at a time, until the dough is holding together in a ball and pulling away from the sides of the bowl as it kneads. With some tweaking to the flour/ water ratio (which is almost always necessary in bread making), this is a phenomenal challah recipe!
     
  3. I split this recipe into 3 total loaves of Challah. They bake a lot more even throughout. I have also found that once I add the water, egg yolks, salt, oil and brown sugar into my machine, I whisk it all together using a fork before adding my flour and yeast. I also do an egg wash with the leftover egg whites. I do not feel that it needs a yolk added to the wash. I re-apply the egg wash at the 15 minute mark while baking so that any middle section that has turned out also gets a nice coating. Turns out great. This recipe has never failed me. My family really enjoys sharing this with others!
     
  4. This was my first Challah bread I've ever made...great recipe!! Better than Great Harvest Grains store bread! I did everything exactly as the recipe says except I used 1/2 raw honey in place of the sugar. Delicious!! Thank you! Shabbot Shalom!
     
  5. My very first attempt at this challah was successful! I did use a bread machine (breadman pro) to do all the work, I simply let it run through the cycles til after the first rise and then I took over. I did the recipe exactly like the one posted here but instead of 1/3 cup of oil I used 1/3 cup of melted butter. It was marvelous but next time I will try the recipe with honey instead of brown sugar. I prefer my challah on the sweeter side. Otherwise, it was a complete success. I gage my recipe's as successful when I would be proud to make a gift of it to a friend!
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p><strong><span style=color: #ff0000;>Come and visit me on my blog:&nbsp; </span></strong></p> <p><a href=http://www.miriyummy.wordpress.com><strong><span style=color: #ff0000;>www.miriyummy.wordpress.com</span></strong></a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>October 2011: It's been 10 years since I came into Zaar one day at the recommendation of someone on another website. If you ask my husband (or my coworkers), I haven't logged out since! <br /><br /><a href=http://www.TickerFactory.com/><br /><img src=http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/d/4;15;0/st/20011021/e/I Joined Zaar%21/dt/6/k/f656/event.png border=0 alt= /></a> <br /><br />So what's happened in the ten years since I became addicted to Zaar? Well, I've been happily married, happily divorced, and happily married once again. (Wanna see wedding pictures? 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