The traditional challah bread begins our Shabbat and holiday meals, as has been done in Jewish homes throughout the world for thousands of years. It is full of symbolic meaning dating to the Exodus from Egypt.
Most challah recipes today are loaded with white sugar and refined flour. But it is possible to make a healthy and tasty challah. I have tweaked Susie Fishbein’s Bread Machine Challah recipe from Kosher by Design by replacing the white flour and sugar for whole grain and honey, using coconut oil, and adding herbs and seeds for extra flavor. Fishbein’s recipe uses only the egg yolk- a perfect foundation for converting a recipe to wholegrain. The lecithin in the yolk helps to tenderize the dough; a technique used by Peter Reinhart in his whole grain Challah as well.
I like to use a six stranded braid to shape the dough, even when baking in a loaf pan. I learned this technique from Maggie Glezer’s book, A Blessing of Bread
To learn more about soaking, sprouting, and sourdough breads, check out this excellent Healthy Whole Grains online cooking class with over 50 video tutorials and over 100 recipes.
This recipe works with any kind of flour; white, whole wheat, sprouted grain, and spelt. You may need to adjust the liquid and/or flour quantities as you knead. Spelt flour always requires less water. The bread machine takes care of the initial kneading and first rise but is not necessary; a stand mixer or your hands work just as well.
Adapted from Susie Fishbein’s, “The Best Bread Machine Challah.”
I like to bake the braided challah dough in 2 loaf pans or 1 large and 4 small.
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
5 large egg yolks (reserve one white for bread glaze or use one whole egg for glaze)
1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup honey
4 1/2 cups organic sprouted whole wheat flour, or any other flour
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
Optional topping: sesame seeds, poppy seeds, anise seeds, dried rosemary or dill
- Place all ingredients in the bread machine and process on the dough cycle (my machine requires the liquid ingredients to be added first). Alternatively, mix the liquid ingredients in a stand mixer or by hand then add in the flour and knead until a smooth, uniform dough is formed. Allow to rise for 2 hours or until it has doubled in bulk.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Lightly flour a work surface. Divide the dough in half and shape as desired. If not using loaf pans, you can place the braided dough on parchment-lined baking sheets. Cover the dough and allow to rise for 45 minutes.
- Whisk the reserved egg white with a tablespoon of water in a small bowl. If you are using white flour for the challah, whisk a whole egg for the glaze to give the dough more color. Brush the challah with the glaze and sprinkle with desired topping.
- Bake for 30 minutes- less for smaller loaves- until the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom or registers 195 degrees with an instant read thermometer.
- Let cool on a wire rack
WOW!!!! Those are gorgeous Challot! Thanks for all the tips!!!
Thank you Dina!
What type (stainless steel, stoneware, etc) of loaf pans do you use?
I use Le Creuset loaf pans for the larger loaves and a stoneware mini loaf pan from The Pampered Chef for the small loaves. They also carry a stoneware muffin pan and other bakeware if you want an alternative to metal pans. I have never tried a Pyrex loaf dish for breads. I would be curious to know if anyone has had success with that.
Great recipe, thank you
I was googling grain free granola and stumbled across your website so for the last couple minutes I’ve just been jumping around from page to page and am so glad I found it! I do WW Sourdough Challah for every Shabbat and I actually use Maggie Glezer’s “My Sourdough Challah” recipe exactly, except that I use 100% whole wheat and coconut oil. I’ve found that it works but it just needs a REALLY long rising time (much longer than in the recipe) or a very warm place. I don’t think they look as beautiful as yours do…but they’re pretty delicious nonetheless 🙂
Hi Alexis,
I’m so glad you are enjoying my blog!
Lately I’ve been doing no-knead sourdough bread for Shabbat – I haven’t done this sprouted challah in a while. Glezer’s sourdough challah didn’t come out very well last time I tried it, but I feel more comfortable working with sourdough now and may try it with this recipe soon.
If you do decide to make the “Nutty Granola” I would love your feedback on it!
great!
dont think i can find the sprouted flour.
what about sprouting the wheat berries myself and blending them in a vitamix as they are….
anyone tried something like this
Yes, you can do this yourself.
Health, Home, and Happiness has a post about Homemade Sprouted Flour (with pictures); http://www.healthhomehappy.com/2010/09/homemade-sprouted-flour.html
If you try it, let me know how it works out for you!
Just stumbled upon your blog and love reading it. Do you think I could sub a Chia seed gel for the eggs? Also, I couldn’t find a gluten free challah. I made one once but it turned out okay.
I couldn’t find subscribe to comments so I won’t know when you reply.
Thanks Anna, glad you like the blog.
I’ve never experimented with Chia seed – but if you do please write back and let us know how that worked – many people have egg allergies and would find that helpful. But there are many recipes for egg-free challah. Here is one from Creative Jewish Mom; http://www.creativejewishmom.com/2011/05/the-cjm-guide-to-baking-delicious-challah.html.
I make no-knead bread when I need an egg free bread for shabbat; http://www.realfooddigest.com/lahey-my-bread/.
Gluten free challah is tricky, I played around with it a few years ago but haven’t made any recently. Experimenting with gluten-free baking takes up so much time (and ingredients) and I haven’t been able to perfect one I like yet. Keep us posted if you find one you like!
Hi Thanks .. Never made bread b4 either!!! I made olive and sunelowfr today, with olive oil But a bit doey at the bottom.I have a gas oven, so maybe a bit hot actually Cooking on gas mark 6 But I reckon thats too high I’ll try different Gas mark, but thanks for the video it was an inspiration! Im on my 4th loaf since watching your vid..
Hi
I know Pesach is around the corner and there is no challah but, are you saying that making this challah with sprouted grains fits into paleo and I dont have to eat just one little bit of it at each meal?
Faigie – this is NOT paleo. All grains, even sprouted, soaked, fermented, etc… are eliminated on a paleo type diet.
Some people do fine on some properly prepared grains but that is very individual.
I personally have not done well on sprouted grains and do not make challah very often anymore. I will do it for holidays and shabbat when we have guests (most of the time I don’t eat it), but I feel much better without it.
When I do prepare challah, I’ve been making no-knead breads more often than this sprouted challah (http://www.realfooddigest.com/lahey-my-bread/). It’s a very wet dough that is left to rise overnight- and if you can use a sourdough starter it’s a more traditional preparation that some do better on.
Any of these methods will be better than the typical refined flour/sugar challah, but if you are dealing with any health issues you still need to be careful with properly prepared grains.
Lisa, since the dough IS so wet, how do you manage to shape it into challah braids? I’d love to try this with my einkorn berries. Have you ever used einkorn? I make challah for my congregation’s Shabbat onegs and other events, but I usually don’t ever eat it. I’d love to try challah with sprouted einkorn flour and see how it affects me. I hear that einkorn’s gluten is tolerable for many gluten-intolerants.
What kind of flour are you using? Your dough shouldn’t be that wet that you can’t shape it. You may need to cut back on the liquids or add more flour until you get a consistency that is shapeable. I know using different flours yields different results, for example when using spelt flour I always cut back on the water. But you will need to adjust this recipe if you are not using sprouted whole wheat flour.
Will the recipe work if I omit the honey?
I’ve neve tried it that way. It should work but you would need to adjust the liquids a bit or reduce the amount of flour to get the right consistency.
Thanks for this recipe. I really like the way it turned out, but it’s kind of dry. I’m using a bread machine for the dough and whole wheat flour. Any suggestions?
Is it possible you over-baked it?
Also – when you feel the dough before baking it, you should have an idea if the consistency feels right and adjust the liquid/flour ratio before baking. Not sure how experienced you are with baking bread, but the more you do it you get to learn how the dough should feel before baking, and maybe it should be more sticky than dry for the way yours is coming out.
If I am using a bread machine do I need to let it rise again after dough cycle?
Thanks!
I usually do. After the dough cycle, I take it out of the bread machine, shape it in braids/loaves, and let it rise again before baking.
Even without bread machine, most challah recipes call for letting the dough rise after mixing and again after shaping.
These are the best healthy Challahs ever! My husband has an intolerance to a few major typical “challah ingredients” and this recipe substitutes it all! He is able to tolerate it, and he says it is soooo soft and yummy!
What I do is I make a big batch of this and shape them into small rolls. After baking, I freeze them. Every week I take out 2 for him. It lasts a good few weeks like that.
I wanted to try doing it with fresh yeast. Hoping it comes out good… (Not sure why it wouldn’t work, but you write to use dry. Not sure if it doesn’t work with fresh or you just write the way you do it.)
So glad you enjoyed them! Thank for writing 🙂