Bread Machine Challah Recipe
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My family is really big on challah bread so, I decided to try to make a few loaves using my bread machine. Let me tell you…it made ALL the difference! It was so easy to make, no need to buy challah at the bakery!
Bread Machine Challah Recipe
Challah is a traditional Jewish Sabbath bread that dates back thousands of years. It’s a very soft and slightly sweet loaf of bread. It gets its color and flavor from eggs and honey.
It’s seriously my favorite kind of bread to have at home! It is so soft and fluffy, you’ll want to devour the whole loaf!
Don’t have a bread machine? Follow this recipe to homemade challah bread recipe baked in the oven!
Looking to buy a bread machine? Click here for the model I recommend.
How To Make Challah In A Bread Machine
Mix all of the ingredients together except for the extra egg. You’ll need to save that for later.
Add the bread dough into the bread machine. Select the “Dough” cycle and press “Start”.
When the bread machine is done with the dough cycle, remove the dough from the machine.
After you have removed the dough from the bread machine, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Divide the dough into 2 equal parts as this recipe makes 2 whole loaves.
Divide each part into 3 equal parts, shaping each section of the dough into a long snake.
After you have done that to all three sections, braid them into a braid as you would on hair (so you have 2 braided challahs).
Place the braided challahs onto the prepped baking sheet.
Remeber that extra egg? Crack and whisk the egg in a bowl and use a pastry brush to add a layer of the egg wash to the challahs.
Let the challahs rise at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking.
After the 30 minutes are up, place the challahs in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Enjoy!
Cooking Tip
- If you have any leftovers after a few days, you can make some delicious sweet french toast in the air fryer or baked in the oven!
Toppings You Can Add To Challah
While I love challah bread just the way it is, I sometimes like to change it up and add a few more ingredients to the dough. Since this recipe makes 2 loaves, I will take one of them and add a couple of chocolate chips over the top as a treat for my family.
They love it!
Here are a couple of other toppings you can add to your challah dough:
- Raisins
- Pistachios
- Kosher salt
- Dried fruit (apricots, cranberries)
What To Serve With Challah Bread
There are so many different ways to serve and eat challah bread. In our household, we like to slice it up and it with a schmear of butter and homemade orange marmalade for breakfast.
For lunch and dinner, I will cut some nice thick slices and top it off with some thinly sliced beef brisket and red cabbage slaw to make the best sandwich!
More Bread Machine Recipes
If you loved this sweet bread machine challah recipe, you will also love some of these other bread machine recipes!
These are some of my family’s favorites:
- Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls
- Bread Machine Cinnamon Raisin Bread
- Soft Homemade Dinner Bread Rolls In A Bread Machine
- White Sandwich Bread Machine Bread Recipe
- Homemade Pizza Dough Recipe In A Bread Machine
Bread Machine Challah
Ingredients
- 1 cup lukewarm water
- 1 tbsp active dry yeast
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/2 tbsp salt
- 4 cups flour
- extra egg for brushing challah before baking
Recommended Kitchen Tools (click the links below to see the items used to make this recipe)
Instructions
- Put all ingredients in a bread machine. Select the "Dough" cycle and press "Start".
- When the bread machine is done with the dough cycle, remove the dough from the machine.
- Preheat the oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Divide each part into 3 equal parts, shape each part into a snake, then braid into a braid (so you have 2 braided challahs).
- Put braided challahs on a baking sheet. Whisk an egg in a bowl and brush the challahs with egg using a pastry brush. Let the challahs rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Put challahs in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Nutrition
Hi, I have made this recipe many times and like it very much. I have a few questions – can you use bread flour instead of white flour? Can you replace some of the white flour with whole wheat flour? Another recipe I read said to leave the dough in the bread machine for an hour to an hour and a half after the dough cycle is finished. Would this help make the bread lighter?
Yes, you can use bread flour instead of white flour. You can replace 1/3 of white flour with whole wheat. I never tried leaving the dugh in the bread machine.
Hi! Does it need to rise more after the dough cycle before I separate and braid it? Or separate and braid straight from the machine?
Separate and braid it straight from the machine, and then let it rise
How long do you let it rise?
First rise in the bread machine as part of the dough cycle until it finishes, then bread and let rise for another 30 minutes before baking
Turned out perfect!
I try this at our party and they love it. I will do this again on holiday. Thanks, Melanie