Challah Rolls Recipe :The Best Challah Buns in 6 simple steps

Challah rolls or challah buns are soft and fluffy yeast rolls and they are so delicious to have with some plain butter or jam.

What is challah bun

Challah bun is a type of yeast bread very similar to a brioche buns, but with no dairy on it.

Challah roll is a kosher mini braided bread. 

The simple challah dough is made with eggs, water, flour, oil, yeast ,honey and salt. The bread is typically pale yellow in color because so many eggs are used, and it has a rich flavor too.

Challah rolls ingredients

• Flour :550g or 4 and 1/4 cups (loosely packed)
• Warm Water :210 ml or 3/4 cup +2 tbsp
• Honey or sugar :50 g (1/4 cup sugar or 1/6 cup honey)
• Salt : 1 and 1/2 tsp or 9g
• Yeast :2 tsp or 6g
• Vegetable oil :3 tbsp or 40 g
• Eggs :2

How to make challah rolls

Challah bun can be made in six simple steps

1.Prepare the challah bread dough

2.Proof the dough

3.Divide and let the dough rest

4.Shape the Challah rolls

5.Final Proofing

6.Bake the challah knots

1.Prepare the challah bun dough

It’s so easy to prepare this challah bread dough.

Into a bowl pour in the warm water, salt, sugar, oil, eggs, yeast and combine all together.

Now add in the flour and mix it together to form a shaggy mass of dough.

Transfer the dough on to a clean work surface and knead the dough for 9-10 minutes.

The dough may seem sticky at around 3 minutes of kneading and at this point we may get tempted to add more flour into this.But don’t do that .

Just continue to knead and you will see the extra moisture will get absorbed and the dough will change its texture at around 6 minutes of kneading.

If we use volume measurements instead of weighing the ingredients slight variation in the dough may occur.

In that case, if you find the dough to be too sticky at around 6 minutes of kneading, you can add a few more(1 or 2) tablespoon of flour.If you find the dough to be dry then, we can add a few more (1 or 2) tablespoons of water.

After kneading for 8-10 minutes ,our dough will be soft and smooth.

Place it into a bowl.

Cover it with a damp cloth or with a plastic film.

How to substitute sugar for honey in this challah bread recipe

Using honey in this challah rolls recipe will make it more sticky to handle.So if you wish you can substitute it with sugar.

When adding sugar instead of honey you may need to add 1 or 2 tbsp extra water while preparing the dough.

2.Proof the dough

Keep the covered bowl in a warm place for 45-60 minutes, so that the dough can ferment and rise ;which is the first proofing.

3.Divide and let the dough rest

After the first proofing, punch down the risen dough.

And then divide the dough into equal parts.

Here I divided it into 10 equal parts.So that we will get big and fluffy challah dinner rolls.

We can eyeball it and divide the dough to equal parts.

I prefer to use a kitchen scale so that we can divide them accurately.

If they all are of same size, the mini challah rolls will look even more beautiful and they will get baked evenly in the oven.

Roll each portion into a round ball.

Keep the divided dough, covered for 8-10 minutes.

This will give some time for the dough to relax and which will prevent the tendancy to rebound back while we roll and shape the challah buns.

4.Shape the Challah bread

Roll out each dough ball and then shape it into an elongated cylindrical dough strip (around 15 cm )by rolling as in the video.

Place each of them on the counter until we finish the rest of the rolls.

And then take the first one, that we shaped.

Elongate the dough strand by pulling the dough and then rolling.

When it gain a length of around 28 cm,we can shape them into challah knots or braided bread rolls.

How to shape challah knotted buns

Don’t forget to pinch and secure the underside. This will prevent the dough from unraveling while it’s proofing as well as while baking.

5.Final rising

Before taking them for the final rising, we can give egg wash.

In this mini challah recipe we are doing double egg wash to get that beautiful shine and golden color to our challah rolls.

If you don’t want to give egg wash, you can skip this step.

Cover the tray with a plastic film and let the mini challah rolls rest and proof for 90-100 minutes.

This proofing time also depend on the warmth of the environment.If your place is warm, they may proof at around 80 minutes or if your place is cold it may take 110 minutes.

We need to wait for until the challah buns get really puffed up.

Why Challah bread need longer proofing time

Enriched doughs like challah can take an extraordinarily long time to rise, especially in cold weather, due to the large amount of sugar, eggs, and oil, which cause the yeast to work much harder than in simpler doughs that do not contain these ingredients.

6.Bake the challah dinner rolls

Bake the challah yeast rolls in a 356 F or 180 C preheated oven for 26-30 minutes or until the challah knots are golden brown in color .

Is challah a sweet bread

Challah is a slightly sweet bread.Challah bread is one of the best breads for making french toast.

What makes challah bread different

Challah bread is made from a basic yeast dough that has been enriched with eggs and oil, and some sugar.

Is challah a brioche

Challah is very similar to brioche but it’s not a brioche bread

Both breads are rich, eggy yeast breads, but brioche is definitely richer.

What is the difference between challah and brioche

Challah is a yeast bread that is enriched with eggs, similar to brioche. 

The biggest difference between the a challah bread dough and brioche dough is that brioche contains lot of butter while challah contains oil.

How To make Six Strand Braided Challah Bread :EASY METHOD with video

How to Pronounce Challah

The correct pronunciation of the word challah in Hebrew is hahll-ah.
When pronouncing the “ch” in challah the “c” is silent.

Why does my challah rolls split

The bread dough get split while baking is one of the common problems while making challah.

This usually happens when the shaped and braided challah was not allowed to rise to its absolute maximum. 

Another probable reason is if the challah bread dough is not kneaded well.

How do you know when your challah is ready to bake?

The challah will appear puffed up, with a puckered appearance to the surface. It should get doubled in size from when you braided it, and should have a slight wobble to it.

Why is my challah dense

• The most probable reason for dense bread is, dough that hasn’t risen enough. 

If the rising time is too short (second rising), the yeast won’t have a chance to create bubbles and Carbon dioxide to make the bubbles expand. 

• Probably the yeast is not active. This may happen if the yeast is not within the expiry date.In this case ,try different yeast.Another reason is when the yeast cells are not alive or dead. Make sure the water added while preparing the dough is not hot and is only warm.Hot water can kill the yeast buds.

Why Challah is burnt on the outside and raw and doughy on the inside

In this case, the challah has been baked in an oven that is too hot, allowing the outside to darken before the inside is fully cooked. Reduce the temperature to the next lower point (around 10 C) and bake.

How do I make my challah Fluffy

• To make challah fluffier, try not to add extra flour while kneading the dough.We want our bread dough to be soft and well hydrated to get a fluffy challah bread.
• Knead properly for 8-10 minutes or until we get a soft ,smooth elastic dough.
• Properly proof the shaped challah bread.Wait for until the shaped challah bread rise and get doubled in size before taking it into the oven.

Why does my challah smells yeasty

• Over-risen challah bread dough. Stop the rising when the dough has almost doubled in size.
• Incomplete baking. If the challah bread is not baked properly in the middle ,the bread will smell “yeasty”

How to store challah bread

The challah bread can be stored at room temperature in a cool dry place for up to 2-3 days.Wrap it with plastic film or keep it in paper bag.

Heat and humidity causes bread to mold. So if you want to store it for longer, wrap it well and keep it in refrigerator.The bread will stay good for up to seven days in refrigerator.But the chance of bread getting dry is more if we keep it in refrigerator.

Can I freeze this challah bread ?

Yes you can freeze challah bread.Simply wrap the bread in plastic or aluminum foil to protect it from freezer burn and keep frozen for up to one month.

Take it out whenever you need and just put it in a toaster or in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, and you’ll get fresh bread ready to eat.

How can I make this challah bread ahead of time ?

You can store the bread dough in refrigerator after the second step.

After the first proofing, you can keep the well covered, risen dough in refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Whenever you want to bake bread, take the dough out the fridge, leave it on the counter to bring it to room temperature (it may take around 20 minutes).

Divide and shape the challah bread.

Place it on a baking tray and let it rise and become doubled in size.(this may take a little longer than expected as the dough is not very warm).

After about 1 and hours they will rise really well .Now place the tray into the preheated oven.

Bake @ 356 F or 180 C for 26-30 minutes.

How do you eat challah and do you add toppings

Challah can be eaten with plain butter or jam or with savory fillings as sandwich rolls.

Some typical toppings include egg dip, vegetable dip ( like eggplant / beetroot / sweet potato dips) or avocado dip. Or with soup. Or with olives / pickles / salad.

How can I substitute eggs in this challah rolls recipe

For 1 egg we can use equal volume of water (around 45 ml ) for making this challah bread.

Instead of 2 eggs ,you can add 80 ml _/+10 ml warm water to make this challah bread.

You don’t need to make any other adjustments in the recipe.

Addition of eggs, enrich the flavor and taste of yeast rolls and it gives an yellowish tint to the dough.

Though eggs place an important role in this jewish bread recipe, we can make delicious challah rolls even without adding eggs.

You will be surprised to see how soft and fluffy this simple white bread loaf turned out even without adding eggs in the recipe.

What can I use instead of egg wash

Egg wash is that which gives a shine and golden color to the challah buns when baked.

If we use milk wash instead of egg wash,we cannot get that shine but it can bring a golden brown color with a kind of mat finish.

So if you don’t want to use egg wash, you can either skip adding egg wash or use milk wash instead of egg wash.

If we knead the dough really well, the dinner rolls will turn out beautiful with subtle shine and golden brown color even without egg wash.Here in this hamburger buns recipe you can see how beautiful they turned out without any egg wash.

How to make challah bread video

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