This is the easiest, best tasting challah in the entire world. This bread is so easy, there is literally no kneading, but you do need to plan ahead. It is best if you can prep it on Tuesday night so it has 3 days to chillax in the fridge before baking it up fresh on Friday.
If you got to this recipe and it’s already Friday go ahead and make my super popular classic Challah recipe.
Jamie Geller’s No Knead Challah Bread
Servings
2 Loaves
Ingredients
- 8+ cups bread, high gluten flour
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 2 – 2 ½ cups lukewarm water best temperature is 105°F
- 3 whole eggs + 1 yolk
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 egg plus 2 tablespoon water for egg wash
Instructions
- Combine flour, salt, yeast, water, eggs, sugar and evoo.
- Mix until combined.
- Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap.
- Allow mixture to sit at room temperature for 2 hours before refrigerating for up to 3 days, but for a minimum of 2 days (the flour needs that much time to form gluten strands to give the bread texture).
- When you are ready to make challah, remove dough from refrigerator
- Braid as desired.
- Place braids on parchment lined baking sheets and cover with lightly greased plastic wrap.
- Allow to rise at room temperature for 1-2 hours or up to 3 (a long rise is necessary for the dough).
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Brush your challah with egg wash. Once your oven comes to temperature, brush on egg wash again.
- Bake for 12 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake until 12 to 15 minutes more until golden brown and perfectly cooked.
- Let cool and enjoy.
I made the dough last night and let it sit for 2 hours. It was rising way over the bowl so I transferred it to a larger bowl with a lid before putting it in the fridge. This morning I came down to find the lid popped way up and the dough rising huge. The cold of the fridge should retard the yeast from rising so high. I punched the dough down and recovered it. I am wondering, however, why it is necessary to sit for that many days when the gluten is stretchy already. I make bread all the time and the only ones that require that much time is sourdough. I can’t comment on the flavor since I haven’t baked it yet but I am interested to see what it will be like.
Love those pictures, so glad it worked well for you.
Wonderful recipe! I enjoyed making and baking. Started Tuesday evening to bake today Friday. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4cc0fa4ce5394f67451509ee56f1abc1c53ba6b330aed63ec7a7a89f578d9aac.jpg
I found it that way too
I loved the dough. Very easy to work with .
Baked product had great texture.
Needed salt,though
Did you follow the recipe or did you do anything different? I don’t see the photos and I am not sure what is wrong, if you can give more info I can try and help.
I just finished baking my no knead challah and it turned out pretty bad. Can anyone tell me what I did wrong
My no knead challah turned into a disaster, doesn’t taste anything like it. Trying to figure out what I did wrong? Here are pics to show you the aftermath.
I wanted to be able to use it for sandwiches so I put it in loaf pans after braiding. I had to bake it longer. I guess that’s no surprise.
Just forget any other white bread recipe. This bread is to die for!!!
You can use 1/4-1/2 cup more water and use 1/3 cup of honey. Total whole wheat challah doesn’t have as much flexibility and gluten in the dough. The gluten strands are short which can make the dough seem brittle as it snaps or breaks when braiding.
For Whole what challah, I suggest a loaf pan to help solve this challenge.
Can I use whole wheat flour and honey, instead of white flour and sugar. How much honey would I use and what other adjustments might be necessary
Yes, of course. You can add it either before you leave it to rise or before shaping
can you add raisins or dried fruit to this
We have found it best with the extra but it does work.
not sure what you mean? directions are pretty clear, hope you can give it a try.
I followed exactly and it turned out beautifully.
Cannot follow recipe as written;boo hiss.
You can double and triple the recipe, it just requires a much large bowl and space in the fridge, if you have both then it works well. The main adjustment might be the amount of water, so add a little at a time while stirring until you achieve a nice dough.
What if you want to double the recipe? This is not enough flour to “take challah”.
Also not enough yield for large family.
Since you live in Canada Karene, flour milled in Canada is naturally higher in gluten. In this case I used Bread Flour and it turned out great and was quite tasty. I didn’t have to add more salt since I use Kosher salt which tastes saltier than table salt to me. If I am out of bread flour, I add a tablespoon of wheat gluten for every 6 cups all purpose flour. I always have wheat gluten on hand. You can get it in most grocery stores and it keeps in the fridge forever or it freezes well. At $7.00 for a pound bag, it is quite cost effective as all purpose flour costs quite a bit less than bread flour. For Laura, the recipe worked well for me but I go more by feel than by time. I learned this by trial and error and my Granny.
for the holidays you can add fruit, cinnamon or ???
I like topping mine with Everything Topping. I guess it is sort of a blank slate? Not overly sweet. we havent heard this from anyone and went through many tasting before settling upon this recipe. add more sugar or salt if you like!
i made this one bowl challah- loved the ease & the texture. BUT i found it oddly flavorless–literally a blank slate. As it baked so beautifully I was indeed disappointed. I intend to try it again with the addition of extra salt and sugar. I’m curious if anyone else had a similar outcome.
Thanks Rachel, I have actually been wondering what the difference between those two flours are. Either way, glad it works well for you.
here in Israel there is actually Kemach Lechem (which is bread flour- high gluten) and Kemach Le’challa (flour for Challot). I use the challa flour for my challot and they are amazing
I think you may need to: add
More flour and make sure it is throughly
Mixed. The recipe
Won’t mix itself….just doesn’t need be huge amount of
Kneading.
Good luck.
Second time making this and both times the dough was sticky and lumpy when I took it out the fridge. Should I knead it a little before braiding to get more smooth dough?
Once the dough has been stirred together you can do any add-ins you want. Be sure to not use large chunks of apples as they haves high water content and will result in watery pockets of dough.
high gluten flour provides structure for bread and baked goods. it is reason loaves are high, fluffy and sturdy.
you can look for either high gluten or bread flour. all purpose flour is a hybrid and will be too cakey.
can this dough be used for the apple monkey bread and if so, once it is baked can it be frozen ?
Hello
I can’t figure out what exactly is bread flour high in gluten. Can’t find anything that sais that in canada montreal. I ended up getting gluten flour, which didn’t work and cost a fortune.
Pleas help
once the bread starts the second rise, the clock starts ticking! you need to let it rise, at room temp and then bake it. you cannot store it braided overnight. you can reheat, wrapped in foil, on low (250F) for a few minutes to give it that just baked warmth and freshness.
good luck!
I ideally want to bake this fresh for erev Rosh Hashana dinner, but I won’t have time to first braid it and let it rise for 3 hours when I get home from work. Can I braid it the night before and stick the unbaked challah in the fridge overnight? Or is it better just to bake it the night before? Thanks and Shana Tovah!
You may have needed the full amount of water. I just 4 batches of challah yesterday and needed the full amount of water and a bit less flour.
When baking bread you need to feel your way. Flour absorbs moisture from the air and can be heavy or light. That is why there is some leeway on the recipe.
Sorry! Hope you try again
Thanks. This morning it hadn’t risen at all and weighed a ton! I wonder if it’s the flour. It’s a glucose wheat flour (only kind I could find). On the container it says to use it as a suppliment to add glucose to regular flour.
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I put this together last night for the first time. The dough never worked into a ball of any kind, but instead stayed dry and think and heavy. I put it in the fridge anyway, and it doesn’t look like it’s doing anything today. I’m bummed out about it!
Thanks so much! Looking forward to making this recipe 🙂
You can. We hope you use healthy extra virgin olive oil though. We promise the bread will not taste olive-y! Enjoy!
HI.. this recipe looks great 🙂 Could one substitute other oil for the Olive oil?
yes. the dough is fun to work with and it is versatile.
the yeast starts to lose its OOMPH after 3 days. I would try to get this made and baked by the 3rd day.
Would it be okay to prep the dough on Wednesday night instead, or does it need the full extra day?
We have tested this in Israeli with regular white flour with great success, but if you can find a bread flour it is most recommended.
Thanks for the answer. I appreciate it
Is there a particular brand of flour in Israel that is recommended? I don’t think I have ever seen high gluten flour here.
Is it ok if it’s in the fridge a little longer? Around 4 days? Or will it spoil?
Can I use this dough to make cinnamon buns, garlic knots, or any other bread like items?
You need 2.6 pounds to separate dough and almost 5 pounds to say the bracha. For this recipe…you can separate dough. Double it for the bracha.
1 teaspoon is generally enough for 3 cups of flour…so this is the perfect amount of yeast.
Be sure to use high quality bread flour and good yeast that you store in the refrigerator.
According to red star’s website, as well as every bread recipe I’ve seen, you need one packet per 4 cups of flour. One packet is two and a quarter teaspoons.
http://redstaryeast.com/yeast-baking-lessons/yeast-conversion-table/
the rule of thumb is 1 teaspoon per yeast per pound of flour. generally you have 3 cups of flour per pound (humidity etc..) and we have 8-ish cups of flour in the recipes…so all good! I love Red Star yeast and super high quality flour for all my baking. ENJOY!
well, I’ll try it!
Great! Enjoy!
Have you tried this with Israeli dry yeast? How about with other flours, like spelt?
I normally knead my breads, but this process reminds me of sourdough. I would love not to have to knead, but I NEVER use white flour.
We have tried it with Israeli dry yeast and it works well
I have not yet tested it with whole wheat but we plan to and would love to hear what you try
Yes. You can double. Be sure it is mixed thoroughly
Yes. Twould be lovely! 🙂
Can you take challah and make the brachah on such a small dough?
How would your challah recipe work out if baked off in a 9 or 10 x 5 loaf pan instead of braiding it?
Can I double the recipe?
so 1 tablespoon of yeast ordinarily is not enough for 8 cups of flour. Are the unique rising instructions making up for the small amount of yeast?