Challah bread is one of my favorite loaves of bread to make when we are having a special meal with friends or family. It such a celebratory bread, a happy feasting bread, if you will.

It rises so beautifully and is very easy to work with. You just can’t mess this one up. This Challah Bread is the first bread I teach my kids to bake.

I will show you below how I braid mine into a wreath braid, but you can braid it into straight loaves, or any way your heart desires.

My sweet girl, baking her first loaves years ago. She is now almost seventeen and can bake and cook up a storm. Start them young, and you won’t regret it.

Challah Bread Braid

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Ingredients

1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water 105-115
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 T. sugar or honey
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 T. olive oil
2 1/2 - 2 3/4 cups unbleached flour

Instructions

Dissolve yeast in warm water, then stir into the lukewarm water, sugar, salt, egg, olive oil and 1 1/4 cups of flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in remaining flour. Knead for 5 mins. Let rise 1 1/2 hrs. Punch down and braid, now brush with butter and let double (40 mins.) Heat oven to 375. Brush with egg yoke mixture
(1 egg yoke, and 2 T. cold water) Bake 25-30 mins.

Notes

This recipe is doubled for a wreath braid A pictorial guide on braiding Challah bread into a wreath:

A pictorial guide: Braiding Challah bread into a wreath

This is what the Challah Bread dough looks like after an hour and a half of rising. Pretty cool, huh? Love the power of yeast.

Cut into three even looking pieces, and start rolling each one into long thin ropes.

Loosely start braiding, and shape into a circle as you go. Pinch and twist dough to join ends together to form your challah bread wreath.

Brush with egg mixture and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Above are the poppy seeds we harvest each year, I haven’t bought poppy seeds from the store in over three years!

As you can see in the picture below, I love using these Silpat Mats for easy cleanup.

It really comes out stunning, you can use it as a centerpiece for your table, and stuff it with flowers and fruit in the center, and it looks amazing.

I hope you take some time out of your day and give this a try.

– Abby Jo

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