Joan's Soft, Fluffy and Delicious Vegan Challah Recipe • Jewish Food Hero (2024)

FAQs

Why is my challah not fluffy? ›

If your challahs are risen out instead of up, it's likely that your dough is too soft or too wet. Add another 1/2 – 1 cup of flour to it next time and see if that solves your problem. Or put in just a little less water than the recipe calls for.

It's important to know that challah is what you call an enriched dough. Enriched doughs have a higher fat and sugar content, resulting in a soft and tender crumb (interior). The enriching components in this dough are melted butter, whole eggs, egg yolks and sugar.

Unlike other enriched breads, a truly kosher challah is made without dairy or meat derivatives, relying on vegetable oils for fat and a contested number of eggs—which are considered pareve, or neither dairy nor meat, in the kosher laws known as kashrut.

Add Sugar

Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.

Myrna's original recipe calls for all-purpose flour, and you can substitute that here. But I find bread flour gives the challah a nice chew without making it tough, and also helps the braided loaf maintain its shape after baking. For some novice challah makers, that braid can seem like the hardest part.

Oil: Vegetable oil, generally used in making challah, is fine—and produces neutral-tasting bread. I prefer olive oil and love the slightly herbal note it imparts to my bread. If using raisins: Make sure the raisins are plump and not desiccated, if using.

If the area is too warm, bread will rise too fast and begin cooking before the yeast has finished acting. This will impart a "yeasty" taste to the dough that will be transferred to the finished baked loaf. Using old ingredients (rancid nuts, "old" shortening) will cause yeast breads to taste old or have an "off" taste.

The best baking temperature for *most* challahs is about 190°C / 365-375°F.

Name and origins

The term challah in Biblical Hebrew meant a kind of loaf or cake.

Can you eat challah bread anytime? While challah is on the table for every Shabbat and holiday meal, it can be eaten any other time as well.

What does challah back girl mean? ›

Challah Back Girls™ partners with, amplifies, and uplifts organizations leading racial equity work by connecting people to the Jewish ritual of challah—a traditionally braided bread. Through sharing this Jewish tradition, we provide an educational opportunity for healing and transforming social and racial injustice.

Shulchan Aruch (OC 167: 5) writes that one should not recite Hamotzi until condiments or salt are brought to the table, so the challah can be dipped right after hamotzi. Mishnah Berurah (167:27) explains that dipping in salt or condiments makes the first bite tasty and adds honor to the beracha.

The term “challah” is applied more widely to mean any bread used in Jewish rituals. On the eve of Shabbat, two loaves are placed on the table to reference the Jewish teaching that a double portion of manna fell from heaven on Friday to last through the Saturday Shabbat.

Pronounced: KHAH-luh, Origin: Hebrew, ceremonial bread eaten on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. appears more similar than different — golden, shiny, braided and perhaps dusted with poppy or sesame seeds. Sephardic loaves, on the other hand, take on different flavors, shapes and textures.

If you want a lighter fluffier bread loaf just add 2 Tbsp of dry milk to the flour per loaf of your bread. Vinegar has a very similar effect to the dough as the ascorbic acid. It helps hold the dough together and strengthens the bubbles so they won't pop.

A “tight crumb” aka small holes in the interior of your bread can be the result of different factors: under-fermenting, over-fermenting, and a lack of gluten development. The most confounding part of sourdough bread baking is that the rise times of recipes are just a suggestion or range.

Over-kneading the dough can lead to a tight gluten structure and result in a dense texture. Using too much flour or not enough yeast can also affect the rise of the bread. Additionally, insufficient proofing time or improper shaping can contribute to a heavy loaf.

One of the most common reasons for dense bread is over or under-kneaded dough. Kneading your dough directly affects gas production, as it increases the rate that fermentation occurs. Without kneading, bread dough will take much longer to ferment fully.