I consider myself a bit of an expert on vegan challah – I’ve been baking vegan challah for almost 8 years now. Ever since I put my basic challah recipe online, I’ve gotten lots of questions about different substitutions folks were interested in making. One of the biggest questions I was asked was about substituting whole wheat flour for the all-purpose flour in my recipe, so I decided to give it a try.
First, I want to say that I love whole wheat breads. Dave’s Killer bread with seeds and whole wheats are totally my jam. I love a lot of texture in my bread. At the same time, I’m also a big fan of white bread and, of course, I love my classic challah recipe. (Don’t get me started on potato bread – not a fan.) If you’re going to make whole wheat challah, you have to go into it expecting it to be different than a challah made with all-purpose flour.
Whole wheat flour is made with all parts of the wheat berry while all-purpose flour has parts removed. Whole wheat flour has more flavor and more texture, which impacts the final product regardless of the baked good you are making. It also impacts the rise of the dough – the flour itself is sharp and breaks the gluten bonds more easily than all-purpose flour does, meaning it won’t rise as much as a bread made with all-purpose flour.
All this to say, a whole wheat challah is still super delicious. It’s just different.
In this recipe, I’ve switched out all of the the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour. The result was a super flavorful, earthy, and somewhat nutty flavored challah. While not as fluffy as my typical challah, it was still quite fluffy.
If you would like, you can experiment with substituting different amounts of whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour to get the amount of rise/texture/flavor that’s right for you.
Before getting started, I highly recommend looking over my tips for the best challah you can make in my basic challah recipe. The biggest tips would be to ensure your challah doubles in size in each rise and to sift and whisk your flour.
As a reminder, you can also make your challot oil free by substituting fruit or vegetable puree for the oil 1:1. If you want to make other substitutions, please feel free to let me know if you have other substitution questions because I’m happy to work with you on those!
This Whole Wheat Vegan Challah Recipe is another way to mix up your challah baking. I would love the hear how this recipe turns out for your and how you make it your own. Let me know in the comments or message me at @thejewishvegan on Instagram. And, as always, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to reach out. Now, let’s get started!
Whole Wheat Vegan Challah
Ingredients
- 3 cups whole wheat flour plus more for kneading
- ⅔ cups water warm
- 3 tbsp water warm
- ¼ cup sugar plus a dash more
- 3 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp dry active yeast
- ½ tsp salt
- non-dairy milk
- maple syrup
- toppings as needed
Instructions
- Mix the sugar, oil, salt, and ⅔ cup water in a large bowl until everything is dissolved. Using warm water helps.
- In a separate bowl sprinkle the yeast over the 3 tbsp water. Sprinkle a dash of sugar on top. Set aside for at least 5 minutes until foamy looking.
- In the large bowl, add 1 cup of flour and mix. All the clumps may not go away. It’s okay, you can go on to the next step!
- Add about ½ cup of flour and the yeast mixture to the large bowl and mix.
- Slowly continue adding flour. As your mixture becomes thicker, add the flour more and more slowly. Add flour until the dough only slightly sticks to your hands.
- Knead the dough with your hands in the bowl at first for approximately 5 minutes. You’ll need to coat your hands with flour as needed, and continue reapplying the flour throughout so that the dough remains only slightly sticky to the touch. Then transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes more.
- Alternatively, you can knead in a stand mixer using the dough hook for 10 minutes on a medium setting.
- Transfer the dough back to the bowl (make sure it is lightly floured). Sprinkle flour on top of the dough and cover with a damp washcloth. Let is rise until doubled in size, for at least 30 minutes.
- After the dough has risen, preheat your over to 350 degrees F. Transfer your dough back to a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 3 equal balls of dough.
- Roll the dough balls into strips between your hands.
- - If you are going to stuff the challah, create a divet in the dough with your fingers down the center of each strip that you are going to fill.
- - Fill the divet with your selected topping and then pinch the edges of the dough together to close the dough.
- Braid the strips together by placing them side by side. Take the three ends of each of the strips and bring them together while the other ends are angled outwards.
- Bring the outside strip on the right to the middle of the other two strips. Then, bring the outside strip on the left to the middle of the other two. Repeat until you've braided all the way down. Fix the ends of the challah by braiding and tucking the ends underneath the loaf.
- Place the challah on a parchment paper lined tray. Cover the loaves with hand towels and let rise until doubled in size and puffy, at least 30 minutes.
- Put your tray in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes.
- While your challah is in the oven, create the wash for the top of the challah by mixing equal parts non-dairy milk with maple syrup.
- After the 20 minutes, remove the challah from the oven and wash with the mixture you created. As you are placing the wash, place your toppings on top, using the wash as a sticky surface for your toppings.
- Place the tray back in the oven for 20-30 more minutes, until golden brown and a fork placed in between the braids comes out clean. Another method you can try is tapping the bottom of the challah and seeing if it sounds hollow.
- Once your challah is done, let it rest on the tray for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Notes
- Alternatively, you can allow your dough to rise in the fridge overnight after braiding. This allows you to split the process in half so it’s less time all at once and it allows your dough to rise a little longer. The only difference is instead of covering with hand towels, you’ll cover with aluminum foil and put it in the fridge. Then follow the instructions the same way.
- Some fun toppings that I've used in the past include: sprinkles, cookie butter, vegan beef & cheese, rosemary & garlic, apple & cinnamon, cinnamon sugar, and lemon poppyseed. The sky is the limit when it comes to challah flavors - get creative!
- For basically five years I pretty much ate challah right out of the oven. And then I had a day where I had to let it cool for some reason and couldn't eat it right away. And y'all, challah is EVEN BETTER when you let it cool completely first. You can always reheat it in the oven (350 degrees F for 7-10 minutes, wrapped in foil) if you like your bread warm.
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