I’ve been in a routine of baking challah every week lately. I’ve always found kneading challah dough, braiding, and baking it to be both therapeutic and spiritual. Having that in my life right now has been really great. I’ve also really enjoyed getting to play around with new flavor combinations that I hadn’t thought to try in a challah (hello, cilantro lime!). It’s giving me a lot of freedom to be creative with my challah baking because I know next week I get to try again!
What I also realized through this process is that there were some things that could be improved about my 8-Ingredient Vegan Challah recipe that I hadn’t realized before. While I’m working on updating that page to reflect those changes, I did want to create a whole new recipe page for a single loaf of challah! While I love making challah to share with my neighbors, making three loaves every week is still a lot of challah, even when I am sharing with neighbors and friends!
So, what you’ll find here in this post is all of the improvements to my recipe, as well as the recipe and ingredients to make just one loaf of challah. These improvements have helped me make some of the fluffiest challot I have ever made, so I am really excited to share them with you.
One major change to the way you should handle your flour: Whisk the flour in the container before removing any from the container. Measure it into the measure cup, overfill the cup, then level it off with the flat edge of a butter knife. Pour it into a bowl through a sieve to sift it. This one change brought my challah game up a notch.
A note about flour: I don’t mention below any particular kind of flour to use. I recommend using all-purpose flour – it’s the flour I use most often and the one this recipe is based off of. However, you can play with the kinds of flour you use. I would recommend reading up on the flour you want to use before using it (or reaching out to me, I’m happy to help brainstorm with you) first. You can also do a mix of all-purpose flour and bread flour (I’ve done 2.5 cups AP and .5 cups bread flour).
On yeast: The other major change I made was the method for incorporating and type of yeast I used. I would recommend using the method below and dry active yeast. I’m a big fan of Fleischmann’s yeast products (they’re the ones I’ve always used). Be sure that the water you use is warm to the touch, but not hot. Using water that is too hot will kill the yeast, as it is a living thing!
Lastly, on patience: Challah is my weakness, y’all. When I was an undergrad and I had challah for the first time, I fell in love with it. I would eat my whole life I bought every two weeks from volunteering with Challah for Hunger pretty much immediately after my shift was over. It was hot out of the oven and absolutely delicious. But as I’ve grown older (and wiser????), I’ve realized the value of patience in this process.
I purposefully have not given specific rising times for this recipe, as it is very difficult to know when they will be done without looking at them. Depending on the temperature and humidity of your kitchen, the rise times can change dramatically. I have the LEAST temperature controlled apartment – it’s freezing in the winter and hot as heck in the summer unless the air is on and then it’s freezing until you turn it off for 5 minutes and then it’s hot as heck again and you catch my drift. Depending on the temperature and humidity at any given moment in my apartment, it can take really different times for my dough to rise. Typically, it will take at least 30 minutes, so I would always plan for no less than that for each rise. What you are looking for in each rise are doughs that are doubles in size and puffy looking.
The other part of being patient is after your challah comes out of the oven. The texture and flavor of challah will be really good right out of the oven. It will be GREAT if you let it cool completely before taking a bite.
I hope that these notes help you make some delicious challah at home. I would love to hear how this recipe turns out for you and what flavors you tried. 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!
Easy Vegan Challah (Single Loaf Recipe)
Ingredients
- 3 cups 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
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