High Altitude Challah Bread

This homemade high altitude challah bread is so soft and fluffy, with a rich eggy flavor. You can use this same recipe for making challah that’s shaped into wreaths, loaves or buns!

You might also love these high altitude bread recipes for no knead rye sandwich bread, cinnamon babka, and rustic no knead seeded bread.

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What is Challah?

Challah is a holiday bread made to celebrate the Jewish Sabbath or weekly Shabbot, Hanukkah (Chanukah) or Rosh Hashanah. If you’re not Jewish, you might make this bread at Christmas time.

The bread is made from a slightly sweet and eggy enriched yeast dough. Although in order to be certified Kosher, some recipes might not include any butter or milk at all. The presentation is always quite beautiful, with ropes of dough that are twisted and braided into elaborate designs. The shape of the bread is deeply symbolic within the Jewish community.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Versatile Recipe. You can use this dough to make any shape of loaf, wreath, rolls or buns that you like. While I did a simple 3-strand braid for mine, there are many video tutorials online for braiding more elaborate patterns and shapes.

Faster Rising Time. The addition of the tangzhong in the dough helps it to rise twice as quickly as when I tested it without the tangzhong.

High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude. That said, most of my yeast dough recipes for rolls, buns and bread can be made at any altitude without adjusting the ingredients. The main difference will simply be on how long it takes your dough to rise, since dough tends to rise faster at higher elevations.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

• Milk. Whole milk adds richness and moisture to the dough. Use water or non-dairy milk for a Kosher alternative.
• Yeast. My preferred yeast for bread making is Red Star Platinum Premium Instant Yeast.
• Sugar. The sugar adds a touch of sweetness, and helps the crust of the bread to brown.
• Bread Flour. Bread flour has a higher percentage of protein than all-purpose flour, giving yeast breads a chewier texture. For today’s challah bread, I used High Altitude Hungarian Flour, which is a high protein bread flour. You can find it on the baking aisle at King Soopers throughout Colorado and a few other mid-western states.
• Salt. Flavor.
• Butter. Adds a rich buttery flavor and moisture. For a Kosher alternative, use a non-dairy butter or even vegetable oil.
• Eggs. This recipe has a higher ratio of eggs than what you’d find in other bread recipes, giving it its signature eggy flavor.

Instructions

Tangzhong

• In a small saucepan, whisk together the water, milk and flour. Cook over medium heat for several minutes, whisking constantly, until it thickens into a paste.
• Remove from the heat and set aside until needed.

Dough

• Warm the milk to between 110-115F. Stir in the yeast and 1 tsp of the sugar, then let it sit for about 5 minutes, until bubbly.
• In the bowl for your stand mixer, combine 3 1/2 cups of the flour with the rest of the sugar and the salt. Add the tangzhong, the milk/yeast mixture, the soft butter, eggs and egg yolk, then stir into a rough, shaggy dough.

• With the dough hook, knead the dough for 10 minutes on medium low speed, gradually adding the remaining 1 cup of flour a few tsp at a time. The dough should be soft, smooth and stretchy, pulling away from the sides of the bowl but still sticking a little at the bottom. If kneading the dough by hand on your counter, knead the dough for 15 minutes.
• Gather the dough into a ball and place it into a greased bowl that’s at least twice as big as the dough. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and set it in a warm place to rise until the dough is doubled in size. Depending on the freshness and quality of your yeast, as well as the warmth of the ingredients and environment, this may take 1-2 hours. For me, it took 1 hour with the bowl sitting inside my oven on the “bread proof” setting.

Shaping

• Lightly flour a clean counter top, and turn the dough out onto the counter. Gently deflate the dough by pressing it into a thick rectangle.
• Cut the dough into 3 equal portions for a 3-strand braid (or more portions if you’re doing a more elaborate braid with more strands).
• Gently stretch each portion of dough into a long rope, about 25 inches long, trying to keep the ropes the same thickness from one end to the other.

• To decorate the strands like I did in the photographed wreath, follow this step, otherwise, skip to the next step. Whisk together the egg white and milk for the egg wash, and brush it over two of the strands, leaving the third strand plain. Heavily sprinkle the two strands with toppings of your choice, such as seeds or crushed nuts. I used poppy seeds and finely chopped pecans for mine.
• Lay the three strands side by side and braid them together from one end to the other.
• For a wreath shape, bring the two ends of the braid together and pinch them together. For a large round loaf, simply coil the braid up into a spiral, tucking the end underneath the outer edge of the loaf. For a long loaf, just pinch and tuck the ends of the braids under at each end.

• Stack two baking sheets together, and line the top one with parchment paper. Gently transfer your shaped loaf to the baking sheet.
• Cover with a slightly damp tea towel and set in a warm place to proof for 1-2 hours, until puffy. Again, this will depend on the freshness and quality of your yeast, and the warmth of the environment. Mine only needed 1 hour to proof, but if your loaf isn’t very puffy after an hour, continue to let it proof for another hour.

Bake

• Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
• For a shiny, deep brown finish on your baked bread, brush the dough all over with the egg wash. For a matte finish, don’t use the egg wash. I didn’t use the egg wash on either of my loaves, except for using it to stick the toppings to the wreath. For the spiraled loaf, I just sprinkled the dough with a little granulated sugar before baking.
• Bake the bread until a digital instant read thermometer inserted into the largest part of the bread reads 190F. For a wreath, this may only take 25-30 minutes, but for a round loaf that’s more dense in the middle, this may take 40-45 minutes.
• Let the bread cool for several minutes, then enjoy warm or at room temperature. Fresh challah is wonderful served with butter, honey or jam.

Making Challah Bread Rolls

To make challah bread rolls, the process is very similar to making a large loaf of bread. But instead, you’ll be dividing the dough into smaller portions to braid small ropes for individual rolls. Note that although these rolls are soft and fluffy inside, they have a golden brown crusty exterior. Challah rolls make a great sandwich with sliced turkey, pickles and mustard.

If you’re looking for a super soft and fluffy pull apart dinner roll, try one of my other recipes for sweet potato dinner rolls, parker house dinner rolls, potato rolls (Amish dinner rolls), honey poppy seed dinner rolls, cheesy garlic herb bread rolls, and fluffy milk buns.

• Line a large baking sheet (double up the baking sheets to insulate the bottom) with parchment paper.
• After the dough proofs the first time and doubles in volume, turn it out onto an unfloured counter top.
• Use a bench scraper or knife to cut the dough into 12 equal portions. Cover the dough with a damp towel so it doesn’t dry out.
• Cut one portion of dough into 3 equal portions, then gently roll each portion into a rope about 10 inches long. The counter needs to be unfloured, so that the dough is a bit tacky against the counter, and the tension helps to roll and stretch the ropes of dough.
• Pinch the ropes together at one end, braid them together, then pinch the other end. Roll the braid up into a spiral, tucking the ends underneath.
• Place the shaped rolls on the baking sheet, cover with a damp towel, and set in a warm place to rest until puffy, about 45-60 minutes.
• For shine, brush the rolls with egg wash just before baking, and bake at 375 F for about 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

Best Tips for Making Challah

• Use a premium yeast. Red Star Platinum Premium Instant Yeast is the yeast I use and recommend for all my yeast dough recipes. The results when I use this yeast are always superior to when I use grocery store brands.
• Use room temperature or warm ingredients. If you add cold eggs to your dough, or don’t heat your milk to the correct temperature (110-115F), it can severely slow down your dough during the proofing. Do yourself a favor and place your eggs in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes before adding them to the dough.
• Don’t skip the tangzhong. Tangzhong or tang zhong is a simple roux or paste made of water, milk and flour. When this paste is added to yeast dough, it plays a very important role in improving the texture of the dough and the baked bread. It helps the starches in the flour absorb more liquid, which in turn makes the dough less sticky and easier to knead and shape into buns. It can help the bread rise higher and fluffier as it bakes. The baked bread, rolls or buns will stay soft and fresh for longer. And in the case of today’s challah recipe, it also significantly reduces the rising or proofing time needed for the dough.
• Double up on baking sheets. Insulate the bottom of your bread with two baking sheets, which will help to prevent the bottom from over-browning before it’s baked through.
• Be patient with the proofing. Challah is notorious for needing a long time to rise or proof, which is due to the high ratio of eggs in the dough. When testing this recipe with a grocery store brand of yeast and no tangzhong, my dough took 2 hours to rise until doubled, and another 2 hours for the shaped loaf to proof. But when I used my favorite premium instant yeast and added tangzhong, the dough only took half the amount of time to rise and proof. The point is, you can’t rush this process, or your bread will be dense and heavy, rather than light and fluffy.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!

Frequently Asked Questions

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