Whole Wheat Challah Bread
Whole wheat challah bread recipe. This is the first time ever for me to publish a challah bread recipe, which happens to be due to a question raised in one of my other videos.
I’m not very experienced with using whole wheat flour, and I’m not even sure why. Generally speaking, this flour produces bakes that are more dense, and the dough requires a slightly higher hydration levels.
It is customary to combine it with all purpose flour, in order that the bake won’t be very dense. With this recipe, I’ve used 50% all purpose flour, and did not even use eggs so its also vegan.
The taste of this challah bread is slightly earthy with a hint of nuttiness. Personally, I loved the final result, and hope you would too.
First published:
Last modified:
Whole Wheat Challah Bread:
Equipment: No special equipment required.
Recipe: Makes 2 large Challah Breads.
| Ingredient | Amount (g / units) |
| Whole Wheat Flour | 335g |
| All Purpose Flour | 335g |
| Dry Yeasts | 9g |
| White Granulated Sugar | 67g |
| Salt | 10g |
| Olive Oil | 72g |
| Tepid Water | 400g |
For brushing the challahs:
Beaten egg with a little bit of water and a pinch of salt.
For an eggless version: use 2 tbsps of soy milk, mixed with 1/2 tsp of Silan (date spread).
Preparation instructions:
- Into a mixing bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, add the flours, yeasts, sugar and salt, and mix together well.
- Add half the amount of water in, and start kneading on the lowest speed.
- Stream in the remaining amount of water until the flours have moistened.
- Stream in the olive oil.
- Continue kneading for 10 minutes on the lowest speed, until you get a smooth dough, that doesn’t stick and is nice to the touch.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and proof for 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in size.
- Over a lightly oiled counter, divide the dough into equal weight portions (in accordance with the number of braids you want to make your challah). Each portion is rounded into a ball, and set to the side to rest for 10-15 minutes.
- Each ball is stretched to a rectangle. The exact size doesn’t matter. Roll the rectangle into a log and seam the edges well. Let the logs rest for 10-15 minutes.
- Each log is then stretched to the desired length (depending on the size of the challah you’re making), and braided together. Note that you may dust the dough logs with a little bit of flour before braiding, but this is optional.
- Place the challah breads on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, cover with a large piece of plastic wrap, and proof at room temperature for 1 hour, until the challah breads have doubled in size and jiggle when the baking sheet is lightly shaken.
- While the challah breads are proving, pre-heat your oven to 175C (fan mode off), placing a baking rack at the lowest shelf inside the oven.
- Brush with egg wash, or the soy milk-silan mixture, sprinkle some sesame seeds if you prefer.
- Bake in the pre-heated oven for 30 minutes.
- Let cool on a cooling rack as soon as the challah breads are out of the oven.
