The Best Gluten Free Challah Bread Recipe
This gluten free challah bread recipe is also dairy free, so it's perfect for any holiday table. It also makes amazing gf French toast, sandwiches, or bread pudding.
Servings: 8 slices
Equipment
- Stand mixer with paddle attachment (See Recipe Notes)
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups all purpose gluten free flour blend (I used Better Batter and recommend it highly here; please click thru for appropriate blends you must choose carefully for results!)
- ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum omit if your blend already contains it
- ⅝ cup tapioca starch/flour plus more for sprinkling
- 1 ⅔ teaspoons instant yeast (See Recipe Notes)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- ¾ cup lukewarm water plus a teaspoon or so more if necessary
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 egg yolks at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons honey
- Egg wash 1 large egg, at room temperature, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
- Poppyseeds or sesame seeds for sprinkling (optional)
Instructions
Make the challah bread dough
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, place the flour blend, xanthan gum, tapioca starch/flour, instant yeast, and granulated sugar. Whisk to combine well.
- Add the salt, and whisk again to combine.
- Add a bit more than 1/2 cup of the water, olive oil, egg yolks, and honey. Using the paddle attachment, beat vigorously.
- With the mixer running, add as much of the remaining water as necessary for the dough to smooth out. In a warm, humid environment, it may take a bit less than the full 3/4 cup of water. In a dry, cold environment, it may take less. Watch the texture very carefully.
- The dough mixture will come together in a clump and then smooth out and stick to the sides of the bowl. Keep beating until it begins to look whipped, and the color lightens a bit (about 6 minutes total).
- Transfer the mixture to a lightly oiled bucket or bowl with a very tight-fitting lid. Place the container in the refrigerator, tightly sealed, for at least an hour and up to 2 days.
Shape the braided gf challah
- When you’re ready to bake, turn out the chilled dough onto a surface very very lightly dusted with tapioca starch/flour.
- Sprinkle the top very very lightly with more starch, and divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Do not add much starch, or your bread will not rise properly.
- If the dough seems too hard to handle and you're tempted to add even more starch, place it back in the container and let it chill in the refrigerator for at least another hour.
- Working with one piece at a time, knead the dough in your clean, dry hands, without adding any additional flour of any kind, pinching any seams that separate.
- Begin working the dough into a cylindrical shape, pinching any gaps together, fanning your hands out toward the edges to lengthen the strand.
- Rolling back and forth, create strands about 15 inches long from end to end that taper slowly from the center to each end, with very tapered ends. Sprinkle each strand lightly with more tapioca flour on the outside of the cylinder to smooth the surface, then set it aside.
- Place the 3 strands on a lightly floured surface parallel to one another and about 5 inches apart from one another. Gather the tapered ends on one side together, pinch them securely and tuck the very end under the knot.
- Plait the 3 strands as you would any 3-strand braid. Do not pull the strands, as they’ll fray. Just place them on top of one another as you work toward from one end to the other.
- Beginning as close as possible to the bound end, place one outside strand across the center strand, exchanging the center for the outside strand you just moved to the center.
- Repeat with the other outside strand and center strand. Repeat the process, alternating one side and then the other until you reach the end. Tuck the end under as you did the other side.
- Placing your hands carefully under each side of the braided loaf, carefully lift the braid onto a lined baking sheet. Press the finished braid gently on each ends toward center to shorten the length a bit.
- Sprinkle the top of the braid lightly with more tapioca starch and brush off excess from the valleys between braids.
Let the bread rise.
- Cover the braid securely with plastic wrap, and place the loaf in a warm, draft-free location. Allow the loaf to rise until it’s at least 150% its original size (anywhere from 45 minutes to hours).
- If any of the tops of the strands begin to separate from one another as the dough rises, try to smooth and pinch them closed. When the dough is nearing the end of its rise, preheat your oven to 350°F.
Bake the bread.
- Uncover the risen bread and brush the tops and sides of the braids very generously with the egg wash. Avoid letting the egg wash pool in between the braids. Sprinkle the top evenly with the optional seeds.
- Place the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven. Bake for 30 minutes, rotate the baking sheet 180° and reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.
- Continue to bake for about 15 minutes, or until the bread bounces back when pressed on a center braid and the internal temperature is at least 190°F on an instant read thermometer.
- Remove the bread from the oven and allow it to cool on the baking sheet for at least 20 minutes before transferring to a wire rack too cool completely. Slice and serve.
Video
Notes
For the instant yeast.
If you’d like use active dry yeast in place of instant yeast, you’ll need to hydrate the yeast first in some water in the recipe. You’ll also need 25% more active dry yeast, which is slightly over 6 grams, to replace 5 grams of instant yeast.
For the stand mixer.
If you don’t have a stand mixer, I recommend making the dough in a food processor fitted with the steel blade, but it's not ideal and may easily lead to overprocessing the dough. I don’t recommend a hand mixer, or trying to mix by hand. Only a stand mixer will yield predictable results.