The Best Fluffy Challah Rolls

This challah bun recipe makes fluffy rolls, baked until golden brown, and topped with sesame seeds.

They are fun to make and eat. It’s made from a fluffy enriched dough, and it’s dairy-free. The bread dough is a gorgeous pale yellow because of the eggs. They are shaped like a simple knot and coated with sesame seeds.

About these challah rolls

• The dough can be made by hand or in a mixer. It’s a bit sticky but not overly so, so you can knead these by hand or in a mixer. If kneading by hand, be prepared to put in some elbow grease.
• A fun shape. These individual rolls are twisted into simple knots. If you want to do a more intricate braiding technique, do it!
• They are dairy-free.

What is challah bread?

Challah bread is a traditional Jewish bread often served during major Jewish holidays and Shabbat dinners. It’s an enriched bread with lots of eggs and is usually braided, (like this sourdough babka.)

It’s a bit similar to brioche, but challah is predominantly made pareve (meaning without dairy products.) These challah buns are a great way to make individual servings. These are shaped like challah knots.

What is enriched bread?

An enriched yeast dough is one where fats and proteins are added to bread dough. Challah dough has a large number of eggs and egg yolks added and some vegetable oil.

This creates a fluffy and tender loaf, with rich flavor. This dough undergoes two rise times. You can also choose to give it a cold-proof in the fridge overnight. This is going to give a deeper flavor profile.

Ingredients

Find the ingredient amounts in the printable recipe card at the bottom of the page. For this challah bread recipe, you will need –

• A strong white flour with a protein level of at least 11%. This can be all-purpose flour or bread flour.
• Yeast. Active dry yeast or instant dry yeast. 
• Granulated white sugar – Only a little bit of sugar to feed the yeast and enhance the dough’s flavor.
• Eggs – whole eggs and large egg yolk, plus one for the egg wash.
• Salt
• Water
• Vegetable oil – melted coconut oil, light olive oil or canola oil work well
• Sesame seeds or poppy seeds for topping.

Baker’s schedule

This challah recipe can be made reasonably quickly, especially if you give the dough a warm place to rise. However, there is also the option for an extended cold proof overnight.

• 9 am – Mix the dough ingredients together. Knead for 10-15 minutes until strong. Form into a smooth ball.
• 9:20 am – Place dough in an oiled bowl and let the dough rise at a warm room temperature until doubled.
• 10:30 am – Punch down the dough and weigh it. Divide it into 9 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball. Shape the challah rolls and let them rise again.
• 11:20 am – Brush with egg wash and bake until golden brown.

Alternatively, you can mix the dough in the afternoon and let it rise overnight slowly in the refrigerator. The next morning the dough will be quite cold and stiff. Let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before shaping and letting the shaped buns rise again.

Method

In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment or a large mixing bowl, combine all the warm water, sugar and yeast.  If using active dry yeast, let this sit for around 5-10 minutes until it becomes foamy, if using instant yeast this step can be skipped.

Add in the remaining dough ingredients and mix on low speed to combine it into a shaggy dough. Turn the mixture to medium speed and knead for around 10-12 minutes until the dough is smooth and strong.

If mixing by hand, tip the dough onto a floured bench and knead by hand for around 12-15 minutes until it becomes a strong and smooth dough. If you need a break, just let the dough rest for 5 minutes and come back to it.

First rise

Once the dough has been kneaded, shape it into a round ball and place it in an oiled bowl. Cover it with a damp towel or plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm space until doubled in size.

Alternatively, if you are giving the dough an overnight cold rest, it can now be covered tightly and placed in the fridge to rise slowly overnight.

Shaping

Pull the dough from the bowl on a floured work surface. Weight the dough on a kitchen scale, then divide that by 9. Cut the dough into 9 equal pieces using a bench scraper and shape each piece into a little ball.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cut each dough ball into 2 and roll each of the pieces into 10-inch long ropes. Once they have been rolled out, dust the ropes with a little bit of flour. This helps to keep the knot shapes loose, so when they rise the knot definition stays as it rises. Twist the two pieces together to create one long twisted rope.

Shape the rope into an upside-down ‘U’, then cross one end over the other. Now you have a hole at the top and two ends at the bottom. Bring one bottom end of the dough up and place it through the hole.

Now take the second end and place it through the hole, but this time from underneath. Now you have a knot.

Place the knot on the prepared baking sheet and continue with the rest of the dough pieces.

Cover the sheet with a damp towel or plastic wrap and let the knots rise at warm room temperature until puffy.