12 Mistakes Everyone Makes When Making Challah Bread

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Challah is a rich egg bread known for its importance to Jewish tradition and is beloved worldwide. It makes a stunning addition to any table, shiny with egg wash and beautifully braided or formed into whimsical shapes. The dough is a simple mix of flour, eggs, water, yeast, and salt. It bakes up soft and puffy even though the dough has no butter and can be enjoyed however you like: topped or plain, fresh from the oven or toasted, sliced for sandwiches, or to accompany a bowl of soup. No worries about baking too much since leftovers can be turned into French toast, croutons, or bread pudding.

Depending on your preference, challah can be enhanced with herbs, cheeses, or spices for savory bread, or chocolate, fruit, or nuts for a decadent treat. For Shabbat meals, challah is topped with seeds to represent manna from heaven, and traditionally, two loaves are always on the Shabbat table. According to Chabad, they symbolize the double portion of the manna God provided the Israelites on Fridays to sustain them through the Sabbath.

Although the dough is easy to make, challah can be hard to perfect. If braiding it doesn't scare you away, stories of challah raw in the middle, burnt on the bottom, flat, cracked, or split can make any cook decide that homemade challah is a daunting proposition. The good news is that knowledge is power. With a few simple tips, you'll be baking gorgeous loaves of challah in no time.

Rising is the key to perfect bread, but it's essential to challah. The intricate braiding can suffer if the dough isn't risen correctly, causing it to crack, spread apart, flatten out, or otherwise spoil the stunning presentation. While two rises are essential, some bakers like to do three, including a slow rise overnight in the refrigerator. Reddit users enjoy discussing whether rising in the fridge is a good idea, but the idea behind it is that the cold rise keeps it from over-proofing and improves the loaf's structure.

Naomi Elberg of TGIS Challah swears by taking photos of dough before rising to judge timing rather than blindly following recipes since so many factors affect the rising dough. The temperature indoors and out, humidity levels, and even the time of day (since your home is likely to be cooler first thing in the morning regardless of the season) may mean one batch of challah rises faster than another. She also reminds bakers to use an oiled bowl with a clean, damp towel over the rising dough, so it doesn't dry out.

Sound complicated? Experience is the best teacher, but start with letting challah rise in a warm, draft-free spot. The biggest reason your bread isn't rising properly is letting the dough rise too long; this leads to flattened bread that can't hold its shape, so while recipes are essential, using your judgment could be just as vital.

Unless they have been created with dietary restrictions in mind, bread recipes always call for salt. Since challah is considered a sweet bread, you might think salt could be omitted, but challah recipes include salt, too. There are several reasons to add salt to bread dough, including its vital role in the rising process: Salt makes proteins stronger and keeps the dough from rising too fast. Depending on whether it springs back, you'll know when the bread dough is ready to bake.

Everyone knows salt contributes to flavor, so bread without salt won't taste as good as it should, but the reason this happens might be more of a mystery. Bread needs salt because while the yeast does its job, feeding on the sugar and starch in the flour and releasing carbon dioxide that makes the dough rise, salt works against the process. Salt draws water away from the yeast, so it takes longer to ferment the dough, deepening the flavor and enhancing the sweetness of the challah.

Still, accidents happen, and if you neglect to add salt to challah, Food Network star and award-winning chef Alex Guarnaschelli has your back. Eating the challah for Shabbat might not be in the cards. Still, Guarnaschelli insists you can repurpose your unfortunate loaf by making croutons, bread pudding, or simply toasting the challah and sprinkling salt on it after buttering it. Sounds like a good plan — but do remember salt next time!

Recipes tell you everything you need to know to create delicious dishes, from ingredients to a step-by-step guide to the process. However, when it comes to challah (or any bread), different day-to-day variables mean it's better to view recipes as guidance. Warmth and humidity make yeast come alive but can cause the unwanted effect of making the dough rise so fast that the flavor and texture suffer. The Bread Guide offers tips on combatting conditions that can play havoc with your challah, like using icy water a bit at a time to slow the rise, keeping humidity out of your flour, and even using a bit less yeast.

In Hadassah Magazine, Jessica Halfin, a pastry chef, recipe developer, and food writer from Israel, points out that flour, liquids, rising times, and baking time are suggestions for any dough, especially for challah. Added to weather, altitude, and seasons affecting dough, challah's additions of eggs, oil, and sugar mean home bakers need to tap into their inner bread-making guru to get it right.

Enriched dough like challah is naturally sticky, but don't think that means adding flour with abandon. While you certainly want a workable dough, starting the dough with less flour than in the recipe and adding one tablespoon at a time helps you get the perfect consistency for conditions in your kitchen (via Kosher). Flour is easy to add but impossible to remove. Good news: Once you're used to making challah, your innate intuition takes over.

Anyone who has ever tasted challah fresh from the oven knows perfection can come from the simplest ingredients. Once you're comfortable with making challah, it would be a grave mistake not to explore the endless ways to improve on perfection. Most people consider challah a sweet bread, and while it's true that just about every challah recipe calls for sugar, you might be surprised at how savory ingredients added to the same basic dough can delight the palate.

While certainly inappropriate for those keeping kosher, Bryan and Michael Voltaggio's savory Bacon Knot Challah is a revelation of salty sweetness. Bonus: Making this challah gives you something to do with the fat from the bacon. My Jewish Learning's roundup of challah recipes shows how surprising ingredients like dill pickles, pastrami, cheeses, and butternut squash make drool-worthy savory challahs.

Never fear: If you can't get on board with savory challah, many recipes ramp up the sweetness. Alon Shaya, founder and executive chef at Saba in New Orleans, along with chef de cuisine Cara Peterson, created a sweet recipe for challah using turmeric, orange juice, honey, and raisins. Actress Jamie Geller provides recipes in her challah roundup that add decadent sweetness, like cookie butter, marzipan, chocolate, and s'mores ingredients, in addition to more traditional filling ideas like apples, honey, and rum raisins. No matter which type of filled challah suits your fancy, it's clear you'll never run out of new ways to make it.

Well-baked challah is a joy, but one that's burned or seemingly done but with a goopy center is heartbreaking. If you've followed the recipe, preheated the oven, and set a timer to check for the glossy brown surface and hollow sound of perfectly baked challah, you might think you're in the clear.

Unfortunately, you might be wrong. Every oven is different, and if you don't realize yours runs hotter (or cooler) than the set point, you could be in for challah that "smells horrible, like scrambled eggs," like this Reddit user venting about her oven running so hot that when she checked at the recipe's stated minimum time, the challah was already ruined.

It's not necessarily your oven's fault, according to Cook's Illustrated. Oven thermostats are placed where they won't be knocked around, such as in corners in the rear section of the oven. Unfortunately, since most food bakes in the middle of the oven, temperature mishaps are too common.

Fixing the problem is as simple as periodically confirming the oven's actual temperature with an oven thermometer hanging from the middle rack. Preheat the oven with the thermometer in place, then compare the reading to the oven's and note the accuracy of its temperature setting. You can adjust baking temperatures accordingly, or you may be able to recalibrate your range to the proper temperature. Either way, your challah will be baked to golden perfection every time.

It can be hard to see the challah you spent hours making come out a little weird, but please put the brakes on your inner critic. Bottom line: Homemade bread is delicious, and homemade challah is likely to taste good even if the shaping is odd, the braiding splits, or it gets darker than expected. Making bread at home lets you omit additives, trans fats, and high fructose corn syrup commercial bakeries use to cut costs. Instead, you can choose high-quality ingredients and healthier, unsaturated oils like olive, canola, or safflower (via Livestrong).

Another reason to make challah is to boost your mental health. Think of how favorite scents transport you back in time — baking has the almost universal effect of taking us back to places and loved ones while engaging our senses. Measuring and mixing ingredients, kneading the dough, and breathing in sweet baking smells allow us to escape stress, relax, and be mindful in ways often lacking in our hectic schedules. Plus, what's better than slicing challah fresh from the oven and savoring every amazing bite? Practice makes perfect, after all, so make a habit of homemade challah, and in no time, the ideal loaf will be second nature.