Irresistible Whole Wheat Challah

I made a half recipe, just in case I wasn't crazy about it, and took it to my synagogue this morning (Saturday) for our small Sabbath service (our big one is Friday night). Everyone went CRAZY when they tasted this! It is super good, moist, very flavorful, with a nice chewiness to it. They asked me to make it again, and often!! I make challah for my husband (and me) every week, and he told me I could switch to this one! I did use the wheat gluten, and I didn't use raisins, since I knew there would be people this morning who don't like raisins. I will make it next Friday for our home challah WITH raisins, since my husband loves them. Thanks so much for this!!!

This was absolutely delicious! By far the best and sweetest whole wheat Challah I've made! I'll definitely stick with this recipe.... I didn't use the vital wheat gluten or raisins.... It also didn't rise out of the oven much, and took longer than 30 mins in the oven but it came out to be lighter and sweeter than most whole wheat breads! Thank you! UPDATE: If you first proof yeast with water and then add it when you mix both dry and wet ingredients, It rises much more..... I make this every week for shabbat dinner and have gotten many many requests for the recipe!

I had been looking for a whole wheat bread machine challah recipe for a while. I tried various recipes, without much luck. Finally, I decided to look for a regular whole wheat challah recipe and make the dough in my bread machine -- I tried this recipe, and it turned out great! I substituted agave for the honey and left out the wheat gluten and raisins. The bottoms of my loaves ended up a little dark; I might reduce the baking time a little. I know I will make this over and over again.

We tried many different challah recipes trying to get something close to a whole wheat version of Cheryl Ann's challah in Boston. Everything else was too dry, but this is very moist. I double the recipe and make 4 loaves at a time and freeze what I don't use. I do all the mixing and kneading in my kitchen aid mixer. I have made a few minor changes from a direct doubling of ingredients. I use 1/2 cup honey and 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon salt, and 5 eggs instead of 4. I also proof the yeast in 1 cup warm water in a 2 cup measuring cup until it's bubbling near the top and add it as a liquid ingredient. I use the wheat gluten even though it's listed as optional, but not the raisins. I cut the total water to 1.5 cups instead of 2. I also typically need more rise time than the recipe calls for and gt a better result if I can make the time to lunch down the dough and give it a second rise before I braid it. Overall this recipe is a winner even among people who don't usually eat whole wheat. For the Cheryl Ann's fans out there, this is less sweat than Cheryl Ann's but just as moist.

This is a delicious recipe! I've made it twice now and noticed a big difference in rising/texture when I let it rise in a warm place, as instructed. The warmth really helps make it light and airy. I'm new to making my own bread and even mine came out great! Thanks!

Excellent recipe. The texture is very moist for a whole wheat challah. Many people assume that in order to make a good whole wheat bread you must combine white flour and whole wheat, here's a recipe that proves that theory wrong.

This challah is the best whole wheat challah I've ever made. However, the method is not fool proof because you don't proof the yeast first. So, I had a batch that didn't rise. Annoying.

Very nice bread! I braided one half of it and used the rest of it for a regular loaf. I put it at 375, which works best for my oven, for about 35-40 minutes, and they both came out perfect. This isn't really a heavy wheat bread even though it's all ww. I used the vital wheat gluten so I wouldn't have to wait for it to rise for 2 hours, and made the dough itself in the breadmaker, then went from there. Very nice--thanks for the recipe!

I used 1/4 C honey and 5 Tbsp olive oil, omitted the raisins, and included the wheat gluten. It turned out great! The color of the loaves is gorgeous, and they have a fine crumb with a medium texture-- not too dense, not too light. Thanks for sharing.

Very good recipe and super easy. I made one large loaf with half the ingredients but with 1 additional cup of white flour (so 2 wheat, 1 white). I did not use vital wheat gluten, substituted agave nectar for honey and dried berries for raisins. Also added 1/4 cup milled flax seed. This is something I can eat forever!

this is by far the best challah bread i have ever tasted!!!!! I make this recipe every week for shabbat and everybody loves it. I usualy half the recipe to make one loaf and leave out the vital wheat gluten. I would give this ten stars if I could! thanks dollop of daisy for this fabulous recipe!!!!

amazing challah!! we used sugar instead of honey. its awesome!! even our white floured guests loved it!!

This is a great recipe -- surprisingly tender and flavorful for such a simple bread. I proofed the yeast with the warm water and a tiny bit of honey first. I used three eggs instead of two, and also let the dough rise three times. I used half extra virgin olive oil and half canola because I ran out of olive, and made six-stranded braids since they make such voluminous loaves. This will be my challah recipe from now on.

Amazing. :) This is the BEST whole wheat bread I've ever tasted. Most WW bread is dense and dry, but this tastes like Nature's Own Whole Wheat bread. Only 5x better. I use the dough and then the bake setting on our bread maker, and the loaf rises so much that is pushes the top off. :) It is delicious, and stays moist for 4-5 day. I use it to make my sandwiches, and it tastes delicious microwaved with a little bit of honey drizzled on top. DELISH!

Best whole wheat challah recipe I ever found! In love!

This is our family's new favorite whole wheat recipe! We like to swap out half the honey for molasses. We also like to use this as a base recipe for cinnamon raisin swirl bread. Yum!

This is my weekly Challah recipe. The only differences are I use agave for honey, I proof the yeast with the water and a smidge of sugar and I use 1/2 wheat and 1/2 white flour. I do not use the gluten because the white gets the job done. Everyone raves about this bread and IF there are leftovers, we have banana stuffed French toast. L'Chaim.

(NOTE: make sure your water is hot enough to proof the yeast, a temperature of ~120 for the water should be added to the recipe). Otherwise, this recipe was surprisingly easy, and it's whole wheat flour! The kneading was the hardest part (and was very very easy to knead, compared to all of the other breads I've made before). The bread was beautiful when it came out of the oven, and was chewy and delicious. We made french toast with it the next day and it was delicious in that too.

This challah is amazing! I put the ingredients in my bread machine on the dough setting. When the dough is ready, I braid it, let it rise, and brush with an egg wash and sesame seeds. I haven't made it with raisins or the vital wheat gluten. Everyone who has tried it loves it! It doesn't last long in my house.

this recipe is the bomb! very soft sweet and yummy! I substituted coconut oil for the olive oil but other than that followed the recipe. Delicious!

Made it according to the recipe (though halved everything since it was my first time trying it). My dough never rose in the bowl (def didn't double) and was very tough to roll into ropes for the braid. It rose a little on the pan. While baking it finally poofed up. The flavor was great though I might add more honey next time and the texture was more like regular wheat bread than challah. Don't know if there are any good suggestions to improve but I will def make this again.

I joined allrecipes.com just to rate this amazing recipe! I have NEVER successfully baked in my life. I tried this today and wow! I'm not Jewish but the recipe appealed to me and I'm so glad I tried it! I left out the gluten and raisins. Ill upload a pic. It's so good, perfect moisture and texture. Now I'm inspired to bake ??

healthy, delicious. I added extra egg for enhanced flavors

Test

I have been trying different recipes for whole wheat Challah. This is the best yet. I think I will stop looking at different recipes and just work on making this one as perfect as possible. It was delicious. Soft and sweet and my kids loved it. Shabbat never tasted so good! ;-)

I have been using this recipe for almost a year and have been very happy with it. The only thing that I changed is that I mix the yeast and water together and let it proof so I don't have to worry about the salt killing the yeast. Then I add the honey and olive oil to it and mix it with the rest of the ingredients.

Changed to 64 servings = 5lb bag of flour

Love this recipe! I normally cut it in half and use only 2 cups flour at a time and the bread usually disappears within the next day. Definitely a keeper, I've made it a few times now.

it tastes great, but never rises for me.

This was my first time making homemade bread and it was a success! My whole family loved this bread. It can be a long process but it's soo worth it! DELICIOUS!

Very tasty! I had a whole wheat challah recipe that I was using, but while I liked it, my kids weren't crazy about it. I tried this recipe and everyone started taking seconds and thirds. Regarding the yeast, I just proofed the yeast in warm water like I always do to bake bread and proceeded from there.

The best halla I ever made!! Thank you for this wonderful recipe.

My family was over the moon with this delicious homemade challah!! I will be making it again for shabbos this week! Can't wait!!

Love making bread and wants to try challah but couldn't get myself to make an all white version. I made it once as written - perfect truly doesn't need any alterations. Fabulous taste rose beautifully with amazing oven spring. I would note because I was short on time both times I only did a single raise (made the dough and formed immediately then baked - if it hurt the results I wouldn't be able to tell). Second time I did put in 1/2 c of raisins (next time I think I'll up it to 2/3 cup) and rolled the strands in a light covering of cinnamon sugar. But truly the original stands on its own and needs no adjustments.

This challah is amazing! The only change I made was that I brushed the loaves with egg wash before baking them to give them a shiny crust. I will definitely make this again

Tasted great and will definitely be making it again!

I've never managed to make something whole wheat taste SO good. I didn't have any vital gluten but the structure was still excellent.

This recipe was good - tasted nice. However, I found myself struggling a lot with the kneading. And, to my disappointment, even after tracking down the vital wheat gluten and adding it to the mix, there was still a lot of flatness to the loaf.

Great recipe! I followed the recipe as it's written, except did the final rise in the fridge overnight, and took it out to cool to room temperature before baking. Used white whole wheat flour instead too. Note that whole wheat flour will make it more dense, but the vital wheat gluten can make it somewhat softer. Will make this bread again!

Didn't add the wheat gluten but still came out great. Added an egg wash and sesame seeds.

I followed directions exactly. I've made at least 10 challahs before and thought I'd try a whole wheat recipe this time. Extremely sticky batter. I had to add at least 1/2 extra cup of flour so I could work with it without it sticking to my hands like glue. Didn't rise at all. I let it sit for over two hours. I gave up and braided it as is and threw it in the oven. The amount made only one loaf because it failed to rise at all. Baked it in the oven for specified time and the outside was a nice golden brown color so I took it out. After it cooled, sliced it open to find the middle was still uncooked inside. Very dense and heavy. It was sweet and the family thought it was good but I ran into so many issues I won't be making this again.

Delicious. I’ve been shortening the baking time by 10 minutes, since we like the moist texture. I’ve also made this with spelt flour and it’s just as good.

I followed the recipe exactly (minus the raisins), and my husband said "this is the best bread I have ever put in my mouth".... Fan-freaking-tastic! I will be making this again and again. I made the bread in loaf pans... best bread ever for peanut butter and jelly!

I trust this worked for everyone else, but I made the recipe exactly as directed and it DID NOT RISE. I looked at some of the pictures and suspect that it did not rise for more people than I, though they did not rate it lower because this is what they had expected. Mine was unbearably dense and not even sweet. Maybe the excessive olive oil played a role? I did delay making the dough, had it in a very warm place and then had to delay so kept it in the fridge overnight, but at no time did it seem to rise much.

I bought all the ingredients I usually make white flour challah. I wanted to try a whole wheat challah. This is NOT irresistible. It was hard like a rock awful Very upset.

I made this bread as per recipe excluding the optional ingredients. My only modification was an egg wash for a bit of sheen. It came out beautifully. I was surprised at how much the olive oil flavor came through in a good way. Very soft inside with a nice crust. I was impressed at the lightness given the 100% whole wheat. I would most certainly make again.

I halved the recipe, and didn’t use viral wheat gluten and I didn’t have any... I used two eggs and used an extra tablespoon of honey. The dough is quite easy to handle... The challah turned out really well! Thank you for a great recipe!

Comes out great everytime

I've tried several whole wheat bread recipes and this one takes the cake! After reading the other reviews, I turned one half of this recipe into a glorious loaf of whole wheat bread which my whole family simply loves. I will continue to experiment with other whole wheat bread recipes but so far this is my go to fool proof loaf I know will always turn out amazing!

I joined just to review this recipe. This is the first successful challah bread I have made. All others were such heavy and dry failures I had started to think that maybe it wasn't meant to be. I tried to stick to the recipe as much as possible. In the end, the only two changes were to activate the yeast in warm water and a bit of honey first and then kneading in a bit more flour to help the dough be less sticky/wet and more sticky/tacky. This tastes like the nice brand of honey whole wheat bread that you buy at the grocery store. I didn't know it was possible to make such a light, soft, chewy bread yourself. I plan to use it as a sandwhich bread for the kids and also for French toast. Although to me this resembles a whole wheat sandwich bread more than a traditional challah in taste and texture, it is undeniably delicious.

My challah turned out wonderful! Making it again right now!

Came out light and delicious with all whole wheat flour.

I will make it again. Very yummy. Does anyone know if I have to double or triple recipe to get it be 5 pounds so I can make a blessing on it.

Other than halving the recipe and proofing the yeast, I followed this recipe exactly. It didn't rise quite as much as I thought it would but it turned out just fine. It is a delicious bread that I will make all the time!

I made the bread according to the recipe. I found it to be both easy to make and very delicious. My three year old grandson did the braiding with my instructions. That made it a very fun project. I am at altitude (Denver). I should have used a bit more yeast and given it longer to rise. Mine was a little dense.

This bread turned out really dry. Not a huge fan.

I have made several challah and this is the best recipe thus far! By using only two eggs (instead of the typical 3-4 egg yolks) and using my choice brand of non-GMO organic whole wheat flour made this bread truly light and fresh. A lightly salted white egg wash at the end of the baking cycle topped with white and black poppy seeds gave this bread another level of sweetness. This recipe is a keeper!

This one didn't rise at all.

I didn't use the gluten. So probably because of that, it was a very sticky dough and I ended up adding more flour when kneading. I also brushed the bread with 1tbs milk & 1 egg mixture and sprinkled some poppy seeds on top. The taste, the texture and the looks were phenomenal. Definitely try making this bread.

Came out great! I used date honey instead of regular honey. I’ll definitely make it again!