The Best Vegan Challah Bread
Vegan challah bread, also known as water challah, is made without eggs but it is still soft, fluffy, and full of flavor. This beautiful bread requires no fancy ingredients, or equipment and comes together in a single bowl.
Ingredients
- 1.25 oz Dry active yeast Approximately 7 g
- 1/2 cup Granulated sugar Plus a pinch
- 1 cup Warm water at 110 F + 3 tbsp separate
- 6 tbsp Olive oil Or any other cooking oil
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- 3 cups All purpose flower
- 1.5 tsp Salt
Instructions
- In a small bowl, add yeast, a pinch of sugar and the 1 cup of warm water at 110 F and mix. Let it sit for 5 minutes or till it blooms.
- Once its bloomed, add 2 tbsp of the oil and mix.
- In a medium sized bowl, mix 3 tbsp of oil, remaining 3 tbsp of warm water and baking powder. This is the egg replacement.
- In a large bowl, add the flour, sugar and the salt. Whisk till combined.
- Add in the prepared yeast mixture and egg replacement to the flour mixture. Mix with a spatula and once the mixture becomes a bit more thick, use your hands.
- Add in little bit more flour, about a tbsp at a time while mixing the dough with your hand. Knead gently till the dough becomes smooth and evenly combined as you see in the video.
- Grease the inside of the bowl with some oil. Leave the dough in the bowl, cover it with a damp towel and let it rise for 2 hours or until doubled in size.
- After 2 hours, take the dough out, place it on a floured surface and knead it into a log. The goal is to knock out some of the air in the process but still keep the dough soft and fluffy. Do not over-knead the dough as it will make the dough tough.
- Cut the log into 6 equal pieces.
- For the braided design of the Challah we have shown, you only need 4 pieces. The two extra piece can be used as practice braiding.
- Roll out each of the 4 pieces into thin long strips.
- Lay out the four strips in the form of tic-tac-toe with each braid going over and under the other. It could get a bit confusing so check out the video to see how the next few steps are done.
- Braid the strips as shown. Tuck any extra length under the braided dough. Let the dough rise for 1 more hour (I forgot to show this step in the video).
- Afrer the second rise, brush the dough with some olive oil.
- Line a baking pan with parchment paper. Transfer the dough carefully on to the pan.
- Bake in pre-heated oven at 325 F for 25 minutes
- After baking, let the bread cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack. Serve it warm and goes awesome with butter!
Video
Notes
TIPS :
- Activate your yeast properly. To do this, make sure your yeast is not expired and the water is warm but not too hot (110F). Otherwise, the yeast will not activate and you will not get a pillowy rise on the bread.
- Challah dough is slightly sticky. Do not add too much extra flour and make it dry.
- While kneading the dough after the rise, make sure you do not over-knead it. The purpose of kneading is to knock out some of the air in the dough but if you knock all of it out, the resulting dough becomes too tough to work with.
- Make sure to watch the video before braiding the dough and follow the recipe closely.
- Don’t bake on a plain baking sheet, always use a greased baking mat or parchment, or else the bottom cooks too fast and may burn.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!