Challah Rolls with Apple Currant Filling

Challah rolls filled with apples and currants are perfect for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur BUT why limit yourself? These little gems are ideal individual servings for breakfast, lunch and dinner all year round.

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Childhood memories come full circle …

Growing up, it was always my grandmother that did the baking. And without fail, well into her 90s, she made challah bread (egg bread) every Friday for Shabbat. Sometimes in the summer she stayed with us in Massachusetts but what I remember most vividly, is visiting her in Brooklyn.

When we walked into her tiny apartment, she would always have fresh challah waiting. Even when she made a traditional braided loaf, she always made smaller, turban-like circular versions too. And not just on Rosh Hashanah, when it’s traditional to have a round challah. She made these circular challahs all year long. You should too.

Why you'll love this challah roll recipe

They may be small but there is a lot to love.

This challah rolls recipe makes 8 individual rolls -- the perfect amount to feed a small group and have a couple leftover for toast the next morning. You can also make one loaf, if you prefer.

I show you how to fill them with an apple cinnamon currant mixture – perfect for a sweet new year at Rosh Hashanah. But you can skip the filling and then use them to make these fantastic brisket sandwiches!

And finally, I based this on my easy orange challah recipe so these are very quick to make, especially if you have a dough hook in your stand mixer. No need to devote a day to prepare these. Total time from start to finish is 2 hours or less.

Ingredients you’ll need

Dough

• Instant yeast: I call for instant yeast in the recipe but you can certainly use a package of active dry yeast. Instant yeast is convenient – you don’t have to wait for it to activate. And it happens to be the first yeast I was able to find when things were in short supply during the Spring of 2020. A whole pound of it!
• Warm water: I have a hot water tap so I mix ½ room temp water and ½ hot to get my warm water. If you want to be sure it’s the right temperature – it should be about 110 degrees. Temp of water is not crucial with instant yeast but is important to activate regular yeast.
• Eggs: Remember – one is for the dough and one is for the egg wash
• Vegetable oil: Canola oil will work as well. Olive oil might but I haven’t tested it yet!
• All-purpose flour: All-purpose (AP) flour, not bread flour is what I used to test the recipe. AP flour is easier to find and most of us have it in our home kitchens.
• Kosher salt: all my recipes use kosher salt unless otherwise stated.

Filling

• Apples: any crisp apple will work here including ones that are more sour – like a pippin or granny smith. I put a few drops of lemon juice on the chopped apples to keep them from browning.
• Currants: Currants are similar to raisins but smaller. Regular or golden raisins will sub in just fine here. You could sub in dried cranberries as well.

Recipe step-by-step instructions

Prepare the Dough

1. Put yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer equipped with a dough hook, and pour in warm water. Whisk it (by hand) so the yeast dissolves. Let this stand for a couple of minutes to be sure you see some bubbles or action in the yeast mixture so you know your yeast is alive and well. Then whisk in (by hand) the 1 egg and the oil. If using instant yeast, no need to wait for it to activate. Just put the yeast, water, egg and oil in and whisk together.

2. Add 3.5 cups of the flour, the salt, sugar, and beat with the dough hook until the dough is smooth and elastic. If dough is sticky, add ⅛ cup of flour at a time. In my heavy-duty mixer, it takes only a minute or two for the dough to come together.

3. Remove the dough from the mixer bowl, form into a round and poke a 1-inch hole all the way through the center. Let the dough rest covered loosely on a floured surface 30 minutes.

Make the filling

4. While the dough is resting, make the apple cinnamon raisin mixture by combining the chopped apples, currants or raisins and cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of the sugar.

Form the challah rolls

5. Use a knife or bench scraper to divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, around 100 grams each or just eyeball it. (Short on time? Make one large loaf with a simple 3 strand braid and just divide it into 3 pieces at this point.) For even more ideas about braiding and forming rolls, check out my challah braiding post!

6. Flatten each ball into a 6” long oval. Put about a heaping tablespoon of the apple cinnamon nut mixture down the center. Close the dough up around the filling and roll it out with your hands to about a 9” rope.

7. Loosely coil this rope and connect the end to the dough so it doesn’t flap open. Place on a parchment lined sheet pan and repeat this procedure with the other 7 dough balls.

8. Cover the small round challahs loosely and let them rise for about 30 minutes in a warm location. You know dough is ready to bake if you poke it with your finger and it slowly springs back. While the dough is rising/resting, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

9. When ready to bake, brush the eight challahs all over with egg wash. Bake for 5 minutes at 375 degrees then reduce heat to 350 and let them cook for about 22 minutes longer.

Expert Tips and Recipe FAQs

This recipe is very flexible and forgiving. The dough is easy to work with whether you choose to stuff it or not. And remember – you don’t need lots of time to get from dough to finished rolls. Even on a busy day, you can have fresh challah rolls on the table for dinner.

• Challah is a naturally sweeter bread – it almost always includes sugar or honey in the recipe. But for Rosh Hashanah we like to eat foods to symbolize a sweet new year – stuffing these with the apple mixture is a nice touch. If you prefer plain bread, skip the stuffing.
• You can change the stuffing to something more savory or use a different dried fruit. Experiment and have fun with these mini challah rolls!
• If you don’t stuff them, you can finish them with seeds on top either randomly sprinkled or in little dots (see photo below).
• Don’t want or need individual rolls, feel free to braid this as one loaf. Bake it 5 to 10 minutes longer.
• These rolls taste fantastic the next morning toasted and slathered with some cream cheese … just sayin.

Other challah recipes to try

• Easy Challah Recipe with a Hint of Citrus
• Round Challah for Rosh Hashanah
• Challah Bread Pudding
• Challah Stuffed with Tahini

P.S. If you try this recipe, please leave a star rating and/or a review in the comment section below. I so appreciate your feedback! AND find more inspiration on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram. Signup for my email list, too!