Round Challah for Rosh Hashanah

Round challah is the perfect shape for celebrating the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah). Using my dear friend Lonni’s tried and true traditional challah recipe, you’ll be baking your own round challahs with confidence all year round.

You might also like my easy almost no-rise challah recipe.

For ease of browsing, find all my Rosh Hashanah recipes in one place.

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Why you’ll love this recipe

We bake challah all year long for Shabbat but for the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah), we make round challahs to represent the circle of life.

With Lonni’s challah recipe, you’ll get a delicious loaf of bread infused with all the love and meaning a loaf of challah represents.

As an experienced, confident challah baker. Lonni’s verbal and visual instructions will make you feel like she’s in the kitchen with you. (watch the video to see her make a coiled round challah so beautifully)

This recipe makes a good amount of dough and yet is very manageable. It is so versatile – you can make two large round loaves or several smaller ones or one braided loaf and two medium size round challahs or any combination that works for you.

What I learned watching Lonni make challah

• You have to get your hands dirty to learn to make bread: I arrived at Lonni’s kitchen armed with all the right recording devices to document her prowess. But baking is not a spectator sport. You have to get in on the action. Feel the dough’s elasticity, moisture, texture and see its color, size, and shape.
• Breadmaking is both a science and an art: If it’s a hot day, the dough might rise faster. If it’s a moist day, perhaps you’ll need more flour or less water. The recipe is the starting point; your senses are the tools that make the recipe become bread.
• You don’t need fancy equipment to make great bread: My grandma (Annie) kneaded and shaped her challah dough in her postage-stamp Brooklyn kitchen until her early 90s. Lonni kneads her dough by hand even though she has a big kitchen and a stand mixer. She considers kneading a form of therapy and exercise and loves to feel the dough transform from individual ingredients to a perfect smooth ball of challah dough.
• Making challah is making memories: As I watched Lonni vigorously knead her challah dough, I remembered as a young girl how I loved to watch my grandmother bake and I especially loved her workmanlike hands preparing the challah dough. Unlike my grandmother Annie’s thick, short fingers, Lonni’s hands are nimble and athletic, just like the rest of her tiny but powerful body.

Ingredients you’ll need

As with most breads, the resulting loaf is so much more magical than the relatively simple ingredient list.

• All-purpose flour: Lonni uses all-purpose flour but you could use bread flour or a combination of bread and all-purpose. Remember bread flour has a higher protein content and will give your bread a tad more structure. Or you might notice you need a touch extra water. That’s ok – use your instincts and don’t be afraid of substituting one for the other.
• Warm water: It’s best to use water between 105° and 115°. It helps to activate the yeast.
• Yeast: I recommend either the standard packets of Red Star or Fleischmann’s active dry yeast or SAF instant yeast.
• Eggs: I use large eggs and Lonni says you can use anywhere from 2 to 4 eggs in this recipe. More eggs may slow down the rise a bit but will also encourage a higher overall rise, a tender crumb and a nice brown exterior.
• Vegetable oil: Canola oil or olive oil can also work here.

How to make this recipe

You can knead this dough by hand or with a stand mixer or a combination. Lonni says: “It takes me about 20 minutes to knead the dough by hand. I used to do it in the mixer, but I really like to feel the dough and put my heart (and muscle) into the process of kneading it myself!”

1. If your yeast is alive (not way out of date), then you can add active dry yeast or instant yeast (whichever you are using) directly to your flour mixture without proofing it first (really – it’s true – I talk about this in my book and tested it many times). However, if you have any concern that your yeast is expired, then proof it. Just add it to the warm water needed for the dough along with a tablespoon of the sugar and make sure it foams.

2. In a large bowl, add all the other ingredients, then add the water/yeast mixture.

3. Knead until smooth and shiny and springy.

Note: I decided to knead this dough most of the way in the stand mixer and then finish it by hand just to test that option for you. This dough looks a bit too sticky here but that was on purpose - I wanted to be able to use plenty of flour to finish the kneading on the counter. I could just have easily added some flour to the stand mixer and proceeded with the dough hook.

4. This is the dough ready to be kneaded on my kitchen counter.

5. Even if you do all the kneading in the stand mixer, it’s nice to place the dough on the counter and knead it a few times just to check the texture and confirm it’s ready to rise.

6. Cover and let rise until about doubled in size. The time varies by the weather. Lonni says (and I agree!) that you can also prepare the dough the night before and let rise in the fridge overnight.

7.Turn the dough out onto the counter and divide in half. Braid, or shape as you wish then place on a parchment-lined sheet tray. (see recipe and video for instructions for two different methods of making round challah)

8. Preheat oven to 375. Egg wash the loaves and add seeds if using.

9. Lower oven temperature to 350°F. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and the loaf sounds hollow when thumped. Remove immediately to a wire rack so the loaves don’t get soggy on the bottom.

10. Serve with honey or your topping of choice in the center ramekin.

Expert Tips and FAQs

1. Even if you have a stand mixer and dough hook, try, as Lonni does, to knead the dough by hand from start to finish at least one time. It will really help you learn about how dough forms and what it should look like and feel like when it’s ready to rise.
2. The recipe card below will give you approximate rise times but remember, the climate of your home, the outside temperature, the location in your kitchen where the dough rises, even how many eggs you use will all affect how quickly your dough rises both the first and second time. So use visual cues as well as rise times to decide when your rise is done.
3. Lonni sometimes makes the dough the night before and let’s it rise slowly in the refrigerator overnight.

More challah recipes on OMG! Yummy:

Challah Rolls with Apple Currant Filling

Easy Challah Recipe with a Hint of Citrus

Challah Bread Pudding

Challah Braiding Tutorials!

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!