Spelt Challah Recipe and Variations
It is no wonder the public often thinks there is no way to enjoy a delicious slice of spelt challah or bread, as it always comes brick-heavy in stores: Mine is light and delicious!
Spelt is my flour of choice not only for baking bread but for all baked goods. I use whole grain spelt flour. If you would rather use wheat flour, all-purpose will do, as well as whole wheat pastry flour, ground much finer than whole wheat flour and yielding a much lighter dough.
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons active dry yeast
4 cups warm water
1/2 cup honey, sugar or sucanat
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon salt
12 cups spelt flour, a little more only if needed
Topping:
1 egg, beaten with 1/4 cup water
Sesame or poppy seeds (optional)
Instructions:
Mix the yeast, water and honey or sugar in a big bowl, and let the mixture bubble for about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, oil and salt, and beat. Add the flour, and mix thoroughly. Transfer the mixture to a lightly-floured flat working surface, and knead for about 15 minutes, turning the dough a quarter of a turn every 2-3 minutes and punching it down often to eliminate any air pockets (or transfer the mixture to the bowl of a dough maker. Set for 10 minutes of kneading). Transfer the kneaded dough into a big mixing bowl (remember, it will expand). Sprinkle flour all around the dough. Let rise, covered with a cloth, in a warm draft-free area for 2 hours.
Shape the Challah: divide the dough into 4 pieces. Divide each piece into thirds and roll each third into a long thin rope. Pinch the 3 ropes together at one end to hold them in place. Braid, and place the braid on a foil-covered cookie sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Place the loaves well apart in the pan (you might need more than a pan: Bake one at a time). Brush each loaf with the egg-and-water mixture, and top with seeds if desired. Bake in a preheated 350*F oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Raisin Challah: Served on Rosh Hashanah. Add two cups of raisins to the dough, shape it into 4 round loaves (for each loaf, make a long thin rope, and roll it into a coil)
Filed under: Bread Recipes, Challah Recipes, Kosher Recipes, Low Gluten Recipes, Spelt Baking
I was so excited to see your Challah recipe with Spelt flour but it was WAY too big for a family. My breadmaker would never hold 12 cups of flour. Would you be able to publish a recipe that would make one or two loaves rather than 4? It would be so appreciated!!
this sounds awesome and so simple! im deifnitely going to try it.
Dear Levana, I finally made Aliya. We arrived last day of December. I just got your spelt Challah recipe from Michelle Gross, fabulous friend of mine. I can’t wait to try it. I have only just recently achieved a light Challah, but I mix the spelt with potatoe flour. And it isn’t as fluffy as I want, so I am very excited to try this. I am wondering if I should let the dough rise a second time after braiding, before baking it?? Gluton free is anything but free here in Israel, so I don’t want to mess this up. I look forward to hearing from you. And much love from the Chase family. Shabbat Shalom, Heftziba Chase
Shavua tov, all the way in the Holy Land! How wonderful that you made Aliya! May all of you encounter nothing but nachas and success!
Spelt is not gluten-free, but it is low-gluten: In otehr words, not suitable for the celiac community but suitable and highly desirable for everyone else: low gluten, high fiber, high protein and pleasing nutty flavor.
The recipe is tried and true. Do as you are told, you will be rewarded!
Where in Israel did you settle? Have you found work? Please stay in touch! I will be sending you my weekly newsletter, so don’t hesitate to ask me for anything!
Love and best wishes to all,
You will love it!
Divide the recipe in half: What’s the problem?
Shavua tov, all the way in the Holy Land! How wonderful that you made Aliya! May all of you encounter nothing but nachas and success!
Spelt is not gluten-free, but it is low-gluten: In otehr words, not suitable for the celiac community but suitable and highly desirable for everyone else: low gluten, high fiber, high protein and pleasing nutty flavor.
The recipe is tried and true. Do as you are told, you will be rewarded!
Where in Israel did you settle? Have you found work? Please stay in touch! I will be sending you my weekly newsletter, so don’t hesitate to ask me for anything!
Love and best wishes to all,
I was wondering if this recipe calls for white spelt or whole spelt. I would really like to use whole spelt. If I do so do I need to do anything different. Will it still come out as fluffy?
Of course whole grain spelt flour: Who needs white spelt? It will be just another white grain, and very expensive. Whole spelt is ground extra fine and therefore behaves just like a white flour. I make absolutely everything with whole grain spelt: cookies, cakes, breads, pizza, pasta. My new cookbook is chock full of recipes using spelt! http://www.levanacooks.com/my-upcoming-cookbook/
I was really excited to experiment with this Challah, as I had guests visiting this Shabbat who only eat spelt, and your recipe sounded amazing. Unfortunately, it was a total disaster!! I couldn’t get the ingredients to form any kind of dough whatsoever, instead I was left with sticky liquid goop all over the place and lots of wasted ingredients. Really disappointed! Found another recipe that worked just fine.
Tanya, so sorry for your mishap, but I must tell you here: my recipe is tried and true, and you are totally outnumbered. So many people make my bread recipe and love it: just look at some of the comments. Just this past Monday at my cooking demo (Moroccan Salad Buffet), I made my spelt bread recipe, with all appropriate comments on how to adjust it for both water challah and egg challah, and it was delicious. That demo was taped and will soon be posted on YouTube.
With bread and dough, what counts the most is not the recipe, it is understanding how to make dough. With just a little patience, bread baking with become a pleasure.
i’m going to try making this recipe this week, for a crowd! my whole wheat challah turned out well and this is a similar recipe so i’m hoping it works out similar.
I did use your recipe; halved. It was difficult to work with the dough and I ended up using 7-8 cups. It rose beautifully but fell just as quickly. Next time I would use my regular recipe with the spelt flour and see how it works. The taste was fine by the way but the texture was far too crumbly which I believe was from too much flour. Unfortunately the dough was so sticky it could not be handled until there was enough flour to keep it from sticking relentlessly from the kneading surface (wood) It was beautiful to look at albeit wide rather than tall. All challah is beautiful though isn’t it? We bake it as a gift and gifts are not to be judged; just received! If you would like to know how mine turns out next week I am happy to let you know. I am currently thinking that perhaps the oil is not a good addition with spelt given it has such little gluten….
Hi Kevin,
In my new cookbook, The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen: Glorious Meals Pure and Simple, http://www.levanacooks.com/cookbooks/, I devote a whole chapter to some very important pointers on bread baking. Here’s one of the simple secrets: Resist, resist, resist, adding flour. the dough may look like it will remain gooey and sticky and never come together: big mistake. A lot of the gluten will mix with the moisture during rising, resulting in a smooth firm dough. I must gently but firmly tell you, my recipe is tried and true. In bread-baking, the recipe is only a very small part of the story; the rest is, knowing to work with dough. Just like developing a green thumb! Also, it sounds like you let it rise too long, or it wouldn’t have fallen (make sure you don’t let it rise anywhere too warm). It is wide rather than tall, that’s perfectly understandable: it has lower gluten content! Wood surfaces are not ideal for kneading dough as they are porous and very annoying. Stainless steel, granite etc… is much better.
PS still I will adjust the flour to 4-5 cups, but no more
Dear Levana,
The Challah was delicious! Though, the dough was hard to handle. How do I stop it from becoming too sticky?
This is the concession we have to make for using spelt flour. Great rewards, so be patient: Remember, low gluten. Soon enough everything takes perfect shape and flavor. Well worth it!
I have to agree with the other posters who said that the dough would not come together. I had to add a lot of extra flour to get it to be anywhere near braidable. I weighed all of my ingredients perfectly. Perhaps there is a clerical error on this particular page? If not, then do share a couple of your expert tips to level the playing field a bit on this one.
Naryia your comment arrived right after this one, take a look:” ”
“Hi Levana, Thank you so much for getting back to me so efficiently. You were actually my inspiration for cooking daily.
My parents worked a lot when I was younger and as a result of late dinners I took up cooking as an eleven year old girl. I have been cooking lots of your recipes for a while! One of the all time favorites is your spelt challah recipe. Its phenomenal. The consistency is perfect and the taste is wonderful! I do not eat wheat so I really enjoy your spelt recipes. This summer I was at JLI with my mother and sister and I sat in all your cooking demos that I loved. Along with watching, taking notes, being awe inspired, and tasting the food, I really loved it. I did not get a chance to buy any of your cook books. I am for ever borrowing them from my neighbor but I think I will buy the new one. Sarah Rider
There is no error in the recipe. If the finished loaf doesn’t look as pristine as wheat bread loaves, it will still look great, and it is a small concession to make for the sake of eating a much healthier bread. Bread baking will never be an exact science. If you need to add a little flour, add a little flour! If you approach breadbaking in a flexible way, you will soon be a pro!
Hi Levana, can I one-third the recipe and make it in my bread machine (obviously with ingredients in the proper order for the bread machine)? Thanks.
Of course!
hi levana i have been baking your recipe for almost a year comes out amazing its the first spelt challah recipe that i LOVE. i have made the recipe EXACTLY and havent changed anything and my dough smells sour it only recently started happening i am from america and moved to the holy land a year ago maybe i dont know how to work the dough in the heat here in the winter i let it rise for 2 hours no problem it was amazing now in the summer i let it rise half hour and it smells so bad what should i do? i changed my yeast that didnt help i changed my flour that didnt help and i dont want to find a new recipe i love this one
pleaseeeeeeee help
Miri I am wondering if, quite simply, one of your ingredients might be off: The yeast, or the flour. If the reeecipe is good in the US, it should be good anywhere. Check your ingredients again for freshness!