Challah bread is a Jewish classic and today we are making a vegan challah bread that is just as delicious! Perfect for making french toast.
Before we went vegan we used to get challah or brioche and make french toast often. The time has come to perfect some vegan challah bread recipe and you are going to fall in love.
Now, you don’t have to make french toast with it. In fact, it’s delicious no matter if you are eating it plain or you are making something out of it like a sandwich or french toast.
If you are wondering how you say challah – it’s pronounced “hal-la”. The ch doesn’t not make a “chuh” sound but rather the C is silent.
So what is vegan challah bread?
Oh I’m so glad you asked. First let’s taste a look at what challah is.
Challah is a speciality bread in Jewish culture. It is braided and eaten on Shabbat and some major Jewish holidays. It does not contain dairy typically.
The end result is this stunning masterpiece of woven dough and filling, like marbling, through the bread. Eat it in slices.
For today’s recipe we are going to be making a vegan challah bread recipe version that is simply amazing!
What does vegan challah bread taste like?
Challah, whether vegan or not, tastes similar to brioche if you are familiar. It’s rich and spongy with a little sweetness. Soft, sweet, and delicious are great ways to describe it.
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Frequently Asked Questions:
Do I have to use a stand mixer?
No, not at all. We prefer it, but it’s not a requirement. You can make this recipe with a bowl and a silicone spatula.
Can you make this a Top 8 Allergen Free Challah Bread?
We do not currently have a gluten free dough recipe to recommend, although we are working to create one.
For the remaining ingredients, yes you can.
And ensure that you are using a soy free, dairy free butter. We use Earth Balance Soy free that comes in a red tub.
Nothing else included in the recipe contains a Top 8 allergen.
Can I use active dry yeast instead of instant to make vegan challah bread?
Instant yeast rises faster and less of an issue. However, you can still use active dry. It typically will take longer to rise, so just follow the instructions for letting is rise until doubled in size.
Can I prep vegan challah bread ahead of time?
This bread can be made and stored in an air tight container for 5-7 days.
Also — when making the dough, once you put cover the bowl to rise, Instead of leaving in a warm place, you can place the bowl in the fridge up to 2 days before you plan to use it.
Just make the recipe as written, cover and place in fridge until ready to use.
Can I replace the sweet potato with something else?
Yes! Regular white potatoes or even pumpkin can be used. Pumpkin will help give it that orange-yellow color that you see with the pumpkin. The potato will not be at orange.
This purpose of using this is both for color and to be the “egg” in the recipe. So you can use any of these in a similar manor.
Can I make this vegan challah bread oil free?
You can! We recommend that you follow our recipe for our vegan everything dough which is an oil free bread recipe. Then just follow the steps for the rising and braiding.
It won’t have the richness that you get from the vegan butter; however, it will still be great.
How do you eat vegan challah bread?
If you are making vegan challah bread for the Sabbath, then Jewish culture says to say a blessing over it and eat it plain.
Others times, you can use as you wish. Toast it with vegan butter and jelly, make a french toast with it, bread pudding, to make sandwiches and more.
How do I make vegan french toast challah bread?
We love turning this into vegan french toast. If you desire to make french toast out of it, then you can follow the instructions that we have for our vegan babka french toast. Just scroll down to the french toast sections once you have your challah bread made.
We do not recommend letting challah get stale first like we do with the babka. We prefer to be able to use right away once it has cooled.
What other savory bread recipes can I make?
If you love bread, this you will love this garlic and herb butter vegan babka. However, you may be wondering what other savory vegan bread options you can make. Here’s some of our favorite:
- The Best Vegan Dinner Rolls
- Vegan Chimichurri Monkey Bread
- Easy Vegan Garlic Knots
- Vegan Pumpkin Dinner Rolls
- Vegan Italian Cheesy Bread Rolls
- Tuscan Mushroom Rolls
- Vegan Ham Broccoli and Cheese Rolls
- Vegan Sausage Egg and Cheese Rolls
- Easy Vegan Soft Pretzel Bites
- Vegan Bread Bowls
- Vegan Pesto Rolls
- Easy Vegan Focaccia
- Vegan Hawaiian Rolls
Vegan Challah Bread
Ingredients
- 4 ½ cups flour (we prefer bread, can use all-purpose)
- ¼ cup vegan cane sugar
- 1 package instant yeast (1 package = 2 ¼ tsp)
- 1 ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup mashed sweet potato, cooled (sub with white potato or pumpkin)
- ¼ cup vegan butter, melted
- 1 1/2/ cup water
For the simple syrup
- 2 tablespoon maple syrup
- 2 tablespoon plant based milk
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. Set bowl aside.
- In a second bowl (preferably a stand mixer bowl if you have one), add the mashed potato, vegan butter and water. Whisk together until combined.
- With the paddle attachment, add dry mix in two separate times. The switch to the dough hook and add the remaining dry mix in separate times. Combining just until mixed.
- Let knead for 8-10 minutes or until it doesn't stick to the bowl. It will pull away from the dough. Still slightly sticky but not sticking to your hands.
- Spray bowl, form into a ball and place ball inside. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let sit for 60-90 minutes in a warm, draft free place until doubled.
- Punch it down. Let rise again for 40-60 minutes until risen again.
- Uncover, punch down again and take out. Cut dough into 6 equal pieces – using a scale if possible. *See notes if you would rather do a 3 strand braid instead of 6.
- Roll each section into a 16 inch log, tappering the ends (making them smaller).
- Lay all 6 logs in front of your vertically.
- At the top pinch 3 logs together and then pinch together the remaining 3 together. Then pinch the two sections together (see video for visual)
- Think of each strand as a number. Far left will be 1 and far right will be 6.
- Cross the two outer strands (1 and 6).
- Move strand 1 to the middle, crossing over strands 2 and 3.
- Cross strand 5 over 4, 3, 2, 1 to be on the far left.
- Then cross strand 6 over 5 and 4 to be in the middle.
- Finally cross strand 2, over 3, 4, 5, and 6 to be on the far right.
- Repeat the above 4 steps until you read the bottom of your bread.
- Pinch the ends, and tuck them underneath the bread (on both ends).
- Lay braided bread on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover for 35-40.
- 15 minutes before done, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Make the simple syrup by adding the maple syrup and dairy free milk to a bowl and whisk.
- Once ready, brush the dough with half the simple syrup mixture.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes. Remove from oven, brush with remaining simple syrup mixture and let cool completely before slicing.
Zerubbabel
Larisha!! I enjoy your and Andrew’s content on here and YT❤️ It’s so wholesome. And when you do the product reviews, your laugh makes me laugh 😂. Anyways, I was wondering if it’s possible to double/triple the recipe to make these into brioche burger buns as well? I probably just answered my own question, but I wanted a second opinion.
LarishaBernard
Hi! So the recipe can be doubled/tripled, but you want to keep a few things in mind. Can your mixing bowl hold that much flour? And also you’ll want to make sure you half or third depending on what you’re doing the dough as soon as it’s done mixing and put into separate bowls so it can rise properly. Otherwise, have at it, and enjoy!
Jill
Absolutely perfect and very easy! Baked with my 20 month old grandson!
Larisha Bernard
love that!
Joanna
I have a tip for rolling out the logs quickly- squish them with your hands like you’re milking a cow, then roll them a bit to smooth them out. This cuts the time down significantly.
I am curious how to get that shiny glaze, I tried the maple syrup/ oat milk blend and it doesn’t create any shine. Thank you!
LarishaBernard
Hi Joanna, you can brush more of that glaze on after it comes out for a shinier look. Hope that helps!
Elspeth “The Speedy Vegan”
My husband and I had so much fun making this delicious recipe together for our Rosh Hashanah celebration.. He was not so sure about using sweet potato in place of egg but it was perfect and such an easy recipe to follow. I added raisin for the New Year version.
This will be a new tradition in our house. Thanks 😊
LarishaBernard
So happy that you all were able to enjoy!
Kooky
I absolutely love you two, use your recipes all the time and you have the best traditional wooden aesthetic I’ve seen, almost no plastic is ever used. My first challah was a little misshapen but i made a huge double dough so the second one I formed was nearly perfect.
It is hard to follow along at first, lol, but once you do it a couple times its quick as can be.
Perhaps consider a name change down the road to include your non-meat/vegan recipes and possibly attract a broader audience.
Otherwise, fantastic and really amazing beard.
LarishaBernard
Thanks so much! Really appreciate it
Carolyn
Delicious challah bread! I’m so glad to have this recipe to enjoy on Shabbat. Thank you!
Amanda
This is a rather late comment on this, but is it possible to make this in a bread machine? I imagine you’d just take it out to braid it. Any guidance would be appreciated.
LarishaBernard
HI Amanda, we haven’t tried to do that ourselves, but you should be able to do this until the braiding and rise portion
Casey
Oven is preheating, made the dough last night and let it rise again, and braided it today. Can’t wait to taste it. Honoring the sabbath with my family tonight with our first ever vegan challah. Very excited. Thank you guys for the awesome recipe and video! And thank the Lord for this bread 🙂
LarishaBernard
So happy to hear this! We hope you loved it
Cindy
This was amazing! So tender, so fluffy! No one in my family guessed it was vegan. I would have never known if I hadn’t made it myself. It was so rich and flavorful- I never knew you could get those results with sweet potato! 🤯 This is definitely going to be a staple at my house. Thank you so much for sharing!
LarishaBernard
So glad that everyone enjoyed the recipe!
denise
I am so happy with how this recipe turned out. I was a little discouraged to try because the recipe wasn’t in grams but I added flour and water until the consistency was like the video. I used pumpkin puree and the color was so beautiful! The bread crumb was very soft and rich. I will definitely make this again!
LarishaBernard
So happy to hear that you loved the recipe! Metric measurements will be up sometimes this year for all our recipes
Brandon
HEy! We dont have/cant afford a kitchen aid so we did it by hand but dude the dough was so stick!! I couldn’t get it to stop sticking to my hands!!
Any thoughts??
LarishaBernard
More flour just until it’s not sticky
appreciative vegan jew
hey! this might be a dumb question but if I braid this differently would it still bake the same amount of time?
LarishaBernard
Yes
Nava
For the record, the c is not silent. Americans just don’t have the sound the ch makes in the alphabet. Ask any Jewish person who knows even a few words of Hebrew if you’d like to know what it sounds like or I’m sure you can find a YouTube video.
LarishaBernard
Thanks
Monica
Hi!
Wondering if using canned sweet potato will work out fine for this dough or if it would be too wet? Same question regarding the pumpkin as well?
Thank you so much!!
Love you both, btw!
LarishaBernard
either should work fine
Rose
My very first bread ever and boy was it a hit. I was expecting my first time to go terribly wrong but it didn’t! Followed the recipe and out came a piece of gold in the form of bread. My husband and I ate it in two days we couldn’t keep our hands off. I look forward to sharing this bread with friends.
LarishaBernard
So glad that you found success with your first bread!
Ruth
I have made this recipe several times and it’s been fabulous. I am not Jewish and have never tasted Challah. I make it for my vegan Jewish friend for their holidays. They tell me it’s spot on for traditional Challah and better than the vegan versions they have bought. I usually make an extra loaf and we love it as french toast. Thank you for an excellent recipe. I look forward to trying your others.
LarishaBernard
So glad that you and your friends are enjoying it so much