Apple Honey Challah is one of my most popular Rosh Hashanah recipes. This beautiful braided challah is sweetened with honey and stuffed with tender apple pieces. I have included easy braiding instructions for a perfect round challah every time.
Rosh Hashanah is fast approaching. What better way to celebrate than with a freshly baked Apple Honey Challah? On Rosh Hashanah we dip apples in honey to symbolize our hope for a sweet new year. In this recipe, the apple and honey tradition is incorporated into my Shabbat challah recipe. It has become a holiday tradition for many readers and their families.
The Rosh Hashanah tradition is to braid challah in a round shape for the holiday. Some believe the round shape represents a crown for God. Our family tradition says that the circular shape represents the cyclical nature of the year– as one year draws to a close, another year begins, and so the circle continues. There are many ways to make a round challah. In this post, I’ll be sharing a braiding technique that was first introduced to me by my blogging friend Andrea at Capitol to Capital. It creates a lovely challah with a very pretty design on the top. I’ve broken it down in step-by-step instructions for you; it seems complicated at first, but once you get the hang of it you’ll realize it’s actually pretty easy.
I wanted this challah to be sweet, but not dessert-sweet. I gave it a sweetness level similar to Hawaiian bread, so it could be served and enjoyed with dinner. You can sweeten it further by topping it with honey… and with butter, if you’re so inclined. The recipe is dairy free so it can be served with a meat meal, but I’ve gotta say it’s awesome topped with salted butter and honey. Holy moly. Good stuff!
The apples were a challenge at first. I used Granny Smith, which are naturally tart but best for baking. In the beginning, the apples weren’t baking up sweet enough for my taste. I solved this by tossing them in sugar before integrating them into the challah. You can add a little cinnamon to the apples, too, if you’d like an apple-cinnamon flavor. With the sugar, they ended up adding a soft, moist bit of sweetness to the dough– just right!
If you’ve never made challah before, I don’t recommend starting with this one. Working with challah dough is something that becomes considerably easier with time and experience. Rather than working the apples into the dough during kneading, I’ve found that concealing the apples in the strand creates a more even, smooth shape to the braid.
Making these stuffed strands is not a complicated process, but it might be frustrating to somebody who has never worked with challah dough before. If you’re new to challah, I recommend simply making this into a Honey Challah by omitting the apples. You can then make regular strands instead of stuffed ones, and you can choose any braiding technique you like. There are several easy braiding methods, including a simple 3-strand or 4-strand braid, or a Linked Loops braid for a round Rosh Hashanah challah. For an introduction to the basic braiding techniques, click here.
For those who don’t want to bother with braiding and aren’t worried about making a round shaped challah, you can try a Royal Challah pan, which will create a beautifully shaped challah without the need to braid. If you’re comfortable with challah and you’re up for the challenge, read on! It’s really not that difficult, especially since I’ve broken each step down with photos to illustrate.
Here is a printable diagram that you can bring into the kitchen to keep you on track as you braid. Once you do it a couple of times, you’ll realize it’s a very simple braid to master:
How to Braid a Four Strand Round Challah
This challah smells AMAZING while it’s baking. It has the aroma and flavor of the holiday. Topping it with turbinado sugar gives an extra bit of crunchy sweetness to the crust. Shana Tova!
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Apple Honey Challah
Ingredients
Dough Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water, divided
- 1/4 ounces active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 large egg
- 3 large egg yolks
- 3/4 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil (or canola - avocado oil is healthier)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 5-7 cups flour
- 3 medium granny smith apples
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar (optional)
Egg Wash Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon cold water
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
NOTES
Instructions
- Pour ¼ cup of the lukewarm water (about 110 degrees) into a large mixing bowl. Add 1 packet of Active Dry Yeast and 1 tsp of sugar to the bowl, whisk to dissolve. Wait 10 minutes. The yeast should have activated, meaning it will look expanded and foamy. If it doesn’t, your yeast may have expired, which means your bread won’t rise—go buy some fresh yeast!
- Once your yeast has activated, add remaining 1 ¼ cup lukewarm water to the bowl along with the egg, egg yolks, honey, canola oil, vanilla and salt. Use a whisk to thoroughly blend the ingredients together.
- Begin adding the flour to the bowl by half-cupfuls, stirring with a large spoon each time flour is added. When mixture becomes too thick to stir, use your hands to knead.
- Continue to add flour and knead the dough until it’s smooth, elastic, and not sticky. The amount of flour you will need to achieve this texture varies—only add flour until the dough feels pliable and “right.” Turn the dough out onto a smooth surface and knead a few more times.
- Place a saucepan full of water on the stove to boil.
- Wash out the mixing bowl that you used to mix the challah dough. Grease the bowl with canola oil. Push the dough back into the bottom of the bowl, then flip it over so that both sides are slightly moistened by the oil.
- Cover the bowl with a clean, damp kitchen towel. Place the bowl of dough on the middle rack of your oven. Take the saucepan full of boiling water and place it below the rack where your dough sits. Close the oven, but do not turn it on. The pan of hot water will create a warm, moist environment for your dough to rise. Let the dough rise for 1 hour.
- Take the dough bowl out and punch it down several times to remove air pockets. Place it back inside the oven and let it rise for 1 hour longer.During this final rise, fill a mixing bowl with cold water and dissolve ½ tsp of salt in it. Peel the apples and dice them into very small pieces, about ¼ inch large. Place the diced apples into the bowl of lightly salted water. Reserve. When you are ready to begin braiding the dough, drain the apple pieces and pat them dry with paper towels. Toss the apple pieces with 1/4 cup of sugar. If you’d like, you can add ½ tsp of cinnamon to the sugar to give the apples an apple-cinnamon flavor.
- Take the dough out of the oven; it should have doubled in size during this final rise. If it has not fully risen, return it to the oven till it's had a chance to properly rise. When the dough is ready, flour a smooth surface like a cutting board. Punch the dough down into the bowl a few times, then turn the dough out onto the floured surface. Knead the dough a bit, adding flour as needed to keep it from feeling sticky. You will have enough dough for two medium-sized challot (challahs).
- Divide the dough into two equal halves. Put one half of the dough on a smooth, lightly floured surface. Leave the other half of the dough in the bowl covered by a moist towel. Cut the dough on the floured surface into four equal portions.
- Take one of the four portions and stretch it with your fingers into a rough rectangle, about 1 foot long and 3-4 inches wide. Use a rolling pin to smooth the dough, if it helps. The rectangle doesn’t need to look perfect, and it shouldn't be too thin-- the dough needs to be thick enough to handle an apple filling.
- Sprinkle some of the sugared apple pieces across the center of the rectangle. You should use about 1/8 of the apple pieces in each rectangle. Liquid will collect in the apple bowl as you progress—do not transfer the liquid to the dough, or it will weaken and become mushy. Do your best to shake off excess liquid before placing the apples on the dough. Leave at least 1/2 inch border along the outer edge of the dough clean, with no apples.
- Gently roll the upper edge of the rectangle down to the lower edge and pinch to seal, creating a snake-like roll of dough stuffed with apples. This is the beginning of your strand.
- Gently and carefully roll the stuffed strand till it becomes smooth, using gentle pressure with your hands on the center of the strand, pulling outward as you roll. If any apples begin to poke through the dough, repair the hole with your fingers before you continue. Re-flour the surface as needed to keep your dough from sticking.
- Taper the ends of the strand by clasping between both palms and rolling. At the end of the rolling process, your strand should be about 16 to 18 inches long with tapered ends.Once your apple strand has been rolled, repeat the process with the remaining 3 pieces of dough, making sure that they are even in length with the first strand. In the end, you’ll have 4 apple-stuffed strands.
- Now your stuffed strands are ready to braid. There are a few different ways to braid 4 strands into a challah. This recipe will guide you through one method for braiding a round four strand challah. For other braiding methods, click here.Place two strands in the center of a smooth surface, running parallel top to bottom. Place the third strand across the two strands, going under the left strand and over the right. Place the fourth strand directly below the third strand, going over the left strand and under the right. You will have something similar to a tic-tac-toe board pattern, with the center of the board being a very small square and 8 “legs” sticking out from that center. Keep the center as tight as possible… you’ll be braiding from the center. I have numbered the strand ends in the following diagram to make the braiding process easier.
- Take strand 1 and cross it over strand 2.
- Take strand 3 and cross it over strand 4.
- Take strand 5 and cross it over strand 6.
- Take strand 7 and cross it over strand 8.
- Take strand 2 and cross it back the opposite way, over strand 7.
- Take strand 8 and cross it over strand 5.
- Take strand 6 and cross it over strand 3.
- Take strand 4 and cross it over strand 1.
- Take strand 7 and twist it with strand 4.
- Tuck the twisted ends under the challah.
- Repeat this process with the remaining loose ends—twist and tuck 1 with 6, then 3 and 8, then 5 and 2.
- When all of the loose ends are twisted under, gently plump the challah into a nice, even round shape.
- After the round has been braided, place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Let the braid rise 30 to 45 minutes longer. You’ll know the dough is ready to bake when you press your finger into the dough and the indentation stays, rather than bouncing back. While this challah rises, you can braid the other half of the dough in the same way, or you might choose a different braid for your second challah. No matter which way you braid, you can conceal the apple pieces inside the strands using the same method described above. Your second challah will rise as the first one bakes.
- Prepare your egg wash by beating the egg, salt and water till smooth. Use a pastry brush to brush a thin layer of the mixture onto the visible surface of your challah. Reserve the leftover egg wash. Sprinkle the top of the challah with 1 tbsp turbinado sugar, if you wish.Each challah needs to bake for about 45 minutes total, but to get the best result the baking should be done in stages. First, set your timer to 20 minutes and put your challah in the oven.After 20 minutes, take the challah out of the oven and coat the grooves of the braid with another thin layer of egg wash. These areas tend to expand during baking, exposing dough that will turn white unless they are coated with egg wash. Turn the challah around, so the opposite side faces front, and put it back into the oven. Turning it will help your challah brown evenly—the back of the oven is usually hotter than the front.The challah will need to bake for about 20 minutes longer. For this last part of the baking process, keep an eye on your challah—it may be browning faster than it's baking. Once the challah is browned to your liking, take it out and tent it with foil, then place it back in the oven. Remove the foil for the last 2 minutes of baking time.Take the challah out of the oven. At this point your house should smell delicious. Test the bread for doneness by turning it over and tapping on the bottom of the loaf—if it makes a hollow sound, and it's golden brown all the way across, it’s done. Because of the apples in this challah, it may take a bit longer to bake than your regular challah recipe. Err on the side of letting it cook longer to make sure it's baked all the way through. You can also stick an instant read thermometer in the thickest part of the challah-- when it reads 190, it is baked all the way through. Let challah cool completely on a wire cooling rack before serving. Bake the second challah in the same way.
Samantha Bullard says
Is there a particular type of four you would recommend?
Thank you!
Tori Avey says
All purpose.
Rachel says
Do you need to use green apples, can you use honey crisp or another red variant?
Tori Avey says
Honey crisp would be fine. Red can veer mushy in baking, so I generally avoid.
Laura Gerchik says
This looks amazing and I would love to try it but our custom is raisin Challah. I was thinking of making 1 with apple and 1 with raisin, could you share your recommendation for replacing the apple with the raisin in this recipe (was also wondering if i’d have to put the raisins in water or just leave them dry) thanks!
Jennie says
Hi! I’m making this recipe for Friday night and Saturday (1 each). After the dough has risen, can I refrigerate and wait to bake it till Friday?
Tori Avey says
Refrigerate before the rise, not after. It will continue slowly rising in the refrigerator. Take it out and let it return to room temp, and if it’s not fully risen allow it to continue to rise at that time.
BethR says
I have made this challah two years in a row, and it has turned out perfectly every time. It is a beautiful challah and gets rave reviews. I’m making one early this year to share and freezing one to have ready in time for Rosh Hashanah. It does take a while so to make it easier on myself, I refrigerated the dough overnight after the first rising, and also use the food processor to chop up the apples. Tuned out as beautiful as ever!
Stephanie says
After you refrigerated the dough, did you do the second rise in the oven, or just let the overnight in the refrigerator be enough?
Rainer Schindler says
Why not print the recipe since your website also is catering to canadians who are strictly metric, it would make it easier for thr canadian viwers.
Your recipes are great.
Thank you for all your contributions
Tori Avey says
Hi Rainer, if you choose “metric” and then press print, it should create a print page with metric measurements. The only thing that doesn’t update is the instructions beneath the ingredients, those need to be calculated by hand – my system will not update them automatically, unfortunately.
Suzanna says
I’m Canadian too, and haven’t found us to be strictly metric. Yes, we’re charged by the kg for food, but butter is sold by the pound and I’ve never seen a dry measuring cup that uses metric. Wet cups have both metric and imperial.
I can’t wait to taste this challah. The dough is rising right now!
Dee says
I made this recipe last year and was pleasantly surprised. I usually make my challah recipe in my bread maker, then take it out to braid and bake. I followed this recipe exactly as printed and it came out beautifully! Thank you for your great directions, photos and recipe. Will be making this again this year!!!
Shannen says
Thank you Tori! As many of us are right now, I am spending much of the my “extra” time in the kitchen to keep my anxiety down. I’ve had a bowl of apples staring me down and in need of inspiration. I came across a pic of this challah on Reddit and quickly looked up a recipe. I’m so happy I found yours! I’ve made challah for years but never stuffed. Your directions couldn’t be more precise. Thank you!
Jeanette says
I want desperately to make this bread but your website won’t change the ingredients to metric. When I press the METRIC button it jumps to the top of the page. The PRINT button doesn’t work for me either.. can you help?
Thanks
Jeanette in AL
Tori Avey says
I’m sorry it appears there is a glitch in the recipe software, unfortunately due to the holidays I can’t get it fixed right now – but you can easily plug the recipe into a metric conversion calculator, just search “metric recipe conversion” and you should get several results.
Lois says
Thank you for this wonderful recipe. When I read through the recipe, I did not realize it made 2 loaves. I baked both of them and froze one. A week later the frozen loaf was thawed and it was as perfect as the first one. Everyone loved it. I found dicing the apple tedious, but I followed the recipe exactly, and it was perfect. The bread makes delicious toast.
Elaine says
My first challah came out very dark and I realised the recipe oven temp was not for a fan oven, perhaps this could be added?
Also, I had to look up what some of the ingredients were known as in the U.K. perhaps in brackets besides the American names i.e. flour (plain flour) and Turbinado sugar (raw sugar).
But thank you for a great recipe.
Tori Avey says
You’re welcome Elaine! Re: fan oven, do you mean convection? I think convection might be called fan in the U.K. None of the recipes on my site use a convection setting unless it’s specifically noted, so best to assume that all recipes need to be converted for a convection.
Natalie says
This challah came out perfect. Everyone complimented it. My kids also had a lot of fun helping make it. It’s seems like a lot of steps, but it’s really simple and easy to follow. We added a little more cinnamon than the recommended amount, and used maybe 75% of the recommended honey because we ran out. Smelled great baking, sweet but not too sweet. I’ll definitely make this again.
Tanya says
Great recipe, thank you! Everyone loved it at the Holidays table. We finished the last piece yesterday and it was still very soft and fresh – 3 days after it was baked! Great recipe – it was my first yeast challah ( I usually make sourdough), it it turned out perfect!
Sara says
Love this recipe! I made this to take to friends for Rosh Hashana lunch and it was a huge hit! Your clear instructions made it so simple to put together and the finished challahs looked and tasted spectacular! Thank you! ….. I was speaking to my cousin and boasting about my challah and your fabulous recipes and she said her daughter bought a challah from a NY bakery that was stuffed with a whole apple encased in marzipan – now that would be a challenge! Have you a recipe for that? Maybe for next year’s Rosh Hashana meals? For now, I look forward to trying your pumpkin challah next! Thank you and Shana Tova!
Katy says
This was a huge hit at our Rosh Hashanah dinner! I am now the designated challah maker thanks to this recipe. The round challah was also quite significant for this occasion, representing the circular nature of our year and seasons. 🙂
L’shanah tovah!
Robin says
I love your cinnamon and sugar one too. I get request for that all the time. Any other challah recipes I would love.
Robin Gotlib says
Fantastic recipe. Great altitude challah. People love it.
Nikki says
I’ve made this recipe a few times. It’s so yummy and fun to make!!
Is there a way to store the second challah to bake the next day?
Isidore says
This was my first time making challah and this was a super easy-to-follow recipe! It’s finishing out its last leg of the bake in the oven now and I can already smell it. Making challah felt like a good way to connect with a side of my family and heritage that I’ve rarely been able to connect with, so I want to sincerely thank you for giving me a delicious way to do it. My mom knew exactly what I was making once she saw the honey and apples. 🙂
Emma says
First time making challah. Time consuming but doable. I think I may have killed some of the yeast by putting to pot of water directly underneath the bread during proofing because it didn’t rise well. I’d put it in the back of the oven next time. A little dense in the end. Still tasted good though!
Tori Avey says
Sometimes the rise takes longer… next time if you have this problem give it an hour or even 2 hours longer. Patience is the name of the game with challah. Glad you enjoyed it!