The Best Gluten Free Challah Bread Recipe

4.94 from 177 votes

Prep Time : 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time : 45 minutes minutes

This gluten free challah bread recipe is also dairy free, so it's perfect for any holiday table. It also makes amazing gf French toast, sandwiches, or bread pudding.

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Learn how to make delicious gluten free challah bread that everyone will love. Serve this delicious enriched, braided bread at the holiday table, or any day!

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What makes this gluten free challah recipe special?

This recipe is unlike many other gluten free challah bread recipes you'll find. It can hold its shape as a true, braided bread without being stiff and dry. It has the most beautiful, moist, and tender open crumb.

Most gluten free challah recipes you'll find are made in a molded loaf pan that mimics the shape of braided bread. If you search the web for “gluten free challah bread,” you'll often find recipes that ask you to expect that your bread will be “heavier” or more “dense.”

The texture, flavor, aroma, and crumb of your gluten free bread should be no different from whatever conventional bread you've come to expect. And this gluten fee bread hits all the right notes, so keep those expectations high, where they should be!

What is the taste and texture of good challah?

Challah bread is a highly enriched bread, made with plenty of oil, egg yolks, and some sugar, too. That's how you get that thin, tender, dark brown crust and the rich aroma of deeply browned bread.

Challah is not a high-rising, fluffy bread. Instead, it's meant to hold its shape after being braided, and to have a more closed, chewy crumb. It tastes slightly, but not overly, sweet and tastes pleasantly eggy, like a cross between Hawaiian rolls and brioche.

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Handling the dough without too much flour

Challah dough must be handled quite a lot, since it's separated into 3 parts, each part is rolled into a long strand, and then all 3 strands are braided together. This isn't a very wet dough, since wet batter-style gluten free bread dough can't be shaped, so it's very important not to add much more of any type of flour when you shape the dough.

The dough is prepared properly by being chilled well in a tightly sealed container, and then dusted very very lightly with tapioca starch. Both of these steps are designed to make the dough easier to handle without kneading in more flour.

When you're preparing bread dough and you add more flour, the more you add, the lower the hydration ratio of the bread is. If the bread dough is not properly hydrated, it won't rise well.

If this dough were too wet, you couldn't possibly handle it enough to braid it. Plus, the dough would never hold its shape during rising and baking. We need to find that sweet spot, where you can handle and shape the bread with a light touch aided only by a little bit of extra starch.

If the dough seems too hard to handle and you're tempted to add even more starch, place it back in the container and let it chill in the refrigerator for at least another hour. The dough will absorb more of the moisture, but it will still be locked inside. Plus, cold dough is less sticky by nature.

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Braiding gluten free challah bread strands into a loaf

You can braid gluten free challah bread in a 3-strand, 4-strand, or even a 6-strand loaf. The braiding technique begins the same way as any braided bread recipe—but the handling of the dough requires some special care.

I've used a 3-strand braid here because it's the simplest (if you can braid a ponytail, you can braid a 3-strand challah!). If the three strands side by side (by side) are in places 1, 2, and 3, the braiding process is:

1 over 2, and return old 2 to 1 spot;
3 over 2, and return old 2 to 3 spot;
Repeat until you reach the end of the braid.

Do not ever pull on the strands, though. They must not fray. Place them where you want them, overlapping them carefully and with intention.

Of course, if you'd prefer, you can use a challah mold pan and place the unshaped dough into the pan to rise and then bake.

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Tips for making the best gluten free challah

Start with room-temperature ingredients

Unlike many gluten free yeast bread recipes that call for warm ingredients to activate the yeast quickly, this recipe calls for ingredients at room temperature. We then let the bread rest in the refrigerator so that the liquids are absorbed into the flour.

Use the right amount of sugar

Sugar in baking isn't just for sweetness. In fact, it's most valuable here in this recipe, and in many others, for tenderizing the bread, and keeping it fresh for longer.

The sugar here feeds the yeast so that it can grow. It also helps aid the browning and results in that deep brown challah crust.

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Refrigerate your gf challah bread dough for easier handling

Refrigerating the raw dough in a tightly sealed container makes handling the dough easier.

First, it allows the flours time to absorb the liquid. You don't sacrifice any liquid, which the bread needs for rising and for texture, but the dough is less sticky. Second, refrigerating the dough makes it colder, making it easier to handle.

If you don't have time to refrigerate the dough, you can still work with it. It will just be a bit harder to handle and more fragile.

Give your gluten free challah bread dough time to rise

Yeast bread dough rises faster in warm (not hot) temperatures closer to 80°F that aren't drafty. It rises more slowly in colder temperatures.

It also must be covered properly as it rises, so the moisture in the dough doesn't evaporate. If the moisture evaporates, the dough will be too stiff and the yeast will not grow properly.

Add an egg wash before baking

An egg wash is just a beaten egg with either water or milk. Here, we're using water to keep it dairy-free easily.

After the braided raw dough has risen, we brush the egg wash on top of the braids and all along the perimeter. The egg wash helps the braids brown beautifully and keeps the dough from breaking through the surface during its oven rise.

Avoid letting the egg wash pool in the space between the braids. We want that portion to rise freely.

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How to serve this challah bread substitute

This challah bread is amazing in the center of your Jewish holiday meal. But you don't have to celebrate Jewish holidays to enjoy this gluten free challah!

Sliced thickly, this challah makes rich, eggy, lightly sweet gluten free French toast. You'll find yourself snatching some slices from the loaf to ensure there are leftovers for gluten free bread pudding, too.

Try toasting a generous slice and topping it with light and fluffy scrambled eggs. Or just a big schmear of cream cheese and a light sprinkling of chives.

How to store and freeze your gluten free braided bread

If you're not planning to serve your bread right away, you can keep it fresh for about 8 hours at room temperature. Just wrap it tightly in plastic and eliminate as much air as possible.

For any leftover bread, be sure to slice it how you'd like to serve it, wrap it tightly in the same manner, and freeze it. Defrost it one slice at a time in the microwave or at room temperature, and refresh it in the toaster oven.

I don't recommend freezing raw yeast bread, only baked yeast bread. If the temperature drops too low, you may kill the yeast and waste all that hard work and delicious bread!

Gluten free challah bread ingredient substitution suggestions

This challah is already dairy-free. Let's talk about suggestions for making other substitutions.

Can you make this gluten free challah bread without eggs?

It isn't as easy to replace egg yolks as it is to replace whole eggs. You can try using three tablespoons of vegan butter in place of the three egg yolks to replace the fat of the yolks.

Can you make vegan gluten free challah?

If you replace the egg yolks with vegan butter successfully, you'll need to replace the honey to have a recipe for gluten free vegan challah bread. In place of honey, try using light corn syrup.

Does it matter which gluten free flour blend you use in this gf challah recipe?

Yes! It matters a lot which gf flour blend you use. And it matters that you add the additional 75 grams of tapioca starch/flour.

I highly recommend using Better Batter (or our DIY mock Better Batter style blend) as the all purpose gluten free flour blend. It took me years to develop a reliable gluten free challah bread recipe without using our gluten free bread flour to make it easy and dairy free.

Don't use Cup4Cup gluten free flour here, even though it is one of my favorite blends. It's simply too high in starch to produce proper bread that holds its shape as intended (it would make a paler, fluffier, and more out-of-shape loaf)—and browns properly here.

FAQs for this challah recipe

Is challah bread gluten free?

No. Traditionally, challah bread is made with wheat flour, along with lots of dairy-free enrichments like egg yolks, oil, and honey or other sugars.
This bread is what you might think of as a challah bread substitute, since it's made wheat-free. But it's a substitute that tastes just as it should—and no one will know that it's made with an all purpose gluten free flour blend.

Is challah the same as brioche?

No. Both brioche and challah are enriched breads, but they're not at all the same.
Brioche is a richer, heartier bread than challah, and challah is best made without butter, so it's pareve (neither milk nor meat, which can't be mixed in kosher meal) and can be served with any holiday meal.

How do I handle dough that is too wet to shape?

Resist the urge to add much more flour or starch! Try returning the dough to its sealed container and placing it in the refrigerator to chill for at least another hour.

Why won't my bread rise?

There are many reasons that you might have trouble getting a yeast bread to rise. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
Did you use one of my recommended flour blends, measured by weight?
Did you add more than a light dusting of extra flour on your dough during shaping?
Is your yeast fresh?
Did you wait long enough? Overproofing is not a matter of too long a rise, but too much of a rise. Sometimes a rise takes much longer than anticipated depending on the temperature and humidity in your kitchen.

Is this gluten free challah bread dairy-free?

Yes, this gluten free challah bread is already dairy-free. It's made with olive oil instead of butter, and water instead of milk. If you want to replace the olive oil, I recommend using vegan butter. Do not use a flavorless oil like canola or vegetable oil, or the flavor will suffer.

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This gluten free challah bread recipe is also dairy free, so it's perfect for any holiday table. It also makes amazing gf French toast, sandwiches, or bread pudding.

Course: Bread

Cuisine: Jewish

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes minutes

Resting and rising times: 2 hours hours

Total Time: 3 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Yield: 8 slices

Author: Nicole Hunn

Equipment

Stand mixer with paddle attachment (See Recipe Notes)

Ingredients

1 ¾ cups (245 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend (I used Better Batter and recommend it highly here; please click thru for appropriate blends you must choose carefully for results!)
¾ teaspoon xanthan gum omit if your blend already contains it
⅝ cup (75 g) tapioca starch/flour plus more for sprinkling
1 ⅔ teaspoons (5 g) instant yeast (See Recipe Notes)
¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons (6 g) kosher salt
¾ cup (6 fluid ounces) lukewarm water plus a teaspoon or so more if necessary
4 tablespoons (56 g) extra virgin olive oil
3 (75 g) egg yolks at room temperature
2 tablespoons (42 g) honey
Egg wash 1 large egg, at room temperature, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Poppyseeds or sesame seeds for sprinkling (optional)

Instructions

Make the challah bread dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, place the flour blend, xanthan gum, tapioca starch/flour, instant yeast, and granulated sugar. Whisk to combine well.
Add the salt, and whisk again to combine.
Add a bit more than 1/2 cup of the water, olive oil, egg yolks, and honey. Using the paddle attachment, beat vigorously.
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With the mixer running, add as much of the remaining water as necessary for the dough to smooth out. In a warm, humid environment, it may take a bit less than the full 3/4 cup of water. In a dry, cold environment, it may take less. Watch the texture very carefully.
The dough mixture will come together in a clump and then smooth out and stick to the sides of the bowl. Keep beating until it begins to look whipped, and the color lightens a bit (about 6 minutes total).
Transfer the mixture to a lightly oiled bucket or bowl with a very tight-fitting lid. Place the container in the refrigerator, tightly sealed, for at least an hour and up to 2 days.

Shape the braided gf challah

When you’re ready to bake, turn out the chilled dough onto a surface very very lightly dusted with tapioca starch/flour.
Sprinkle the top very very lightly with more starch, and divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Do not add much starch, or your bread will not rise properly.
If the dough seems too hard to handle and you're tempted to add even more starch, place it back in the container and let it chill in the refrigerator for at least another hour.
Working with one piece at a time, knead the dough in your clean, dry hands, without adding any additional flour of any kind, pinching any seams that separate.
Begin working the dough into a cylindrical shape, pinching any gaps together, fanning your hands out toward the edges to lengthen the strand.
Rolling back and forth, create strands about 15 inches long from end to end that taper slowly from the center to each end, with very tapered ends. Sprinkle each strand lightly with more tapioca flour on the outside of the cylinder to smooth the surface, then set it aside.
Place the 3 strands on a lightly floured surface parallel to one another and about 5 inches apart from one another. Gather the tapered ends on one side together, pinch them securely and tuck the very end under the knot.
Plait the 3 strands as you would any 3-strand braid. Do not pull the strands, as they’ll fray. Just place them on top of one another as you work toward from one end to the other.
Beginning as close as possible to the bound end, place one outside strand across the center strand, exchanging the center for the outside strand you just moved to the center.
Repeat with the other outside strand and center strand. Repeat the process, alternating one side and then the other until you reach the end. Tuck the end under as you did the other side.
Placing your hands carefully under each side of the braided loaf, carefully lift the braid onto a lined baking sheet. Press the finished braid gently on each ends toward center to shorten the length a bit.
Sprinkle the top of the braid lightly with more tapioca starch and brush off excess from the valleys between braids.

Let the bread rise.

Cover the braid securely with plastic wrap, and place the loaf in a warm, draft-free location. Allow the loaf to rise until it’s at least 150% its original size (anywhere from 45 minutes to hours).
If any of the tops of the strands begin to separate from one another as the dough rises, try to smooth and pinch them closed. When the dough is nearing the end of its rise, preheat your oven to 350°F.

Bake the bread.

Uncover the risen bread and brush the tops and sides of the braids very generously with the egg wash. Avoid letting the egg wash pool in between the braids. Sprinkle the top evenly with the optional seeds.
Place the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven. Bake for 30 minutes, rotate the baking sheet 180° and reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.
Continue to bake for about 15 minutes, or until the bread bounces back when pressed on a center braid and the internal temperature is at least 190°F on an instant read thermometer.
Remove the bread from the oven and allow it to cool on the baking sheet for at least 20 minutes before transferring to a wire rack too cool completely. Slice and serve.

Notes

For the instant yeast.

If you’d like use active dry yeast in place of instant yeast, you’ll need to hydrate the yeast first in some water in the recipe. You’ll also need 25% more active dry yeast, which is slightly over 6 grams, to replace 5 grams of instant yeast.

For the stand mixer.

If you don’t have a stand mixer, I recommend making the dough in a food processor fitted with the steel blade, but it's not ideal and may easily lead to overprocessing the dough. I don’t recommend a hand mixer, or trying to mix by hand. Only a stand mixer will yield predictable results.

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