Easy Water Challah

Challah, or egg bread, is often enriched with eggs, which add softness, richness and a tempting golden colour and sometimes it’s sweetened with honey. However, you can absolutely make delicious challah without eggs and honey, a traditional version known as "water challah". It calls for just a few simple pantry ingredients with water, oil, flour, sugar, and yeast. This method produces a lighter, less dense, and typically less sweet loaf with a soft interior and crispy crust. It's easy to whip up anytime, but also special enough for holidays.


230 ml Lukewarm water 40 g Maple syrup or sugar 7 g Actice dried yeast 500 g Plain flour ¾ tsp Sea salt 50 g Mild olive oil

In a measuring cup or bowl, add lukewarm water and 1 tablespoon of maple syrup or sugar. Sprinkle the yeast over and allow it to proof for 10 minutes until foamy.
Meanwhile combine flour and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer. Mix briefly to combine.
Pour the yeast mixture into the dry ingredients, along with the olive oil and the remaining maple syrup. Attach the stand mixer with the dough hook attachment and mix on slow speed until the ingredients come together into a rough dough. Increase the speed and knead the dough for about 6-8 minutes until smooth and elastic.
Lift the dough out of the mixing bowl and shape it into a ball. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil in the bowl, then return the dough to the bowl and turn it over to coat it with the oil.
Cover the bowl with a plastic film. Allow to rise in a warm place until roughly doubled in volumn, 1-2 hours.
Divide the dough into 6 even portions, roll each portion of dough to 50cm long strand, tapering the ends. Braid each two strands together, then braid 3 two strands from right to left, tucking the ends underneath the loaf. Avoid using too much flour on your work surface when rolling out the strands. If the consistency of dough right, you don’t even need extra flour to roll the dough.
Place the braided dough on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and allow to rise until almost doubled in size, about 1-2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Brush the loaf with water and bake for 30-35 minutes. Warm up 1-2 tablespoon of maple syrup if desired, and brush it with the loaf while still warm.

4 comments:

Brian's Home Blog 27/5/26 00:22: That bread sure looks wonderful!
DeniseinVA 27/5/26 00:38: I love challah bread, it looks incredibly yummy on its own but I bet it's scrumptious with the jam and cream cheese(?), and berries.
Tom 27/5/26 01:05: ...beautifully braided!
Linda's Relaxing Lair 27/5/26 01:09: It looks delicious.