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This Apple Challah is perfect for Rosh Hashanah. The apples are partially roasted in honey before meeting the challah dough, actually making this an apple stuffed challah. This recipe intentionally does not include any cinnamon, allowing the apples and honey to shine through.
How to Make Apple Challah
The challah dough recipe is simply my traditional, eggy, sweet Challah recipe. For ease of reference, I am including the full recipe here. For more detailed tips, check out my post How To Make Challah.
Make the challah dough
Be sure to knead the dough until it passes the windowpane test. Doing so ensures that the gluten is fully developed, which is very important for the structure of the challah, especially when adding in the apples.
Roast the apples
Roasting the apples in honey adds a depth of flavor to the apples to complement the honey in the challah dough, making the best apple honey challah.
While the dough is rising, slice up the apples, coat in the cornstarch, honey and vanilla bean paste, and roast for about 25 minutes. Roasting and tossing the apples in cornstarch helps dehydrate them a bit so you are not adding much moisture to your challah dough. Vanilla bean paste (or vanilla, if you do not have the paste on hand) helps brighten up the apple flavor. Do not overcook the apples. They are done when a fork inserted in them passes through rather easily.
As for what types of apples, use baking apples that tend to keep their shape when cooked/baked. For the batch in these photos, I used two Granny Smith (which are on the tarter side) and almost 2 Honeycrisp (which are on the sweeter side).
Stuff the strands
Now this is where the fun happens. I love making a four strand round challah. Create your strands as usual, then roll each strand out to flatten it into a rectangle. Make sure the length of the strand is however long you ultimately want the strand to be, as it will be difficult to make it longer once the apples are in it. Now, this is the tricky part: spread the apples in the center of the rectangle lengthwise. You want to avoid letting the apples touch the edges of the strand, as it will become difficult to close the strand. If you have the apples in the center all along the strand, you can then fold up the edges to press them into each other and gently roll the strand out. Repeat with the other strands, then shape.
To shape a 4 strand round challah, check out my post, 4 Strand Round Challah. The video on this post also shows you how to braid a 4 strand round challah.
It can be a bit of work to load up each strand with the apples. You can also roll out the dough into a rectangle, spread the apples in the center, and pull the edges together to form one large strand. Roll the dough up into a turban, and you have a traditional turban style challah that most bakeries sell.
Bake the challah
Bake the challah in the center of the oven. How long it takes depends on how high you shape your challah. The best way to know when your challah is baked is to take its temperature. Once it reaches 190° F in the center (or thickest, highest part), it should be done. This can take anywhere from 30-60 minutes. I highly recommend using a Thermapen One.
Apple Challah
Ingredients
Challah Dough
- 235 grams warm water (1 cup)
- 7 grams instant yeast (2¼ teaspoons or 1 envelope; see Note below if using active dry yeast)
- 50 grams sugar (¼ cup)
- 660 grams bread flour (5½ cups, see note below)
- 5 large egg yolks (room temperature)
- 72 grams oil (vegetable or any seed oil) (⅓ cup)
- 113 grams honey (⅓ cup)
- 12 grams salt (1½ teaspoons)
Apple Filling
- 500-530 grams apples (approximately 4 medium sized apples, weighed after peeled and cored)
- 1½ teaspoons cornstarch
- 63 grams honey (3 Tablespoons)
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
Egg Wash
- 1 large egg (for a slightly darker look, skip the water; for an even darker look, use just the yolk)
- 1 Tablespoon honey
Instructions
Challah Dough:
- Combine all the dough ingredients except for the salt and knead for 3-5 minutes, until the dough is cohesive and somewhat smooth. (See Note if using active dry yeast.)
- Add the salt and continue kneading the mixture for about 2-3 minutes, until the salt is fully absorbed and the dough passes the windowpane test.
- Place dough in ungreased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in warm area for 3 hours.
Apple Filling:
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Peel, core and cut the apples to ¼-inch pieces. Toss with the cornstarch, honey and vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract). Spread the apples on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 25-30 minutes, just until a fork inserted into the apple pieces comes out easily. Allow to cool completely. If there is any excess liquid, discard it, as you want to avoid adding excess liquid to the challah dough.
Shape Apple Challah:
- Gently deflate the dough by pulling a piece from the bottom and folding it over itself, turning the bowl so you can do four similar folds.
- Weigh the dough and divide into two equal portions, for two challahs. Divide each of the two portions into smaller portions, depending on the number of strands you intend to braid.
- Shape each portion into a ball, covering with plastic wrap as you continue to shape the portions of dough.
- Press down each ball into an oval. Fold the top third of the oval over itself towards you. Fold the top part again over the rest of the dough. Using the palms of both hands, roll the dough against the countertop to create your strands. If the dough starts pulling back, cover it with plastic wrap and allow it to rest for 10 minutes. Roll out each strand into a rectangle. Spread the prepared apples in the center of each strand, being careful not to let the apples touch the edges. Fold up the edges and pinch them together, pushing out any excess air. Repeat with remaining strands. Braid as desired.
- Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise 1 to 1½ hours.
Bake:
- Towards the end of the rising time, preheat oven to 350° F.
- Beat egg with the honey. Apply egg wash all over outside of challahs. Bake 30-60 minutes until golden brown on top and sides. The internal temperature in the thickest part of the challah should be over 190℉. Cool completely on wire rack before slicing.
Notes
- You can substitute active dry yeast for instant yeast. Use the same amount and mix it with the warm water and one teaspoon of the total sugar. Allow to sit 5-10 minutes, until frothy. Add to the rest of the dough ingredients (except the salt) and knead as instructed in step 1.
- Either take your eggs out of the refrigerator an hour before you plan to make the dough or place them in a bowl of warm water for approximately ten minutes. Once you crack and separate the eggs, store the whites in an airproof container in the refrigerator. They will be good for up to one week to use in recipes that call for egg whites or for an egg white omelet.
- Alternatively, because it can be easier to separate eggs while they are cold, you can do so, but cover the bowl of the yolks with plastic wrap while they sit on the counter to get to room temperature.
- A note about flour. The amount of flour necessary for any bread recipe can vary depending on the weather. On humid days, I use the full 660 grams of flour. On drier days, I decrease it to 630 grams (1/4 cup less).
- If the dough is too sticky after kneading in the mixer for more than 5 minutes, add 1 Tablespoon of flour. After fully kneading, the dough should be slightly sticky and clean the bowl as it is being kneaded.
- Do not grease the bowl you place the dough into for the 3 hour bulk rise. Non-stick spray or oil will make it more difficult to work with the dough. In the unlikely event that the dough sticks to your bowl when you go to remove it at the end of the 3 hours, use a bowl scraper, which is basically a plastic bench scraper that can bend easily as you scrape the side of your bowl. It’s a brilliant tool! I use these bowl scrapers.
- I strongly advise weighing ingredients rather than measuring them. For more information, see my post Weighing vs. Measuring.
- You can make the dough a day ahead. Allow it to rise at room temperature for an hour to an hour and a half. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, remove the challah from the refrigerator and shape dough as desired. Allow to rise until doubled in size, which will take at least one and a half hours.
- Once you shape the dough, you can refrigerate it (covered with plastic wrap) overnight. Allow to come to room temperature at least one hour before baking the next morning.
