A bakery round challah formula starts from the same baker's percentages as a braided loaf: flour 100 percent, water 40, whole egg 20, oil 8, honey 8, salt 2 and instant yeast 1.5 to 2. What changes for the round loaf is the flour strength, the shaping and the bake. A coiled spiral is thicker at the center than a braid, so it wants a flour with enough gluten to hold its height, a slightly cooler oven and a few extra minutes to finish. Below is the working formula in grams for one 1 kg batch and for a 10 kg bakery mix, with notes on the ingredients that decide the crumb.
Every ingredient named here is in our Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Prep collection, stocked in Brockton and shipping in one to two business days.
The round challah served on Rosh Hashanah is usually a single long rope coiled into a spiral, sometimes with raisins worked into the dough. Two things follow from that shape. First, the center of the coil is the last part to bake, so most bakers drop the oven about 10 degrees from their braided-loaf setting or tent the loaf with foil for the final third of the bake. Second, a spiral has no braid strands to give it structure; the dough itself has to hold the dome. That is why a higher-protein flour earns its place here even if you use a standard bread flour for everyday braids.
| Ingredient | Baker's % | 1 kg flour batch (3 loaves) | 10 kg bakery mix (30 loaves) |
|---|---|---|---|
| High-gluten or bread flour blend | 100 | 1,000 g | 10 kg |
| Water, cool | 40 | 400 g | 4 kg |
| Whole egg | 20 | 200 g (about 4 large) | 2 kg |
| Neutral oil | 8 | 80 g | 800 g |
| Honey | 8 | 80 g | 800 g |
| Salt | 2 | 20 g | 200 g |
| Instant yeast | 1.5 | 15 g | 150 g |
| Golden raisins (optional) | 15 | 150 g | 1.5 kg |
| Total dough | 179.5 | 1,795 g | 17.95 kg |
Counting the water in the eggs and honey, this lands near 68 percent effective hydration, which is firm enough to rope and coil on a bench without flouring heavily. Scale a loaf at 580 to 600 g for a standard round; a 1 kg flour batch gives three of them.
King Arthur Sir Lancelot is a 14.2 percent protein high-gluten flour, the same one bagel and bialy shops use for chew. On its own it makes a tall, tight, distinctly chewy round challah that slices cleanly and holds up to being torn at the table. If your customers expect a softer, more pull-apart crumb, blend it half and half with a standard bread flour such as King Arthur Special, which gives you the structure for the coil without the bagel-like bite. All Trumps is the other high-gluten option on the shelf and behaves similarly to Sir Lancelot in this formula. For a whole-grain version, swap up to 25 percent of the flour for white whole wheat and add 2 percent more water.
At 8 percent honey, SAF Red instant yeast ferments this dough comfortably. Push the sweetness higher, toward 12 percent honey or sugar for a dessert-style loaf, and SAF Gold is the better choice; it is the osmotolerant strain formulated for sweet doughs where sugar competes with the yeast for water. Use 1.5 percent instant yeast for a 75 to 78°F bakery and 2 percent if your shop runs cooler or you want a faster turn. Fresh yeast substitutes at roughly three times the weight of instant.
Honey does three jobs in the dough: it sweetens, it keeps the crumb moist for a second day, and it deepens the crust color. A wildflower honey such as Suzanne's pure wildflower gives a rounder flavor than clover without dominating the loaf; the same case serves the apples-and-honey plate. Oil rather than butter keeps the loaf pareve so it can be served with a meat meal, and it also keeps the crumb tender longer; canola is the neutral default. Eggs at 20 percent are what make challah challah: reduce them and you are baking a sweet white bread.
Mix flour, yeast and salt, then add water, eggs, oil and honey and mix on low until the dough comes together, about 3 minutes. Mix on second speed 6 to 8 minutes until the dough is smooth and passes a windowpane test; high-gluten flour needs the full development or the coil will tear. Add raisins in the last minute if using. Bulk ferment 1 to 1.5 hours at 75 to 78°F until doubled.
Divide at 580 to 600 g. Roll each piece into a rope about 24 inches long, tapering one end, and coil it into a tight spiral on a parchment-lined sheet, tucking the tail underneath. Egg wash (one egg beaten with a tablespoon of water), proof 45 to 60 minutes, then egg wash again and top with white sesame or poppy seed. Bake at 365 to 370°F for 32 to 38 minutes, tenting with foil once the crust is deep gold, until the center reads 185 to 190°F. Cool fully before bagging; a warm round steams itself soft.
A high-gluten flour around 14 percent protein, such as King Arthur Sir Lancelot, holds the dome of a coiled loaf best. Blend it with a standard bread flour if you want a softer crumb.
The spiral is thicker at the center than a braid, so heat takes longer to reach the middle. Drop the oven about 10 degrees or tent with foil, and bake to an internal temperature of 185 to 190°F rather than by color alone.
SAF Red handles doughs up to about 10 percent sugar, which covers a standard 8 percent honey challah. Use SAF Gold when the sweetener rises above that, since it is formulated for high-sugar doughs.
Scale at 580 to 600 g of dough for a standard round challah, which bakes out to roughly 500 g. A 1 kg flour batch yields three loaves; a 10 kg mix yields thirty.
Yes. After bulk fermentation, divide, shape and refrigerate the coiled loaves covered overnight, then let them stand 45 to 60 minutes at room temperature before the second egg wash and bake.
Honey is traditional for the new year, and it also holds moisture so the loaf stays soft into the second day. It browns faster than sugar, which is one more reason to tent the round loaf late in the bake.
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