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by Between Carpools | November 09, 2022 | 7 comment(s)

A Guide to Frozen Challah Dough

Fridays are getting shorter and you might move your challah-making to a different day–but you still want to bake fresh challos.

A while back, we shared some hacks on how to make store-bought challahs look like your own. Some supermarkets sell pre-braided frozen raw challahs in pans on Thursdays and Fridays and they’re a great go-to when you’re in a pinch. Back in that post, we shared a little bit of info on defrosting frozen dough, but it’s time for a little more detail.

Bottomline: If the grocery can sell frozen braided challah dough with great results, then why can’t you braid and freeze your own dough? You absolutely can.

Here are some important pointers:

  1. Let your dough go through the first rise, then braid. Place in a challah pan (for easier, longer term storage) and plastic bag and freeze immediately. You’ll let it rise again after you thaw the challah. 
  2. Keep in mind that dough takes awhile to thaw, so remember to take out those frozen challahs in the morning! In a warm kitchen, your challah dough will go from rock solid to thawed in about three hours, but then it still needs a couple of hours to warm up and rise (calculate at least five hours, more in a cold kitchen). Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet and let rise until the dough has doubled in size. If you bake a thawed dough prematurely, the inside will still be raw and doughy. 
  3. Note: If you’re buying frozen dough from the grocery, it has already been sitting out and thawing, so it needs less time to thaw and rise than when you take a fully frozen challah from the freezer.

When you bake frozen raw challahs, your challahs will smell and taste fresh as made-on-Friday challahs!

Important! Halachic baking requirement when you’re freezing dough:

When you’re doing hafrashas challah, the amount you must bake right away is the same as the minimum amount of dough you must make to be able to separate with a bracha. 

For example, if you only make a bracha when baking with 5 lbs of flour, then if you make 10 lbs, you can make a bracha and bake half and freeze half. If you only make 5 lbs, you can’t freeze them raw. If you make a bracha on 3 lbs of flour (i.e. 60% of the batch), then you can bake four and freeze two.

Bottomline: Whenever you’re freezing challah for later baking, you must still bake a minimum amount. Ask your LOR for exact amounts. 

Do you want to do hafrashas challah on Friday, but want to be able to make the dough ahead? See this post on making challah dough in advance and refrigerating.

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Related Posts

Decorate Your Challah with Flowers for Shavuos
Vanilla-Cinnamon Babka Made with Challah Dough
Rochie’s Cinnamon Snail Rolls

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks Tagged With: challah

Between Carpools

Between Carpools is a collaboration between five talented friends who like to get a lot of stuff done “between carpools.” Since 2016, we’ve been sharing home and organizing tips, parenting insights, activities, how-to’s and DIYs, and of course, entertaining ideas, recipes, and inspiring reads both on the site and app.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Chani says

    November 9, 2022 at 9:58 pm

    I’ve done this method, but I found that the crust has a funny texture to it, and often has bubbles on it. This is with egging the challah. Any advice on how to avoid this?

    Reply
    • Sara says

      November 14, 2022 at 11:22 pm

      That’s so funny. I find this as well. Thought it was just me!

      Reply
      • Shira says

        February 3, 2023 at 7:46 am

        Hi! I started freezing braided raw challah to bake on Fridays. But some batches of challah just won’t rise (left out for a good 7hrs). What am I doing wrong?

        Reply
    • betweencarpools says

      November 17, 2022 at 3:43 pm

      This happens from over rising. Keep us posted!

      Reply
      • Chani says

        November 21, 2022 at 10:44 am

        Over rising in the first rise before freezing or the second rise after defrosting?

        Reply
  2. Miriam says

    November 10, 2022 at 11:50 pm

    Hi, is there a way to freeze raw sourdough?

    Reply
  3. S says

    November 21, 2022 at 7:04 am

    Hi what is the source for the halachic baking requirement for freezing/baking the challah dough? thanks!

    Reply

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