One of the most frequent questions I receive is about freezing challah dough.
Can I freeze challah dough?
How do I freeze challah dough?
People all over the world freeze their challah dough.
However, I have found that the dough does not bake the same way once it has been frozen as dough, so I prefer not to freeze unbaked challahs.
Here is what I do instead.
1 I bake the whole batch.
2 Then freeze them baked.
Fresh challah, no mess
If my challahs are all baked and lined up in the freezer already, all I have to do on a week when I don’t have time to bake, is to remove the challahs from the freezer a few hours before Shabbos and poof – fresh challah, no mess.
Warming up the (formerly) frozen challah
If you want the defrosted challahs to be warm:
1 Wrap them in foil.
2 Warm up your oven shortly before Shabbos
3 Turn off the oven and then place the wrapped challahs in your warmed up oven shortly before Shabbos begins.
4 Remove them before Kiddush and place them on the table.
If you really want to freeze the unbaked dough
I know lots and lots of my readers enjoy having the smell of the freshly baked loaf in their homes and for this reason they do want to freeze unbaked challahs. And sometimes people only own small freezers and therefore do not have room to store risen and larger challahs – the frozen ones are smaller in size…
SO
If you do choose to freeze the unbaked challahs here’s what I’d do:
1 Make the dough
2 Do the hafrasha
3 Let the dough rise the first time for about an hour or so
4 Punch down and then shape.
Note: No need to let the shaped challahs rise if you are about to freeze them.
Freezing unbaked challahs
1 Line the baking tray with baking paper and place the shaped challahs upon them.
2 Freeze them uncovered.
3 When they are frozen solid, place them in good quality freezer bags and leave them in the freezer.
Prepping frozen dough for baking
The day you want to bake the frozen, shaped challah dough:
1 Take the frozen challah dough out of the bags.
2 Place them on the tray or in the pan you want to bake them in.
3 Let them sit there to defrost and then (hopefully) to rise.
4 When risen, brush with beaten eggs and bake as usual.
