This Paleo challah recipe is a variation of the original Grain-Free Challah that I wrote last year around this time. I’ve updated it to yield a regular sized loaf, and also to be dairy-free, so it is both more Paleo compliant and suitable to be eaten with meat if you’re kosher.
Paleo Challah – 2nd edition – grain-free, dairy-free
If you’re new to grain-free bread baking, welcome! It’s weird. Since I wrote this recipe, I have since figured out how to make a kneadable grain-free dough. (That one is nut-free, too, if that’s something you’re after!)
Back when this recipe came to be, I had not yet had that aha moment. But that’s not to say that this version isn’t great. It’s made more like a cake, but when it bakes, it gets bready and really quite challah-like.
It’s a lot faster to make than my most recent version too.
If you’re looking for the original challah recipe, don’t worry, it’s still here!
This recipe works great in a standard 9×5 loaf pan, but if you’d rather have the traditional braided shape, this mold works great. Or use this one for rolls.
This recipe can also be found in The New Yiddish Kitchen; gluten-free and kosher paleo recipes for the holidays and every day, which is an absolute must-have for anyone who misses Jewish comfort food.
Paleo Challah – Updated
- Prep Time: 15 minutes, plus time to rise
- Cook Time: 20-25 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes + 1 hour to rise
- Yield: 1 9×5 loaf
- Category: breads
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: jewish
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 4 eggs
- 1/3 cup palm shortening, melted (or avocado oil, or other oil)
- 75 grams (scant 3/4 cup) almond flour
- 100 grams (heaping 3/4 cup) arrowroot starch
- 100 grams (scant 3/4 cup) potato starch
- 2 tablespoons whole psyllium husk
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
In a small bowl, combine the yeast, warm water and 1 tablespoon of the honey. Stir to combine and set aside for 5 minutes.
In the bowl of your mixer, beat the eggs until they lighten in color. In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, arrowroot powder, potato starch, psyllium husk and salt. Add the flour mixture, shortening and honey to the eggs and beat until well combined.
Mix in the yeast mixture and beat until well combined, scraping down the sides a couple of times.
(The dough will not be like a traditional bread dough, it will be more like cake batter.)Cover the bowl with a clean dry towel and place in a warm, draft-free place to rise for 45 minutes. After an hour, preheat the oven to 350 and grease a 9×5” loaf pan. Give the dough a stir and pour it into the pan. Let it rise again, for 15 minutes or so, until it fills about ⅔ of the pan.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until cooked through and golden brown. Allow to cool before removing from the pan.
Keywords: challah, paleo challah, grain-free challah
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Louise G says
Hi there – I just received your email and have a question. I’m having problems with nuts and have 2 granddaughters that have serious nut allergies. Is there an alternative to Almond flour that can be used for this recipe? I know you work so very hard to get just the right ingredient mix so I’ll understand, but if there’s an alternative, I’d love to use it.
Thank you so much and I will do my best to follow your recipe for my use.
Best regards, LG
zenbellyblog says
I’m not sure without testing it, and almond flour is the main flour used, so is a tough one to swap. One thing I have done in the past is use sunflower flour (made of ground sunflower seeds) and it works pretty well as a 1:1 for almond flour, but has a different taste. It might also have a strange color when baked. I hope that helps! I’ll definitely work on a nut-free version of this when I have more time! It’s on my list 🙂
Louise G says
I actually made it with the almond flour I had in my cupboard (even though I probably shouldn’t, but will wait for any reaction!) I just love the taste and my non-paleo husband likes it too – trying hard to not eat the whole thing in one sitting!
I would definitely like to know an alternative for the almond flour, but will wait patiently for your possible update! It’s a winner, thank you Simone.
Louise G says
Hi Simone – I’m actually going to try using Tigernut flour in place of the almond flour to see how it works out. Will let you know when I do. Thank you for all you hard work.
zenbellyblog says
Thanks, Louise! Please do let me know how it turns out!
Louise G says
I did try the Tigernut flour and it worked out great – probably a bit grittier than it would be with the almond flour/meal, but the taste was great. I’ll do that again. Thank you so much for the recipe. Merry Christmas
zenbellyblog says
Awesome, thanks great to hear! Merry Christmas to you too, Louise 🙂
Aimee says
Can you sub regular ghee vs brown butter ghee?
zenbellyblog says
Are you referring to the apple cake recipe? If so, then yes, you can.
A says
Love your recipes. I have a copy of ZenBelly. Anyway, I am not a baker so excuse my ignorance. Is it possible to let the dough rise all day while I am at work or would that be too much? I would like to prep the dough in the morning and then bake when I get home from work.
zenbellyblog says
Thanks! And don’t worry, I like questions! 🙂 You can let it rise longer than an hour. I haven’t tried it with this recipe, but if you’re going to do a long rise it’s best to put it in the fridge, then let it rise in the pan at room temperature. You might need to give it more than the 15 minutes listed in the recipe, since it will be cold. But you’ll have most of the work done!
Shirley @ gfe & All Gluten-Free Desserts says
Another gorgeous challah, Simone! Going to add this one to my gluten-free challah recipe roundup right now. 🙂
Thanks!
Shirley
zenbellyblog says
Thanks, Shirley! 🙂
Lulu says
Was this baked in a special pan? Since the directions say “pour”, I’m assuming it can’t be braided.
zenbellyblog says
Yes, it was baked in the mold I have linked in the beginning of the post, before the recipe. The dough isn’t like a regular bread dough, so can’t be braided, but the molds help give it that braided shape! It works fine in a loaf pan as well.
Wendy says
As always, your recipe is perfect. This turned out the most amazing, satisfying bread. we savored it with butter and raspberry jam warm out of the oven, then as French toast, and finally as a fried egg sandwich. Thank you so much for sharing your passion, our bellies are grateful!
zenbellyblog says
I’m so glad to hear it! Thanks for the sweet note, Wendy. I love that you got so many uses out of one batch. 🙂
Cathy says
Can you sub coconut oil for the palm shortening? And if so what would the ratio be?
zenbellyblog says
You could, but I can’t give you a 100% confident answer without trying it first. My best guess is that the amount would be the same. I know it works great with butter or ghee so coconut oil should be fine too.
Anh Colton says
What can I substitute for potato starch if I don’t want to use that ingredient?
Thanks. Anh
zenbellyblog says
you could try sweet potato starch. Most starches are interchangeable, but potato is a bit different. Arrowroot or tapioca might work too, but they aren’t exactly the same so I can’t guarantee without trying it! Let me know how it turns out if you make changes to it!
Tamar says
Hi! I’m hoping to try this for Rosh Hashana, but just had a quick question about the measurements. The potato starch and the arrowroot both say 100 grams, but one is a heaping 3/4c and one is scant (which is the same instruction as the almond flour which says 75g). I just wanted to clarify the measurements before attempting to bake! Thanks so much.
zenbellyblog says
Hi Tamar! All of the flours have different weights, which is why a cup of one isn’t equal to a cup of the other in weight. (ie a cup of potato starch weighs more than a cup of arrowroot) Does that help?
Tamar says
Yes! Thank you! I assumed it was something like this but wanted to make sure before trying it out! I have all the ingredients and am going to do a trial run this morning before making the holiday challah. Soooo excited! Thanks!!
Pamela says
I was using the weight measurements for the recipe in the book but when I got to psyllium husk I couldn’t get 30g to be anywhere close to 2 tbs so I went with weight. Now looking at the online recipe I see I should have just used the 2 tbs. The bread is baking now. Hoping it is edible!
Dominique says
Two questions: I can’t tolerate potatoes or eggs. Can I substitute corn starch for the potato starch? Second, can I substitute something for the eggs too? Bananas or flax meal perhaps? Thank you!
zenbellyblog says
Corn starch or tapioca might work for the potato, but eggs are a pretty big part of this recipe. You could certainly try it with flax eggs, but I wouldn’t recommend banana unless you want banana bread.
zenbellyblog says
And I can’t promise flax eggs would work without trying it!
Dominique says
Or maybe substiute tapioca starch for the potato starch? Thanks!
Karen says
Hi I live in the UK and love the New Yiddish Kitchen – your bagels were amazing and not difficult to make! I am so happy to be able to eat a proper delicious bagel! You have changed my life!! Thank you!! I am now going to tackle the challah recipe and ordered the silicone mold from the US at great expense with the shipping but now realise I have the approx 13in x 8in mold instead of the smaller one! Can I double the recipe? I’m going to make it tomorrow morning and would really appreciate a reply ASAP. I emailed a couple of weeks ago but didn’t get a reply. L’Shanah tovah x
zenbellyblog says
Hi Karen! I’m so glad you enjoyed the bagels! I’m sorry I didn’t see your email; I’m not sure what happened there… For the mold, it looks like the one that is linked to in the recipe is indeed the larger one that is 13×8, so you should be good with the one you have. L’Shanah Tovah!
Karen says
Thanks for answering. I got the bigger pan because of the link but the recipe both on the website and in the book clearly state 9×5! I’m going to have try to double it and hope for the best. I’m guessing baking times will be different too …
zenbellyblog says
9×5 is a standard-sized loaf pan. the Mold that’s 13×8 holds roughly the same amount as that, since it’s not a rectangle- it holds the same volume as the 9×5 pan. You shouldn’t have to double it. The smaller challah mold is tiny.
Sharon says
Love your cookbooks and recipes! With the holidays around the corner, will this make a challah close to “real” challah? I’ve tried other recipes and always so dry.
zenbelly says
Thanks, Sharon! It’s made with completely different ingredient than real challah, so it’s really tough to say, but I don’t post anything on this site or in my cookbooks that I don’t consider to be excellent and a worthy sub of the original. That being said, I’m hoping to update my everything dough recipe to include a challah that can be kneaded and formed instead of poured into a mold, and if I can do that this week, I will!
Suzi says
Hi! I love your cookbooks and blog! Any chance you can share what this challah recipe would look like with Cup4Cup in place of all the different separate ingredients? (Yes, I want to be lazy…secretly.)
zenbelly says
Thanks! I have no idea without trying it, all GF flours act totally differently so you’d have to experiment. And it’s probably easier to just use two flours than to do that!
Laura Walston says
I am trying to decide between your two recipes and I like the convenient one loaf size of this one, but some of the ingredients of the other one, so I had a couple questions. Can I use Tapioca Starch in place of Arrowroot in this recipe? What is your thought on the taste of butter vs shortening? Could I use butter (or actually ghee) in this recipe? Would it still be 1/3 cup?
zenbelly says
Tapioca starch should work fine as a sub, they’re pretty interchangeable in most cases. I used shortening (and oil in the other one) to keep it dairyfree for kosher purposes, but you could sub butter or ghee with good results. Same amount, melt it and cool a bit before using.
Any time you make adjustments in a recipe, the results could be altered, so I can’t make an promises about the above, but think they’re pretty safe subs.
This one is definitely easier, more like making a cake than a yeasted bread, but the other one is fun to make because, well, it’s like making yeasted bread! I love them both but make the other one more often for that reason, it’s just more bread-like.
Wendy Cohen says
Will the 1x recipe fit in the medium size silicone mold?
zenbelly says
I believe so, yes! And if there’s extra, you could put it in muffin tins for little rolls.
Renee Feitelberg says
is there anything I can use instead of psyllium husk? Can I use Xanthum Gum or corn starch?
zenbelly says
You can use whatever you want, but I can only tell you it will work with psyllium husk because that’s the only thing that has worked for me.
Renee Feitelberg says
I made it with the xanthum gum. I think it worked but I did think it should have risen more. should I have heated my stove to proofing when I put the bowl in for the 45 minute. It is a metal bowl with my stand mixer. Does it need to be glass. Taste is pretty good. Seemed to take an extra 5 minutes to bake.
How do I send you pictures of what I made?
★★★★★
Alene says
I now have ibs along with every other eating issue in the world. I cannot process honey (which is going to be a big problem at Rosh Hashanah time!). Can I use maple syrup instead? I know part of it activates the yeast. Thank you! I’m going to make this well before I need it. I haven’t tasted challah in over 10 years, when my gluten free needs kicked in. Maybe this weekend.
zenbelly says
Alene, you can use maple, as long as there’s some type of sugar to activate the yeast, you should be good to go. I hope this helps make RH a bit more normal-feeling for you!
Akrol says
I was wondering if this could be made with a hand mixer? I dont have a stand mixer? Thank you so much! And congrats on your new job!
zenbelly says
Yes, you can. Most of what happens in the mixer will happen with time, too. So you can set it aside for a few minutes if you get tired of mixing. And thanks!
EVA WHEATLEY says
can coconut flour be substituted for the potato and arrowroot starches/
zenbelly says
No, definitely not. Coconut flour acts completely differently than other flours and you’ll wind up with a dry disgusting brick. If you use the flours I listed after testing this recipe dozens of times you’ll get a great result, though!