Oh it’s hard to be a Jew on Christmas. But a bit easier thanks to this Eggnog Fruitcake Challah!
Hello. Confession time: Eggnog. I’m a fan. Yes, it’s sickeningly sweet, (and has more calories than a dozen Nutella Rugelach) but nothing a splash of whiskey can’t cure, right? Tis the season and all that jazz?
This year, Christmas Day is on a Friday which got me thinking about challah which got me thinking it’s about darn time for a gentile challah, right? Just me? I know a lot of y’all who frequent the ole blog aren’t even Jewish (a big shalom to you anyway!) so here is my gift to you. Jew food with a Christmas flair.
And confession numero dos. I love Christmas too! The lights, the joy, the fact that I can watch all my friends stress about getting gifts and cooking ham while I’m just here eating gingerbread men, watching Love Actually for the 900th time and gorging on eggnog. What’s not to love??
Confession number three. I’ve never even had fruitcake! But I know it’s the butt of many a Christmas joke. The kind of thing you bring receive as a gift and just keep re-gifting it until some poor sap actually eats it. But in theory, I like it.
Dried fruit, spices, rum? I’m so in. 
Maybe you even want to leave a few slices of this challah for Santa instead of cookies this year?
I think it will make up for the past 12 months of naughty. Or can’t hurt!
Eggnog Fruitcake Challah
Ingredients
- For Challah:
- 1 envelope active dry yeast 2 1/4 teaspoons
- ¾ cup warm whole milk about 110 degrees F
- ⅓ cup plus 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- ¾ cup eggnog
- 2 large eggs plus one extra egg for egg wash
- ¼ cup vegetable oil plus more for greasing bowl
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon all spice
- 3 3/4 - 4 1/2 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups dried fruit and nuts apricots, raisins, cranberries, candied ginger, pineapple, walnuts, etc, chopped
- Raw sugar for sprinkling
- 1/4 cup rum
Instructions
- First, make your challah dough. Prepare the yeast in a large mixing bowl for a stand mixer by whisking it with warm water and 1 teaspoon sugar. Let yeast stand until it foams and puffs up, about 10 minutes. If it doesn’t get foamy, your yeast is bad or the liquid was too warm or cool. Try again!
- Using the whisk attachment for the stand mixer, mix in the remaining sugar, eggnog, 2 eggs, oil, and vanilla into the yeast mixture. (You can just use a whisk of you’re doing this by hand too.) Then add cinnamon and all spice and combine. Gradually add 3 cups flour and salt either with a hook attachment using an electric mixer or a spoon and your hands until combined. Knead for about 5 minutes, adding more flour as needed, and form into a ball. If it's too sticky, add a bit more flour. You may not need it all. Remove from bowl, and knead for 5 more minutes by and, kneading in dried fruit and nuts. Dough should be soft, smooth and slightly tacky.
- Place the dough in a bowl greased with oil and cover. Let dough ferment in a warm place until it has doubled in size, about 2-3 hours. I put mine on top of an oven heated to 200 degrees.
- When the dough is ready, divide into three equal sized balls. Stretch each one into a strand and braid.
- Carefully place the challah on a parchment lined baking sheet, cover lightly with plastic wrap, and let it rise again for 45 minutes or so until it's light and fuffy looking (exact proofing timing for challah will depend on environmental conditions.)
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk the last egg yolk with 1/2 tablespoon water and generously brush over challah and sprinkle with raw sugar. Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown and with an internal temperature of 190 degrees F, rotating pans halfway through. If the challah start to brown too fast, cover with foil.
- Brush warm challah with rum if desired. You can also make an eggnog glaze by mixing powdered sugar with just enough eggnog to make it runny. Drizzle over cooled challah!
Looks awesome! I made eggnog challah french toast but now I have to try eggnog challah!
Thanks! I love eggnog anything!
I’ve made this for the last two holiday seasons and my family loves it!!! My wife and I are both Italian-Jews and we thought this was a great recipe that represented both of our heritages (I’m an Italian who converted to Judaism and my wife has a Jewish father and a Sicilian mother). My wife hates fruitcake but she LOVED this! Most fruitcakes are very dry but the eggnog made this one nice and moist. We bake two every year: one for my family and one for my wife’s family. My father shares my Italian love of fruitcakes, spice cakes, panettones, etc. He took one bite and said, “We get to keep the leftovers, right?” My wife’s family also hoarded the leftovers that we brought to their house. When my wife and I honeymooned in Italy last summer, the Jewish bakery in the Roman ghetto made a challah similar to this: a sweet version filled with candied fruits and raisons. They also make Pizza Ebraico (Jewish Pizza): a type of fruitcake bar filled with almonds, pignolis, raisins and candied fruits. Both were delicious!
So glad you like the recipe! Thank you for sharing your story too!
I had a lot of eggnog left over this year and didn’t want it to go to waste. It was the end of the holiday season and I’ve had my fill of super sweet things. I was looking for a gentle bread recipe that didn’t hit me over the head with sweetness, This recipe was perfect. I made three mini challah loaves, am now eating one loaf and freezing the other two. I will be enjoying toasted slices of this bread with a little butter for many more winter breakfasts. I will be making this again next year and will give a loaf to each sister, if or when this pandemic comes to an end. Thank you for a great recipe!
Yay so glad you liked it!