Rainbow Challah Hack

What better way to celebrate Shabbat during the week we are covering the story of Noah’s Ark than with a rainbow challah hack?! Bonus points: it’s also pride month!!

Rainbow challot are gorgeous and fun anytime of year but this Shabbat it has extra meaning since June is pride month and my kids and I have been studying the Torah story of Noah’s Ark all week.

Normally, rainbow challah is made by dyeing the dough before you braid and bake it. It’s beautifully colored on the outside and the inside. But, if you’re like me and just don’t have time (or you don’t want) to make a full dyed challah this Friday, then this hack is for you!

Every 4-6 weeks I make a big batch of challah dough then braid small challot. I freeze these challot and take one out every Friday afternoon so we can have freshly baked challah every Shabbat without having to commit to the multiple hours of work to make a loaf from scratch every Friday. The challah I used in this recipe was pulled from my freezer. You could make it with a freshly braided, but unfrozen, challah loaf too. Sadly it wouldn’t work with a store bought already baked loaf. But you could always dye some frosting and add that to your market loaf for a really sweet and colorful way to welcome Shabbat!

What You’ll Need

• Frozen or fresh unbaked challah loaf
• Milk
• Food dye

Putting It Together

1. Decide how many colors you want to make.
2. Pour about 1-2 tablespoons of milk into that many bowls.
3. Add food coloring to the bowls to dye them the colors you want. If you want to do all colors of a traditional rainbow, it could be a fun science activity to have your kids help mix the food dye to get the colors you want (red and blue to make purple).
4. Use a pastry brush to paint the dyed milk onto your challah.
5. Bake your challah as you normally would. The milk replaces the egg wash.

Finished & Loving It!

There’s something so happy and cheerful about rainbows. And something doubly happy, cheerful, and holy when they are rainbow challot to celebrate Shabbat! I really wanted to be able to share this fun and special challah with my kids but today just couldn’t manage the time it would take to make the rainbow challah from scratch. I am so happy for this rainbow challah hack so we can have our rainbow, a reminder of G-d’s promise, and tasty homemade challah to celebrate Shabbat in a super easy and fun way!

My daughter loved helping to mix the milk and food coloring and painting the challah. She considered it an art activity–bonus points!

We also quickly made some polymer clay rainbow Shabbat candle holders. So fast and easy and ADORABLE!

Since the milk wash acts as a glaze, it’s definitely not as vibrant as if you had dyed the dough itself. Check out these amazing rainbow challah bakers with recipes that create the rainbow from scratch: What Jew Wanna Eat, Jamie Geller. Even though our rainbow colors are more subtle, the kids were so excited and it definitely made us think of rainbows, G-d’s promises, and all things happy and cheery as we welcomed Shabbat! Shabbat Shalom!

We’ve been studying the Torah story Noah’s Ark this week which is why the rainbow challah hack was so perfect for us. I’m just starting to add our Torah story activities to the blog, but check out the ones I’ve posted so far:

• How to Welcome Guests Social Story
• Adam and Eve Pom Pom Posting Tree
• Creation Story Sequencing Sensory Bin
• How to Create a Family Peace Table
• Torah Activity: Eliezer Finds a Wife for Isaac Coloring Book
• Rivkah’s Jewelry
• Sheep and Shepherds in the Torah Transfer Activity
• Abraham and Sarah Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
• Abraham and Sarah’s Journey Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
• Tower of Babel Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
• Noah’s Ark Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
• Cain and Abel Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
• Adam and Eve Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
• The Creation Story Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards

There are many more on my Instagram account!

And for more learning about Torah stories in kid-friendly (as much as there can be!) ways, check out these resources:

• The Children’s Illustrated Jewish Bible

• PJ Library Torah Story Books
• BimBam: Torah and Texts

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