This wonderful sweet and savory bread is a mashup of a Chinese scallion pancake and challah bread. I’ll be surprised if yours lasts for more than a day!
My social isolation bread baking continues with this gorgeous loaf of scallion pancake challah. My skating friend S shared this recipe with me. I pinged her one day asking for suggestions on what I could bake next. I told her that I wanted something Asian and she gave me the URL to this.
My first thought was, “That’s brilliant.” I mean, I’ve been eating scallion pancakes all my life, but why didn’t I ever think to make it into bread? Oh well.
The dough for this challah was very simple. It so soft and pliable when I rolled it out and didn’t give me much trouble at all. I happily scattered my scallions on top of it and rolled it back up into a log. It was a lot of fun to braid as well. The one thing I changed is that I let the bread proof a second time so that it would rise before I baked it. I wanted a nice, fluffy loaf of challah and didn’t want to take a chance that it would be cold, sad and flat.
Addie and I LOVED this bread. It tasted exactly like a scallion pancake but in a soft, fluffy bread form. My husband thought it was good too, but he’s not a scallion pancake person like I am. He said that it needed some hot sauce on top so perhaps next time I will add some chili flakes.
My friend S turned these into egg sandwiches and added some micro-greens in them as well. She included some ginger for additional zing. Both she and her husband loved this bread as well! This is definitely a new favorite bread recipe that I’ll be making again.
Husband’s rating: 4 out of 5
Addie’s rating: 4.5 out of 5
My rating: 4.5 out of 5
Scallion pancake challah
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 Tablespoon instant yeast
- ¾ cup warm water divided
- 2 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon granulated sugar divided
- 3 cups all-purpose flour plus more as needed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- ⅓ cup canola or vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
Filling and topping
- 1 Tablespoon sesame oil
- 3 stalks scallions minced
- salt, pepper, chili flakes to taste
- 1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon of water mixed in
- toasted black and/or white sesame seeds to garnish optional
Instructions
Make the dough
- In a measuring cup or small bowl, add the yeast and 1 teaspoon of the sugar to ½ cup of the warm water. Set aside and let it get frothy, about 5-10 minutes.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment or in a large bowl if mixing by hand, mix together the flour, salt and the remaining 2 Tablespoons of the sugar.
- In another measuring cup or a medium sized bowl, mix together the remaining ¼ cup of warm water, honey, oil and eggs.
- Turn the mixer on to low speed. Add in the yeast and then the egg mixture and continue kneading until the dough comes together. You may need to add more flour (I ended up adding another 1 cup or so of flour). The dough should be elastic and tacky but not sticky. You can mix everything by hand if you don't have a stand mixer - it will just require some elbow grease.
- Transfer the dough to a well-oiled bowl. Cover and allow to double in a warm spot, about 1 hour. I put my dough in the oven in the bread proofing mode.
- On a lightly floured surface, divide your dough into 3 equal parts. Roll each one out into a log.
- Flatten the logs out so they are a skinny oval/rectangle about 3 inches wide. Brush each flattened piece of dough with some sesame oil and sprinkle with the chopped scallions, salt, pepper and chili flakes.
- Roll the dough up from the long side so it resembles a log again. Put the three logs all next to each other and pinch the tops together. Braid the doughs and tuck the end under. Place the dough into a well-greased 9"x5" loaf pan.
- Put the dough back in the oven to rise one more time for another hour or so. Then brush with the egg wash and sprinkle sesame seeds on top if desired.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Place the dough in your preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the top turns golden brown.