8 Colorful Ingredients To Add To Your Challah Bread

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Challah is a beautifully braided ceremonial bread served with Shabbat dinner and on Jewish holidays like Rosh Hashanah. It's fluffy and comforting with a beautiful crust that comes from an egg wash and usually a light sprinkling of sesame and poppy seeds. The braid symbolizes unity and love, and a classic challah bread is elegant enough to elevate an entire table setting just by itself. Home bakers are getting creative with challah, though, and we're not talking about repurposing leftover bread like this challah French toast recipe does. They're moving beyond just a sprinkle of seeds for decoration and looking for new ways to make a truly stand-out loaf of challah — like dying the dough different shades and adding garnishes to give the bread a pop color.

Rainbow challah is a great example of how to bring a lot of color to your dinner table in one dish. Each strand of dough is dyed with natural ingredients and then braided together and baked like usual. Yellow dough is made with turmeric and pink comes from beets (save your canned beet juice for naturally vibrant food coloring), and those are just two of the many colorful ingredients to add to create an eye-catching and interesting challah for your table. Here are a few of our favorites.

Boil frozen spinach cubes until they create a green liquid you can use to dye your dough a light green shade. Don't skimp on the spinach, as bakers who use this method say the dough comes out a lighter color than expected. Matcha powder and spirulina will give you a little more vibrant green — just mix the powdered form of either of them in with the wet ingredients, usually when you're mixing water and starter together.

Use beets processed different ways to make shades pink or red challah dough. Soak some beet peels in warm water for a lighter pink dye and add a little beet juice for a way more vibrant shade. If you only have fresh beets on hand, chop and boil them. Then toss them in a blender to pull out as much juice as possible and use that as a dye for your dough.

Add 1-2 grams of turmeric powder to the wet ingredients as you're making dough to give your challah a vivid yellow hue. It's one of those spices that does have a more intense flavor, but the color is just as intense. If you add too much you could give your challah a sharper, more metallic flavor. Luckily a tiny bit of turmeric goes a long way.

Boiled red cabbage has a few tricks up its sleeve when it comes to making all-natural food dye. It changes colors based on the pH of the solution you make. Add baking soda to boiled cabbage for a natural blue food dye — and then just incorporate that dye into your wet ingredients as you are baking. Add vinegar to a different bowl of the very same boiled red cabbage and you'll get a pink dye for your challah.

Add a pop of orange to your challah loaf with a strand of dough dyed using carrot powder. Add it to the wet ingredients and you'll get a pretty, vibrant orange shade. You can also add some orange color with a bit of store bought or homemade carrot juice added to the loaf as you're mixing ingredients.

Add a splash of color to your gorgeous and golden challah loaf with a whole smorgasbord of spreads and dips. For pops of red, surround your challah with raspberry and strawberry jams and beet hummus. Add some elements of yellow with apricot jam and kosher cheese dips. Avocado dips add a dash of green, and you can incorporate splashes of purple with blueberry fruit spreads. Use whole fruits like apples and berries to garnish the table and provide a little extra something to nibble on during dinner.

Press edible flowers into the dough of your challah bread just before baking to create a whimsical loaf with plenty of color. Violas will add pops of purple and nasturtiums bring shades of red and orange. Chamomile flowers add a sprinkle of dainty beauty and rose petals add a touch of luxury and elegance.

Swap your poppy and sesame seed garnish for sprinkles on your next challah loaf and watch it transform. Use those tried-and-true rainbow sprinkles for bursts of color along the top of the braid or go for themed sprinkles, like these blue and white multi-shaped sprinkles or these sparkle sprinkles that'll add a touch of glitter to your challah.