Best 4 Easter Babka Recipes

EASTER BABKA

Steps:

• In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, scald milk. Add butter and stir until melted. Remove pan from heat and let mixture cool to lukewarm.
• In a small bowl, stir yeast into warm water; let sit for 5 to 10 minutes, or until foamy.
• In a large bowl, beat eggs, yolks, and sugar until thick. Add salt, zests, vanilla, and liqueur. Stir to combine. Stir in milk mixture, then yeast.
• Add flour, a cupful at a time, until dough is moist but not sticky, mixing with a wooden spoon or your hands. Stir in almonds and raisins.
• Knead dough on a floured board, adding more flour if dough is too sticky, until dough comes away from your hands, about 6 minutes. Place dough in a very large buttered bowl.
• Cover dough with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch down and let rise again until doubled, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter three 9- or 10-inch kugelhopf or angel-food cake pans. Sprinkle pans with a tablespoon of confectioners' sugar, if desired. Divide dough into 3 portions; arrange in pans and cover loosely. Let dough rise to tops of pans, about 30 minutes.
• Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until cakes are golden brown and tops make a hollow sound when tapped with knuckles. Cool for 5 minutes in pans; turn out onto racks and cool for 20 minutes more.
• Spoon glaze onto babka, allowing it to drip over sides.

EASTER BABKA

Steps:

• Scald 1 cup milk and slowly add 3/4 cup flour and beat thoroughly.
• Cool.
• Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm milk, mix in 1 tbsp sugar.
• Add to the cooled flour mixture and beat well.
• Let rise until double in bulk (30 minutes).
• Add salt to eggs yolks and beat until thick and lemon colored.
• Add sugar, vanilla and almond extract and continue to beat.
• Add to sponge (flour-yeast mixture), add remaining flower.
• Knead for ten minutes.
• Add butter and knead 10 minutes or until dough no longer sticks to your fingers.
• Add fruit and nuts mix into dough, cover and let rise until double in bulk (60 minutes).
• Punch down and let rise again (60 minutes).
• Punch down.
• Butter a fluted tube pan and sprinkle with bread crumbs.
• Fill with dough to cover 1/3 of the pan.
• Let rise 1 hour* and bake at 350°F for 50 minutes.
• Cool and decorate with lucre.
• Lucre: Mix ingredients and spread over top of cake, letting it drip down the sides.
• Note- rising times are approximate.
• Keep dough covered in a warm place free from drafts.

EASTER BABKA WITH ICING

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast in cream.
• Combine with half the sugar and flour and let double in size.
• Add all the remaining ingredients except the raisins and knead until smooth.
• Add raisins, while continuing to knead.
• Grease and flour babka pan (or tube pan). Place dough in pan, cover with a clean cloth, and leave in a very warm, draft-free place until doubled in size.
• Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes. When cool, remove from pan.
• Mix icing ingredients well and drizzle over babka.

CHEESE-FILLED EASTER POLISH BREAD (BABKA)

Steps:

• Mix 1 teaspoon sugar, water, and yeast together in a small bowl. Let stand until yeast softens and begins to form a creamy foam, about 5 minutes.
• Heat milk in a small saucepan over medium heat until it begins to bubble. Pour into a large bowl. Stir in 6 tablespoons butter until melted. Let mixture cool to 110 degrees F (43 degrees C), about 5 minutes.
• Mix remaining sugar, yeast mixture, 2 egg yolks, and salt into the milk mixture. Add 3 1/3 cups flour; knead dough until shiny and elastic.
• Place dough in a greased bowl, turning to coat both sides. Cover with greased plastic wrap; let rise until doubled, 1 to 2 hours.
• Combine cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, 2 egg yolks, orange liqueur, orange zest, and 1 vanilla extract in a large bowl; beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
• Mix 1/2 cup sugar and 6 tablespoons flour together in a bowl. Cut in 1/4 cup cold butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives. Stir in almonds.
• Grease two 9x5-inch loaf pans and line the bottom with parchment paper.
• Punch down dough and divide in half. Roll 1 half into a rectangle 1/8-inch thick; keep the other half covered. Spread 1/2 of the cream cheese mixture over the dough. Fold in the short ends of the dough and roll up tightly like a jelly roll. Transfer to a prepared loaf pan. Repeat with remaining dough and cream cheese mixture.
• Brush beaten egg white over the loaves; sprinkle almond topping evenly on top. Cover loaves with greased plastic wrap and let rise until dough reaches above the rim of the pans, about 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Bake loaves in the preheated oven until golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 190 degrees F (88 degrees C), 40 to 50 minutes. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes. Run a knife along the sides to loosen; let cool completely, about 30 minutes.