Polish Babka Bread {Celebrating Our Heritage Series} (2024)

March 19, 2015 by Nicole Crocker 27 Comments

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Welcome to {Celebrating Our Heritage Series}

Over the next couple of weeks I will be celebrating our Polish and Lithuania Heritage with some delicious family recipes and traditions. Today I’m kicking off the series with Grammy’s recipe for Polish Babka Bread.

What is Babka Bread?

Babka is a sweet leavened bread made from a rich buttery dough. There are many different ways to bake Babka Bread.

Most recipes use a bundt pan but Grammy always just made hers in a loaf pan. Sometimes she would mix raisins in too so you can certainly add them to this recipe as well.

We always used to look forward to when Grammy would make her Babka bread. She would make it year round but it was a staple during holidays like Easter and Christmas.

With Easter quickly approaching I wanted to make sure I kept up with the tradition. Everyone was happy to have the house filled with the aroma of bread baking and even more excited to sink their teeth into a slice!

My favorite way to eat Babka Bread is toasted with honey drizzled on it. It’s a delicious morning treat to go with my coffee!

Polish Babka Bread is a sweet leavened bread made from a rich buttery dough.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine Polish

Prep Time 3 hours hours

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 3 hours hours 25 minutes minutes

Servings 2 Loaf

Calories 326kcal

Author Nicole Crocker

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Unsalted butter ,softened
1/2 Cup Sugar
4 Egg yolks
1 Cup Milk ,scalded
1 package Yeast
1/4 Cup Lukewarm water
4 Cups All-purpose flour
1 teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Raisins ,optional

For egg wash

1 Egg slightly beaten
2 Tablespoons Water

Instructions

Sprinkle yeast packet on top of your lukewarm water, stir a little bit and then let sit to activate.
*To scald you milk pour into a small saucepan and heat on medium heat until milk is just about to boil. Remove from heat and let cool.
Meantime in a large mixing bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment mix butter and sugar together. Add salt to the egg yolks and mix together, add to butter and sugar mixture. Scrape sides and mix to incorporate.
Add your activated yeast mixture and mix well. Add flour alternately with scalded milk in batches until all is incorporated. Mix for about 5-7 minutes until dough is smooth. (If using raisins you'll want to mix them in at this point.)
Remove the dough from the paddle and into the bowl. Cover bowl with a towel and place in a warm dark place for 1 1/2 hours to rise. (I turned my oven on briefly until it reached 100 Degrees F and then shut it off. Then I place covered bowl inside with the door closed to let it rise)
Generously butter two large loaf pans. Remove risen dough and punch down to deflate. Cut dough into two equal pieces. Place one section of dough in each prepared loaf pan. Spread dough with your fingers so that it evenly covers the bottom of your pan.
Brush the top of each dough with egg wash.
Cover each loaf pan with a towel and place in a dark warm place to rise a second time. Let rise for about 45-60 minutes. Remove towel.
Place loaves in oven pre-heated to 350 Degrees F.
Bake for 25--30 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes in pan.
Then remove loaves from pans promptly. (Otherwise condensation will accumulate on bottom of loaves)
Once loaves are cool enough slice and eat!

Nutrition

I hope you enjoy Grammy’s recipe for Polish Babka Bread. Make sure you stop back next week to see what {Celebrating Our Heritage Series} has on the menu!

For now here are some more of Grammy’s Polish recipes for you to try! Just click on the picture for the recipe!

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I will be sharing this recipe at the following link parties:

Wonderful Wednesday