Cinnamon babka is essentially a cinnamon roll bread with swirling of cinnamon, butter, and sugar. The recipe I am using today is originally by Binging with Babish.
A quick synopsis of how I made this Babka:
Make the dough by combining flour, yeast, milk, butter, salt, eggs and nutmeg. After making the dough, set it aside and start making the filling. Mix together the sugar, butter, and cinnamon. Set it aside. Roll out the dough. Distribute the filling mixture and begin to roll it together. Cut the roll in half longways and braid the two halves together. Gather and place in pan to be baked in the oven.
To see full tutorial by Binging with Babish click the link below:
What you’ll need…
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1 packet active dry yeast
- 2 1/2 ounces sugar plus a pinch
- 18 ounces flour
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- Grated nutmeg, to taste
- 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 12 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons, plus more for greasing
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- 4 Tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter, melted
How it’s made…
- Heat the milk until it is warm to the touch but won’t burn you in any way. Add the yeast and a pinch of sugar and set this aside until it starts to foam. You are letting the yeast react to the mixture.
- Move to your stand mixer and and combine the flour, sugar, salt and nutmeg. Add the yeast mixture to this and mix together until barely combined. Add the eggs and beat together (medium speed) until the dough pulls away from the edge and forms a ball. Add half of the butter and beat until incorporated then slowly add the rest. If the dough is too sticky, add 1 tbsp of flour at a time until it is the correct texture. This took us some practice as we learned to make bread. We learned from a youtube video we watched. See link below.
- Next you are going to make a simple syrup by combining water and sugar. Let this heat up until it becomes syrup (about 15 min) and cool completely.
- Combine the cinnamon, sugar, and melted butter completely. This should create a paste.
- Remove your dough from the refrigerator and divide it into 2 halves. Roll this our until it is in the shape of an 18 in by 24 in rectangle. Make sure you add flour to the surface before rolling. Spread the paste filling evenly across the dough but be sure to leave an inch gap around all the edges. Roll into a log shape longways and put in freezer for 15-20 minutes. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
- Remove the dough roll from the freezer and cut lengthwise in half. You should see the layers of the paste you created. Hold the two halves together (paste side up) and weave until creating a decorative loaf. If this is confusing, check out the video we made below. Place in buttered parchment lined pans and cover with a damp towel. Allow the loaves to completely rise in the oven. This should take an hour and a half.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and bake the loaves for 30 – 40 minutes. You will know if they are done when a toothpick in the center comes out clean. When they are done, remove, and quickly brush the simple syrup over the tops. Allow to cool completely before serving.
To watch us make this babka check out the video below!
Below is the link we referred to in the recipe on how we learned what dough is supposed to feel like…
