Babka Bread filled with Blueberry jam

This is an easy and delicious recipe for Babka bread filled with Blueberry Jam. It’s perfect for the holidays as a wonderful breakfast recipe or as a filled brioche bread served with butter as an afternoon treat.

Brioche blueberry babka – overnight option.

If you’d like to serve it for breakfast please prepare it the day before and refrigerate the unbaked babka bread in the fridge until morning. Let the prepared loaf pan stand for 1 hour at a warm place so that the dough can come to room temperature.

Who is ready for the holidays to start ? I know there are a lot of people, like me and my kids, who already listen to Christmas music since the beginning of October. We are a little bit crazy but you know what ? I don’t care 😉 . If my kids are happy – I’m happy. And to every Christmas or holiday season a delicious filled babka bread or brioche is a breakfast recipe stable in our house.

Sweet braided bread recipes made especially for the holidays.

There exist a lot of babka recipes and brioche recipes out there but what is the difference between those 2 sweet bread doughs? Or are these the same? I will tell you the difference.

What is a babka?

Babka bread is a traditionally jewish sweet bread filled, twisted or braided. Very popular in jewish communities.

There are no specific informations about the dough. Only that it’s an enriched dough. So it could also be a brioche dough recipe. So why not use a delicious buttery brioche dough to make a more special and grant babka?

Traditionally babka is made from a doubled and twisted length of yeast dough and is typically baked in a high loaf pan. Instead of a fruit filling, the dough contains cinnamon and/or layers of chocolate. The babka is usually topped with streusel and is served during the jewish holidays.

Jewish immigrants brought this dish, also known as Krantz Cake from Eastern Europe to New York City where it became very popular at the beginning of 2010.

What is a brioche dough.

Brioche dough recipes are always lightly sweetened doughs. They contain almost as much butter and eggs as a buttery cake but have a very soft and airy texture instead of a cake crumb.

Important steps to know about the babka recipe.

• Always proof the yeast! The yeast needs to be dissolved in WARM (38°C) whole milk and 1 tbsp of sugar and loosely covered with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap. The yeast is proofed when the liquid becomes foamy and has a lot of air bubbles.
• Measure exactly! Measuring the ingredients is the most important rule ever.
• The dough needs to be kneaded for about 10 minutes! I know this sounds like much but it needs to be flexible.
• Let the dough rise for 1 hour, covered and in a warm place.
• Let the dough rise in a warm place . Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel.
• The babka bread needs enough time to rise! Thats very important! The brioche dough needs to be double in size before you can work with it again.

Important steps after the first rising of the brioche dough.

• After the first rising slap the dough onto a lightly floured surface for 3-4 times.
• Roll the dough into a rectangular 30×40 cm with the help of a rolling pin.
• Spread the blueberry jam on top of the dough surface in an even layer with an offset spatula .
• Roll the dough into a log starting from the long side.
• Chill the log for about 10 minutes in the fridge. It doesn’t get that messy when the filling is set.
• After the log has chilled in the fridge for 10 minutes or longer cut the rolled dough almost all the way trough with the help of a sharp knife.
• Twist both parts together with the open sides up
• Take the whole loaf and put it carefully into the with parchment paper prepared pan.
• Before you bake the babka it needs a second rising which will last almost as long as the first one.
• Let the dough rise in a warm place . Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel.
• If you don’t have enough time to cook a vanilla blueberry jam, use a store bought one for the filling.
• If the filling is too thin and very runny cook the jam until it’s reduced to 3/4 and has thickened . Let it cool completely before spreading onto the dough. 

How to store babka bread.

The best way to store your babka is in an airtight container and then put it into the fridge.

What to do with leftover-babka bread.

If it really happens that you have leftover-babka bread here are some breakfast recipes you could use it for:

• Bread pudding . Here is a link to a delicious leftover-babka bread pudding recipe from serious eats.
• French toast : eggs, little bit of heavy cream, cinnamon and vanilla sugar mixed together. Dunk the babka bread slices in the batter and fry it golden brown . Serve with lots of powdered sugar and a cup of coffee 😉.
• French Toast casserole

Other popular babka bread fillings:

• Cinnamon babka : brown sugar, unsalted butter and cinnamon – such a popular flavor . I don’t have a cinnamon babka recipes but a recipe for soft brioche cinnamon buns slathered in orange vanilla cream cheese glaze.
• chocolate flavors: white chocolate, dark chocolate or a hazelnut chocolate filling. Chocolate always makes for a good filling . Check out my recipe for Nutella bakba knots with a flavored simple syrup glaze.
• Another delicious flavor is : saffron brioche babka with strawberry coconut filling .

The holidays are always a special time for me. I want to enjoy them to the fullest with my kids. Good food definitely goes hand in hand with that special time. My deliciously filled babka is therefore the perfect special treat for special occasions. We all gather in the morning around our table and enjoy the smell of the freshly baked sweet yeasty babka.

This is my families favourite sweet bread recipe. I’m sure it will become a favourite in your house too.

warm vanilla blueberry hugs

Nina

Did you make this recipe? Great! Tag us on Instagram @twosisterslivinglife or use our hashtag #twosisterslivinglife so we can see.

Note: Updated blog post. This was one of my first recipes back in 2019 it was time for an update 😉.

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Blueberry Babka aka filled Brioche with blueberry sauce

This is an easy recipe for a blueberry babka which is also know as brioche filled with homemade blueberry-vanilla sauce. It's delicious fluffy and the filling takes this babka from good to fantastically delicious.

5 from 1 vote

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Course: Bread, Dessert

Cuisine: American, austrian, French

Keyword: babka recipe, blueberry brioche, blueberry recipe, breakfast ideas, breakfast recipes, brioche recipe, brunch recipe, dessert recipes, easter recipe, fall baking recipes, filled babka, filled brioche, hefezopf, sweet bread, yeast dough recipes

Prep Time: 2 hours

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 8

Calories: 503kcal

Author: Nina

Ingredients

brioche dough

• 80 g white sugar
• 20 g freash yeast or 8g instant yeast
• 250 ml Warm milk
• 80 g butter
• 500 g flour cake flour or all purpose
• 3 egg yolks Large at room temperature
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg for egg wash

blueberry vanilla sauce

• 300 g blueberries fresh or frozen
• 200 g sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Instructions

Babka – brioche dough

• First dissolve the sugar into the warm milk. Milk should have about 37C° or 97F°.

  Add the fresh or dry yeast, stir, cover loosely with plastic wrap and let it stand for about 10 minutes or until foam and bubbles are building

  In a medium mixing bowls sift the flour and the salt and incorporate the cold butter with a pastry cutter until everything is very fine in size.

  Add the egg yolks and the yeast mixture and mix with the hook attached on medium speed until not sticky any longer or knead everything with your hands. That's about 10-15 minutes.

  When the dough is not sticky any longer put it into an oiled bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Let it rest at a warm place until the dough is doubled in size.That will be about 60-90 minutes depending on how warm the resting place is.

  When the dough is doubled in size put it onto your floured working surface and deflate the dough trough slapping it onto the surface 3-6 times.

  Prepare a deep loaf pan 30x12cm with butter and flour it out.
• Shape the dough loosely into a rectangular and roll it out. The longer side of the dough should be facing you.

  The dough should be about 1cm thick and 30×40 cm.

  Spread the filling onto the dough but leave 2 cm free on the long side facing you.

  Start rolling up the dough the end should be the long side where we didnt spread the filling.

  Put the log for fifteen minutes into th fridge so that the filling can firm up and it doesnt become such a mess.

  Remove from the fridge and use a knife to slice the log into two pieces but leave about 3 cm whole.

  Braid both strands by going over and under. Tuck the ends in and place it into the loaf pan.

  Let the dough raise one more time for about 45 minutes and brush the top with a lttle egg wash

  Preheat the oven to 180°Celsius or 370°Fahrenheit and bake for about 45 minutes

  Enjoy.

  ***Note if you let the Babka rest in the fridge overnight it need to rest another hour in the morning at a warm place to come to room temperature before baking.

Homemade Vanilla Blueberry Sauce

• Put all ingredients into a small pan over medium heat and stir everything until it begins to cook.

  Let the sauce cook for about 10 minutes or until it thickens.

  Blend the sauce and let it cool completety.

Nutrition

Calories: 503kcal | Carbohydrates: 90g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 117mg | Sodium: 239mg | Potassium: 150mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 40g | Vitamin A: 428IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 47mg | Iron: 3mg

If you liked this recipe you may be interested in our recipe for Pumpkin Brioche cinnamon Rolls .

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