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.
If you’d like to serve it for breakfast please prepare it one day ahead 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 yeasty 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.
Babka bread is a traditionally jewish sweet bread filled and twisted or braided. 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 chocolate. The babka is usually topped with streusel. Jewish immigrants brought this dish, also known as Krantz Cake to New York where it became very popular at the beginning of 2010.
Brioche dough recipes are always lightly sweetened doughs. They almost contain as much butter and eggs as a buttery cake but have a very soft and airy texture instead of a cake crumb.
The important things to know about this babka recipe.
- I always proof the yeast! My yeast needs to be dissolved in WARM (38°C) milk and 1 tbsp of sugar and loosely covered with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap. The yeast is proofed when the liquid becomes foamy and bubbly.
- I measure exactly! For every recipe I make measuring my 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 
After the 1. rising slap the dough onto a surface for 3-4 times 
rolle the dough out to a rectangular 30×40 cm 
Spread the blueberry jam on top
Almost Done! Promised.
- I let the dough rise in a warm place . Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel.
- My 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.
- After spreading the jam I roll the dough into a log and chill it for about 10 minutes in the fridge. It doesn’t get that messy when the filling is set.
- Don’t cut the log all the way through.
- Before I bake the babka it needs a second rising which will last almost as long as the first one.
- If I don’t have enough time to cook a vanilla blueberry jam, I use a store bought one for the filling.
start to roll up the dough into a log 
Chill the log for 10 minutes 
cut the log into 2 braids, but don’t cut it the whole way through 
twist the 2 braids through putting one over the other and put it into the loaf foam
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 breakfast recipe. 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
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Blueberry Babka aka filled Brioche with blueberry sauce
Ingredients
brioche dough
- 80 g white sugar
- 20 g freash yeast or 8g instant yeast
- 150 ml 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 buildingIn 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 washPreheat the oven to 180°Celsius or 370°Fahrenheit and bake for about 45 minutesEnjoy.***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
If you liked this recipe you may be interested in our recipe for Pumpkin Brioche cinnamon Rolls .
13 comments
Oh my gosh, ladies, this looks absolutely mouthwatering! I am bookmarking this to make soon. Thanks so much for sharing!
Hey Katerina, thank you so much for that sweet compliment. we are so happy that you love our recipes. please let us know how the recipe worked out for you <3
[…] If you enjoyed that recipe maybe you wanna try our fluffy Blueberry Brioche Babka. […]
Hi.
I’ve used a high quality french strawberry jam, it turned out a total fail. Please help
While baking, almost half of the jam escaped and floated on the sides of the pan.
Poor babka has drowned ?
What kind of jam is ideal to avoid that ? Please please please help. Thank you
Good morning Danah, I made that babka with a lot of different fillings. Pls tell me in detail what kind of problem you had. I’m super sorry that you had troubles baking the babka and for my late reply. Happy Saturday Nina
Ok. Now I could read the whole message. I’m sorry to hear that. There could be 2 or 3 reasons why this has happened.
First: the pan is too small. I used a deep loaf baking pan for that babka.
Second: maybe you filled it with too much jam and didn’t put the filled strand into the fridge before cutting and twisting .
Third: I always try to put the babka strands into the pan so that they are with the opening turned inwards.
I still hope that your babka turned out delicious despite all the mess.
Happy Weekend Nina ❤️
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After using the dough hook for 10 minutes my dough is super crumbly. I weighed all of the ingredients according to the recipe. What did I do wrong?
Hello seanna, I’m so sorry that the recipe didn’t work out for you. The dough is my go to recipe for every sweet bread recipe I’m going to create at home so it’s a much proved recipe. The reason why it may not worked out for you could be that your eggs are smaller than the ones I used. You used a different flour (whole grain flour for example absorbs more liquid than all purpose flour), or maybe you made a mistake while weighing one of the ingredients. If your dough is to try I would add a little bit more warm milk but only 1 tsp at a time until it’s easy kneadable . I hope you’ll give my recipe a second try. Happy Monday Nina 😊
[…] Babka bread filled with blueberry jam […]