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 {Celebrating Our Heritage Series}
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
These recipes all look delicious and I want them all now! Stopping by from Let’s Get Real Party, and I’m so glad I did. I just might have to try that nummy bread this weekend. Please bring your links over to the Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop (www.amothersshadow.com) and link up! Let me know your link # and title and I’ll feature you. See ya soon. Carrie, A Mother’s Shadow
Thanks Carrie! I stopped by and linked up #470 and 471! Thanks for the invite!
I’m so sorry but a little confused. It says makes 1 loaf but then says cut in half n 2 pans??I’m sure I’m not reading something right. Thank you
Hi Patricia, Sorry for the confusion. Yes…it does make two loaves. Thanks for catching that. Also…pan size will also make a difference. I used two large loaf pans…10×5 inch. If using a smaller size loaf pan you may actually get about 3 loaves or more if using very small loaf pans.
Made this yesterday,,, so good! Added a little but of vanilla bean paste, had it with homemade Apple butter amazing! Such an easy dough to work with! Going to try turning it into a Apple bread and apple pie cinnamon rolls! Thank you from my husband and his Polish family!!
So glad you liked it Lisa! It’s one of my favorites too because of how easy it is to make and how delicious it is. Love the idea of adding apple. Bet my kids would love that! I’ll have to remember that next time I whip up a batch.
Can I do this in a bunch pan?
Hi Karen, It should work fine but not sure if it would affect the cook time in any way. Just check it often for doneness. I would say it should be about the same cook time though.
Thank you for the recipe, Made it tonight and came out great. I put golden raisins in and cooked in a round baking dish, as we always had babka in a round loaf. did have a close eye on it cooking, took about 5 extra mins.
Babka was always part of the Easter & Christmas menu in our house. I always wanted to make it and so glad I found this recipe.. The next time I make it, I want to add a sugar crumb topping.
My grandma Polak’s recipe is close to this. The only thing I can’t figure out in yours – is how on earth does your yeast activate without food in the water – a pinch of salt or sugar. That’s coming from the baker in me!
Hi Diane, so glad you found this recipe that’s close to your grandma’s! I actually never add sugar to my yeast. From what I have found this is something that was commonly done years ago before yeast was so well preserved. It was a way of determining whether the yeast was still good. Here is an article about it that you may find helpful. https://www.thekitchn.com/working-with-yeast-be-not-afra-72256
it is DIANNE not Diane. Though I find your article to be interesting regarding yeast, I’ve been baking for over 40 years and find that my ‘techniques work best with yeast and provide a much better result regardless of what type and/or brand of yeast..
Thanks for your tips Dianne…Sorry I missed the extra “N” the first time. The next time I’m baking with yeast I’m going to try your method.
No need to be snippy, DIANNE.
I agree, Marlene!! So sarcastic 😒
Sorry Diane, I read your name as Karen.
Oof… It was just a typo… No need for the caps lock… And as a professionally trained pastry chef of 30 years, there are many ways to use yeast. I’m glad you find yours best, but always fun to learn and branch out and try new things.. We can always be better.. I hope your tone of this comment is just not reading the right way.. Happy holidays!
I was wondering if your Babka bread might be what my husband’s grandmother called “kuchen.” We have her handwritten recipe, but like many handed down recipes, it has not turned out like he or his Uncle remember it. I have been searching for Kuchen recipes for 25 years in an attempt to find one that might be like his Grandma’s. Any ideas?
Hi Maggie, I’m not sure if this would be similar to Kuchen. I’ve never had Kuchen before but it seems to be more of a cake. This Babka is more of a sweet bread. I know what you mean about handwritten, handed down recipes. They can definitely be difficult to reproduce. A lot of the ingredients were never accurately measured years ago. It was always a little of this and a little of that. I know many of my grandmother’s recipe never even came out the same every time she would make them. We used to joke about it because she would make something we all raved about and the next time she made it she would try to make it even better by adding a different ingredient or changing something in it. She was always in a competition with herself! lol!
Thanks for the inquiry about kuchen. That is what my Polish grandmother and family called it. Her recipe is very similar to this babka. I think kuchen means coffee cake and that is how it got its name. My grandmother often put candied fruit in hers. None of us grandkids like it. That might have been the plan. With clear directions, I’m going to try it again.
I rarely add sugar to my yeast starter. The water just hydrates the yeast to get it growing. Salt actually inhibits yeast growth to slow down the rising so it doesn’t overproof and for flavor.
Wonderful recipe.Thank you
This recipe is delicious! My family on my mother’s side was Lithuanian and my aunt always gifted us with loaves of piragi for Christmas and Easter. She would gladly tell us how to make it, but her recipe was always a little bit of this,etc She made everything by how it looked and felt. So impossible to duplicate. I discovered your recipe about a year ago and have made it many times since. My family reminds me that we don’t have to wait for holidays to have it. I just made my third batch in 10 days. It’s their favorite for breakfast toasted with butter and jam. I cook it in 2 8×4 pans for about 20-25 min and it comes out perfect. No raisins of course. Aunt Helen never added them. And I must say, it comes out better than I remember hers. Thanks for the great recipe!
Thank you! I’m glad you’re enjoying the recipe! I know what you mean about how your Aunt measured things. My grandmother was the same way. When I was in my 20’s I went to her house one day to bake many of her treasured recipes with her just so I could get them written down with some sort of measurements. So glad I did that!
Thank you for this recipe! My dad used to bake Easter bread and this recipe is very similar. My fussy Polish mom loved it! My dad used to add crumbs to the top…a mixture of 1/4 cup butter, and 1 cup each of flour and sugar and I did too. Came out great and I was so proud of making bread for the first time and having it come out as good as my dad’s!
My mother was from Denmark but my Dad was 1st generation Polish American. For holidays, Easter, Christmas and sometimes Thanksgiving my Mom would make homemade Babka. Ours was a sweet bread with a filling of 1 stick unsalted butter, I cup of confectionary sugar 1/2 c. (I use 1 c.) ch. pecans or walnuts and 1 tea vanilla, blended to a soft paste and spread on 3 long strips of dough. Those were folded over and pinched to form cylinders. These were then braided and baked in a long double loaf angel food pan. The bread was spectacular and a special treat. The slices also made terrific French Toast. Her bread would be started in the morning and spent all day rising and being punched down. The flavor was rich and complex. Her dough used 2 whole eggs and less sugar.