Sourdough Natural Yeast Recipes

Sourdough Cinnamon Sugar Babka

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This Babka is decadent. It is filled with buttery cinnamon sugar. It is light, soft, tender and uses 100% sourdough to make a really delicious loaf of sweet bread. This is a more advanced sourdough recipe that has a bit of a learning curve, including making a sweet levain. But the end result is worth it. When you open the oven door and see two beautifully risen loaves of Babka, all the time is completely worth it. If you’ve never made a Babka before, this advanced sourdough cinnamon sugar babka recipe should make your list.

What is Babka?

Babka originated in Eastern Europe and is an enriched bread dough that is usually swirled with a sweet chocolate or cinnamon sugar filling. If you’re looking for a chocolate filling, try out this one I’ve used for a swirled brioche before. It would be delicious with this recipe. Pronounced “bahb-kah,” this bread has become very popular at bakeries and in home kitchens this past year with the beautiful swirl braids and outstanding flavor. I love that this recipe gives two loaves of Babka. If I’m going to trouble with a three day sourdough recipe, I always like to share a loaf or freeze one for later (or who am I kidding…eat the day after we finish the first loaf).

Sample Sourdough Cinnamon Sugar Babka Schedule

A sample baking schedule helps me when baking with sourdough. Sourdough takes much longer to rise than traditional bread. This schedule helps me plan my bake.

A few notes: This schedule assumes the dough temperature will be maintained at 78-mid 80 degrees F throughout the process. This recipe also requires and overnight refrigeration.

Day 1 Mix Stiff Sweet Levain
8:00 PM-8:00 AMMix stiff, sweet levain. Let rise at 78 degrees F
Day 2Mix Babka Dough/Bulk Fermentation
8:00 AMMix Babka Dough
8:30 AMBegin Bulk Fermentation at 78-80 degrees F
9:30 AM1 set of coil folds
10:30 AM1 set of coil folds
12:30 PM8:00 AMCover dough and begin Cold Fermentation in refrigerator overnight (12-24 hours).
Day 3Shape/Rise/Bake
8:00 AMShape Babka
8:30 AM – 1:30 PMLet Babka rise for 5-6 hours around 80 degrees F.
Do not bake until until the loaves feel light, airy, are puffed up and have filled out the loaf pans.
1:30 PM-2:30 PMBake Babka

Stiff Sweet Levain

One of the unique things about this sourdough recipe is making a sweet, stiff levain before actually making the bread. Click here to read more about the relationship between levain and sourdough starter. Typically with sourdough, the longer the bread rises, the more tang you will taste from sourdough. I love the little bit of tang in my Sourdough Artisan Bread or my no-knead sourdough loaf but in a sweet babka, I don’t want to taste the tang. Making a stiff, sweet levain helps temper the tang and mellows the flavors, letting the sweet cinnamon be the overpowering flavor. The taste of the Babka is sweet, light and delicious.

Creating a Stiff Sweet Levain

A stiff levain is a levain that mixes up to a firm consistency and is anywhere from 50%-65% hydration. It adds elasticity to dough and helps temper the acid in the sourdough, which gives all the benefit of sourdough fermentation without the tang. The sugar in the levain helps counteract the acidity and creates a more mild flavor. My sometimes picky kids are especially grateful for this! To make a stiff sweet levain:

  • Use 100% hydration sourdough starter at its peak
  • Add 20 grams of ripe sourdough starter to 100 grams of all purpose flour, 50 grams of water and 20 grams of sugar. Mix together.
  • A stiff starter will be a little more difficult to mix together, because it forms a dough ball instead of a batter. Knead the ball of dough a few times until smooth.
  • Place the stiff sweet levain in a liquid measuring cup and set in a warm (76-78 degree F) spot for 12 hours.
  • Stiff sweet levain is ready to use when it has doubled in size and has a rounded top. Using it right when it reaches its peak will help decrease the acidity in the dough.

Enriched Dough

Babka is made with an enriched dough. Lots of milk, butter, eggs and sugar go into this beautiful loaf. One of the keys to making a great Babka is the process of incorporating the butter. Once the levain, flour, milk, eggs, sugar and salt have been mixed together to form a dough, it is time to add the butter. This takes a somewhat thick dough and turns it into a silky, smooth and a little bit sticky enriched dough. Cut the softened butter into chunks and add it to the center of the dough hook as the dough is mixing. Plan to knead the dough for about 10 minutes. I like to set a timer and let my dough get to work developing the gluten and incorporating the butter. I highly recommend using a stand mixer for this process. It can get very sticky and is difficult to knead for the length of time required with cold hands (so the butter doesn’t melt and leak everywhere)

Bulk Fermentation and Coil Folds

After the dough has been mixed together, the Bulk Fermentation stage will begin. This is a time where you cover the dough and let it rest at a warm temperature around 78 degrees F. During the bulk fermentation, perform two series of coil folds as outlined below.

The coil fold is a technique of picking up the dough from the middle and letting the dough fall down onto and under itself, resulting in a coil. Wet your hands with water. Place your hands under the middle of the dough and pull up. The dough will stretch up (but should not tear) and release from the bottom of the bowl. Once the dough releases, let the dough fall back under itself. Repeat the process for both sides of dough. Then turn the container and repeat the coil fold. This process of folding the dough increases tension and strengthens the strands of gluten in the dough. If you skip this step, the dough can bake up flat because it lacks structure. Watch the coil fold video here to help visualize the process.

Cold Fermentation

Refrigerating the sourdough cinnamon sugar babka dough overnight or about 12 hours–not more than 24 hours–chills the butter, enhances the sweet Babka flavor and makes the dough easy to work with when you pull it out in the morning to shape your Babka. The dough will not double in size and may not even look like it did much rising. Don’t worry! Once it comes back to room temperature it will rise again. When you pull the dough out of the refrigerator to roll out, it will be a little stiff and hard because it is cold. This chill actually makes it easier to work with the Babka dough. Add a little bit of flour on the bottom and on top of the Babka to help roll it out. 

Babka Filling

Babka can be filled with any kind of sweet (or sometimes savory) filling. When mixing the filling, use softened, room temperature butter to mix with the dough. If the butter is too cold, it will not incorporate fully into a paste. If it is melted, it will leak all over the dough and make the Babka difficult to shape. I also love the addition of a bit of flour to the filling. This keeps the filling sticking to the dough and not falling all over your pastry mat. Mix the ingredients together to form a thick paste and set it aside. I have also made this Babka into a strawberry flavored version, using white sugar and crushed up freeze dried strawberries, that was insanely delicious. Check the recipe notes for the full substitution.

How to Shape Babka

Flour a countertop or pastry mat and roll out the dough into a large rectangle, about 14 by 18 inches. Spread half of the cinnamon sugar mixture on the dough and roll up cinnamon-roll style. Take a sharp knife and slice the Babka in half, length-wise. This will leave you with two long, open-faced pieces. Pinch together the ends and twist the dough around each other to form a swirled and braided loaf. Place into a parchment-lined loaf pan and let rise.

A Long Final Rise

I have made the mistake before with this recipe of being a bit impatient and baking the Babka too quickly. This results in a dense, gummy bread that is just not good. It can be hard to be patient with sourdough, but I promise the results are worth it. Wait until the bread has puffed up and mostly filled out the loaf tin which will take 5-6 hours if proved in the 80 degrees F range. Read here for more information on how temperature affects sourdough. You can also lightly press the top of the Babka dough and watch as the dough springs back. If it springs back without any indentation, it needs to rise longer. If it springs back just a little and has been at least six hours, then you should be good to bake. The time will vary based on the warmth of your kitchen so it could rise faster or slower. Just make sure it’s risen in the pan as seen below.

Simple Syrup

What better way to finish off a decadent bread than with some simple syrup, am I right?! To help keep the Babka fresh and moist, whip up this simple syrup while the Babka is baking. I make mine in the microwave, but you could use a pot on the stovetop as well. Mix together the sugar and water. Microwave on high in 1 minute increments until the sugar is dissolved and liquid is boiling. Stir together and let sit while waiting for the Babka to bake. The mixture will thicken as it cools. Pull the Babka out of the oven and let rest for 5-10 minutes in the pan. Then remove to a baking rack and brush the simple syrup over the top of the Babka. Use all of the simple syrup, even if it looks like it doesn’t need more.

It is hard to let the Babka cool and truthfully, I don’t always wait because it is so tempting! This Babka does slice best when it has cooled and even makes great french toast a day or two later if it lasts that long. Sourdough Cinnamon Sugar Babka is a showstopper recipe and it tastes even better than it looks! Enjoy!

Sourdough Cinnamon Sugar Babka

Amy
Sourdough babka is rich, delicious and decadent filled with cinnamon sugar and baked to perfection. This babka is made from 100% natural yeast. It's a three day process with very little hands-on time. Sourdough Babka is the perfect bread for french toast or brunch.
5 from 5 votes
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 55 minutes
Rise Time 1 day 14 hours
Total Time 1 day 15 hours 55 minutes
Course Bread, Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine American, Polish, Ukrainian
Servings 2 loaves

Ingredients
  

Stiff Sweet Levain (1:5:5, ready in about 10-12 hours at 78 degrees F)

  • 20 grams ripe/active sourdough starter 100% hydration see recipe notes
  • 20 grams granulated sugar
  • 100 grams all purpose flour
  • 50 grams water

Babka Dough

  • all of the levain about 190 grams
  • 620 grams bread flour
  • 200 grams whole milk see recipe notes
  • 4 large eggs about 200 grams
  • 50 grams granulated sugar
  • 16 grams salt
  • 200 grams unsalted butter, softened about 14 Tablespoons

Babka Filing

  • 160 grams unsalted butter, softened 3/4 cup
  • 2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
  • 160 grams brown sugar 2/3 cup
  • 2 teaspoons all purpose flour

Egg Wash

  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon water

Simple Syrup for Babka

  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup water

Instructions
 

Stiff Sweet Levain (12 hours/overnight at 78 degrees F)

  • Mix together ripe sourdough starter, all purpose flour, granulated sugar and water. Knead the levain until it forms a cohesive ball. Set in a liquid measuring cup and cover for 12 hours until the levain has doubled in size and the top is rounded.

Babka Dough Day 1

  • Set the bowl of a stand mixer on a kitchen scale. Tare the scale and add all of the ripe, stiff sweet levain (about 190 grams), flour, whole milk, sugar and eggs. Mix together with a spoon or dough whisk. Add the salt and mix together for about 6 minutes.
  • Cut the softened butter into Tablespoon sized chunks. With the dough hook running, add the butter to the center of the dough. The butter will begin to incorporate into the dough. Continue adding chunks of butter until all the butter is added.
  • Knead for a total of ten minutes until the dough is smooth, sticky and silky. It will seem very sticky, but will feel tacky and smooth.
  • Turn the dough out into a rectangular container (I use this 9 by 13 pan, affiliate link). The dough will be sticky. It can help to wet your hands before turning the dough out if it sticks to your fingers. Cover the dough (I love these plastic shower caps) and set in a warm 76-78 degree F place for 1 hour.
  • After 1 hour, wet your hands and perform one set of coil folds on the dough by lifting up in the middle of the dough and letting the sides pull up and fall under the dough. Repeat from the other direction. This is one set of coil folds. See video for how to perform a coil fold. Cover and let rest.
  • After another hour, perform a second set of coil folds on the dough. Cover and let rest for 2 more hours.
  • Transfer the dough to a container, cover tightly and set in the fridge to chill overnight or 12-24 hours.

Babka Dough Day 2

  • Prepare two 9 by 5 loaf pans (affiliate link) with parchment paper.
  • The next morning, make the Babka filling. Mix together the softened butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and flour to make a thick paste. Set aside. See recipe notes for strawberry version.
  • Pull the dough out of the refrigerator. Lightly flour a pastry mat or silpat liner (affiliate link). Turn the dough out onto the mat and cut in half.
  • Lightly flour one piece of dough and roll into a 14 by 18 inch rectangle.
  • Divide the Babka paste in two. Use your fingers to spread half the cinnamon sugar mixture over the rectangle of dough. Once the dough is covered, roll the dough up cinnamon-roll style.
  • Using a sharp knife, cut the roll in half; straight down the middle of the roll the long way. This will leave two long ropes of dough. Beginning on one end, squish the ends of the dough together and then twist the dough around each other forming the Babka loaf. Push the ends of the dough together and place the Babka in the prepared loaf pan. Repeat this process with the second loaf.
  • Cover the loaves and let rise 6-8 hours, depending on the warmth of your kitchen. This bread is made with 100% sourdough and will take much longer than a traditional loaf of bread to rise. Let it rise until it has mostly filled the loaf pan and gets light and puffy.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Whisk together the egg and a teaspoon of water. Lightly brush the egg wash on top of the bread until covered.
  • Bake Babka for 50-55 minutes until baked all the way through.
  • While the Babka is baking, prepare the simple syrup for the top of the Babka. Mix together the granulated sugar and water in a microwave safe liquid measuring cup. Microwave on high a minute at a time until boiling and all the sugar is dissolved. Mix together with a spoon and let cool until the Babka is out of the oven. The simple syrup can also be made on the stovetop. Boil the sugar and water together for about 1 minute until the sugar is completely dissolved. Cool a bit while the Babka bakes.
  • Pull Babka out of the oven and let rest in the pan for about 5-10 minutes. Remove the loaves from the pans using the parchment paper and place on a cooling rack. Pour half of the simple syrup on one loaf and half on the other loaf, using a pastry brush as needed. Let it soak into the warm bread.
  • Let the bread cool before slicing and enjoy!

Notes

Stiff Sweet Levain: I make this levain with 100% hydration sourdough starter. If you don’t have 100% hydration starter, take a Tablespoon of sourdough starter and add equal weights of water and flour to it. Let it rise and then use it in the recipe for sweet levain.
Whole Milk: If you don’t have whole milk, you can substitute 180 grams 2% milk and 20 grams heavy cream.
Strawberry Babka:  To make a strawberry filling, replace the brown sugar with white granulated sugar. Replace the cinnamon with 2 Tablespoons of crushed up freeze-dried strawberries. Combine white sugar, softened butter, crushed up freeze-dried strawberries and flour. Mix together into a paste and use in place of the cinnamon-sugar filling for a delicious strawberry flavored Babka.
Keyword artisan sourdough, artisan sourdough bread, babka, Cinnamon sugar, natural yeast babka, natural yeast bread, natural yeast enriched bread, natural yeast recipe, sourdough babka, sourdough recipe
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

21 Comments

  1. Kris Larsen

    I LOVE this recipe!! It’s delicious! And I really LOVED testing the strawberry babka. I’d happily munch on ANY of your amazing Babka loaves!! 😍🍞😋

  2. So far going well and love the recipe. But I couldn’t find the step to add the sugar on day 1. I just added it during step one for the dough, did I miss something?

    • You add it during step 1 just like you did. I will get that updated. Thanks for the heads up!

    • Heather Clendenin

      I wish I’d seen this sooner 🙈 I just realized the sugar never went into mine because I didn’t see it in the instructions. The dough is rising now I hope it still comes out ok 🙈

      • I’m sorry! I hope it turned out well. I fixed that typo in the instructions and added the sugar in with the ingredients.

  3. Baked first of what will be many Babkas. Loved it. I look forward to trying other fillings.
    Also thanks for the parchment tips and the use of the scraper when rolling the dough, both winners. Thank you!

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  5. Jennifer

    Hi Amy,

    Thanks for sharing this recipe. I am new to baking with sourdough starter. Hence, I got some questions regarding to the step of making sweet leaven and I would like to double confirm my steps with you to make sure I am on the right track. Thank you very much!!!

    In the recipe, you said that we should feed sweet leaven twice a day. And I need the following ingredients:
    – 120 grams sourdough starter (100% hydration)
    – 100 grams all purpose flour
    – 25 grams granulated sugar
    – 40 grams water

    And I need to do the following steps:

    Step 1: I have my sourdough starter ready (I took it out from fridge yesterday and fed it with same weight of water and flour.) ==> Would you call the starter as ripe starter at this moment?

    Step 2: Mix together ripe sourdough starter, flour, granulated sugar and water. Cover and let sit for about 8-12 hours. ==> The amount of ripe sourdough starter is 120 grams? Flour is 100 grams? Sugar is 25 grams? And water is 40 grams?

    Step 3: Take 120 grams of this new leaven and feed it with flour, sugar and water. Cover and let sit for 8-12 hours until bubbly, about doubled in size and passes the float test. The amount of flour, sugar and water would be the same as step 2?

    • So glad you are learning about sourdough. It really is one of my favorite things to bake. To answer your questions:

      1. Yes the sourdough is usually ripe after 8ish hours. Ripe is when the starter just reaches its highest point (it won’t rise any further but it hasn’t started coming back down yet). Usually I mark the jar to watch how much my starter is growing.

      2. Yes. Amounts are the same as you feed it again. The purpose of this is to give the bread a sweeter flavor and basically create a leaven to use with sweet dough. Doing this a couple of times helps convert your starter to be used for sweet bread. You can also use regular starter in this recipe instead of making a sweet leaven, but you may notice a bit more “tang” in the finished loaf. Some people might prefer that based on personal preference.

      3. Yes flour/sugar/water amounts are the same.

      Hope this helps!

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  8. 5 stars
    This was by far the best sweet bread I have ever eaten or made. WOW!!! Absolutely exquisite!!! I didn’t know I could make something so good! Thank you for the fabulous, easy to follow recipe! My husband was soooo impressed!!!!!

  9. Stephanie

    Hello! I’m getting ready to shape my dough now. Thinking ahead, do you know if this freezes well? I don’t need two loaves and I’m happy to gift one, but I also have an event coming up next week and am considering saving it for then.

    Thanks for your amazing recipes and insight! I always direct my friends to your page when they ask about sourdough.

    • It freezes well if it’s baked. Let it cool. Then freeze. Have it come to room temperature before serving and warm a little if you want.

  10. Hi, I’ve made this recipe several times and loved it, but it looks like you’ve changed some of the proportions. The recipe used to call for 120g of sourdough starter and 100g sugar, but now it’s 20g of each. You also took out the second feeding of the leaven. I’m worried that the recipe won’t come together the same way since the leaven amount is cut in half but all other ingredient quantities remain the same.

    • (Meant to say sugar used to be 25g and now reduced to 20g)

    • I updated this as I’ve used this same method of a sweet stiff levain in countless other recipes and want to keep the method consistent across my recipes. I also took out the second levain feeding because I’ve found it’s not necessary to add that extra step. You are free to make it as it was before, but I’ve found this way to taste just as good and be easier/more streamlined to make. It also turns out just as good, if not better – in my opinion. I’ve also had many people make it since those changes with good results.

  11. 5 stars
    My husband couldn’t believe how long this took to make. When it came out of the oven, the aroma was awesome and when he tasted it, he said it was worth the wait! I will be making it again

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