Sourdough Cinnamon Sugar Babka
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.
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.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!