Ube Halaya Babka Dairy Free Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is babka dry? ›

Like I say in the video, try not to use any flour if you can. Too much flour can create a very DRY yeast bread.

Use your Thermapen ONE to check the temperature, looking for a temp between 180 and 190°F (82 and 88°C). If the babka is done, remove it from the oven to cool in its pan for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a cooling rack to cool further.

Israeli style babka (עוגת שמרים) is made with a laminated dough, enriched with butter, which is then folded and rolled multiple times to create many distinct layers, similar to that used for Israeli style rugelach, and also croissant dough.

What does babka taste like? Chocolate babka tastes like a sweet, tender brioche bread loaf with swirls of chocolatey goodness inside. A cinnamon babka kind of tastes like a cinnamon roll, but a little less dense. It can be served warm or at room temperature.

Like many Jewish-American specialties, babka originated in Eastern Europe – Poland and Ukraine in particular – in the early 1800s. As a way to use extra challah dough, Jews there would roll up the dough with cinnamon or fruit jam and bake it alongside the challah.

Your dough can become sticky when you add too much water or the flour isn't suitable for the type of dough you are making. Over proofing or fermenting the dough can also result in the gluten structure weakening causing sticky dough.

“If the dough has risen too long, it's going to feel fragile and might even collapse as you poke it,” says Maggie. If this is the case, there's a chance you can save your dough by giving it a quick re-shape. Learn more about this fix in our blog on saving overproofed dough.

Babka doesn't need to be refrigerated unless it contains cheese or meat. You can store leftover babka in an airtight container or wrapped tightly in plastic at room temperature for up to 5 days. If you have more than you can enjoy in that time, stale babka makes an excellent French toast or bread pudding base.

Do NOT underbake your loaves. I recommend checking them with a thermometer to make sure they're done. If you pull them out too early, the babka will sink in the middle and be doughy (it's happened to me before and it's a total bummer).

Babka originated in the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe in the early 19^th century. Part bread, part cake, the name is thought to derive from a popular Easter cake made in Poland called “baba” which means “grandmother” in Polish.

What do you eat babka with? ›

It is with great pleasure that we can say there's no wrong time to eat babka! This chocolate loaf is especially decadent, making it particularly well-suited for dessert, but if you're feeling fancy in the A.M. hours, it goes great with a cup of coffee.

Babka, which means “l*ttle grandmother” in Ukrainian, Russian, and Eastern European Yiddish is very popular where those languages are spoken. Babka used to be filled with scraps of Challah and seeds or nuts. It wasn't until Eastern European Jews arrived in New York that they decided to put chocolate in the bread.

While they are both yeasted, sweet, enriched breads, paska tends to be wide and round with dough shaped on top to form religious symbols or decorative shapes. Ukrainian babka is a tall cylinder that sometimes contains raisins and/or citrus zest, and can have icing on top.

Trader Joe's describes this as "a sweet rich pastry layered with chocolate." An 18-ounce babka costs $4.99.

Roll it up: starting with the rectangle closest to you, roll it up from the bottom along the longer edge, working evenly side to side and pulling back with your fingertips to make the roulade as tight as possible. Repeat for the second rectangle. The tighter the roulade, the more layers of chocolate you'll have.

If Your Dough Is Too Crumbly, Rosemary Says...

“Sometimes people do not put enough water or egg in the pastry. This can make it dry and crack during cooking.”

Homemade babka is best when served slightly warmed up, or at room temperature. Is brioche and babka the same? Brioche and babka are very similar. A babka is often filled with chocolate, cinnamon, or other sweet fillings and shaped into a loaf, while brioche is twisted and baked into a knot.

STORING YOUR BABKAS

Babka will always be best the same day, but they'll hold well at room temperature up to three days after baking. Store the cooled babkas in a sealed container or wrapped in plastic.

If you have too much sugar in your dough, it could gobble up almost all of the food the yeast needs, leaving you with dry, ineffective yeast. To counteract this, allow sweet doughs, like the kind used to make cinnamon rolls or babka, plenty of time to rise.