Cheese Babka Bread Recipe

Cheese Babka is a Polish bread traditionally made for Easter. This loaf is filled with cream cheese and brightened with lemon zest.

As many of you know, one of my goals is to learn more about baking and cooking. Bread is one of those things that I wanted to learn more about. I love baking bread, but there are some very technical aspects to baking bread that I have yet to master. I was pretty excited to try this Cheese Babka.

With Easter, I wanted to find a bread that would work on my table. I went online and started investigating “holiday breads”. The recipe that I decided to make was called Cheese Babka and it said that it was a Polish bread traditionally made for Easter.

This recipe exceeded my expectations. It has a sweetened cream cheese filling flavored with lemon zest. The crumb was moist as was the crust. It’s baked in a bundt pan and is so pretty and stands tall when it’s popped from the pan.

I learned a few things when I made this bread. After you spread the filling over the dough, the recipe has you roll the bread into a log and then twist it into a rope.

I was a bit nervous doing this because I didn’t want all of my filling to squish out. I ended up twisting the bottom a bit tighter than the top.

The result was that I didn’t lose the filling but there was a gap where the filling met the dough at the end that was rolled loosely.

I made a few changes to the ingredients. The recipe calls for farmers cheese and I substituted cream cheese. It also called for dried lemon peel. I used fresh, and can’t imagine doing it any other way. I will definitely use this technique again. This bread is delicious!

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Cheese Babka Bread Recipe

Cheese Babka is a Polish bread traditionally made for Easter. This loaf is filled with cream cheese and brightened with lemon zest.

Prep Time 45 mins

Cook Time 45 mins

2 hrs 30 mins

Total Time 4 hrs

Servings 12

Author Hostess At Heart

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

Dough

• 1 .25 ounce package active dry yeast
• 1/8 tsp white sugar
• 1/4 cup warm water 110 degrees F
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter melted

• 1/4 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp salt

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 3/4 cup

  milk


  warmed
• 3 eggs

• 4 cups all-purpose flour divided

Filling

• 1 1/2 cups farmers cheese or cream cheese
• 1/3 cup white sugar

• 1 1/2 tbsp sour cream
• 1 egg

• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp dried lemon peel I used fresh

• 2 tbsp butter melted

Instructions

• In a small bowl sprinkle the yeast and a pinch of sugar over the warm water and stir to dissolve.  Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.
• Combine the butter, sugar, salt, vanilla, milk,eggs and 1 cup of flour and mix well. Add the yeast mixture and stir to combine. Gradually add remaining flour. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and kneed until smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a round and place it in a large greased bowl, turning once to coat. Cover with a plastic dough and allow to rise at room temperature until doubled, approximately 1-1/2 hours.
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, combine the farmers’ cheese, sugar, sour cream, egg, vanilla extract and lemon peel. Beat together until smooth. Set aside. Lightly oil a bundt pan.
• Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and pat into a 10-inch by 12-inch rectangle.  Spread the 2 tablespoons over the surface of the dough and then the cheese over the butter.  Roll the dough up like a jelly roll, starting from the long end; twist the dough 6 to 8 times to form a rope.  Pinch the seams and ends closed and arrange the rope of dough in the greased pan.  Cover loosely and let rise, 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Bake until deep golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes; invert onto a wire rack and remove the pan.  Allow to cool for at least 2 hours before slicing.

Notes

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com

Nutrition

Serving: 12g | Calories: 350kcal | Carbohydrates: 43g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 92mg | Sodium: 457mg | Potassium: 85mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 408IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 36mg | Iron: 2mg

This recipe was calculated using the exact brands and measurements I used to make this recipe. If you are following a strict diet please note changing anything will cause the nutritional info to change. My calculations are intended as a guide only.

Tried this recipe? That’s awesome!Mention @hostessatheart or tag #hostessatheart!

TwelveLoaves is no longer active but the amazing recipes from our baking party are!

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• Cheese Babka from Hostess At Heart
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• Cream Cheese and Cherry Buns from girlichef
• Feta & Olive Swirls from The Bread She Bakes
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