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Cheese Babka – #TwelveLoaves

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

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.

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

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 in the end that was rolled loosely.

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

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 – #TwelveLoaves

Cheese Babka is a Polish bread traditionally made for Easter. This loaf is filled with cream cheese and brightened with lemon zest.
Prep Time 3 hrs 40 mins
Cook Time 45 mins
Total Time 4 hrs 25 mins
Servings 12
Author Hostess At Heart

Ingredients

Dough

  • 1 .25 ounce package active dry yeast
  • 1 pinch 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 teaspoons salt

  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

  • 3/4 cup lukewarm milk

  • 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 tablespoons sour cream
  • 1 egg

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

  • 2 tablespoons 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
Prep time includes inactive time.
Tried this recipe? That's awesome!Mention @hostessatheart or tag #hostessatheart!

#TwelveLoaves is a monthly bread baking party created by Lora from Cake Duchess and runs smoothly with the help of Heather of girlichef, and the rest of our fabulous bakers.

Our host this month is Robin from A Shaggy Dough Story, and our theme is CHEESE. For more bread recipes, visit the #TwelveLoaves Pinterest board, or check out last month’s mouthwatering selection of #TwelveLoaves enter last month’s Italian Breads!

If you’d like to bake along with us this month, share your CHEESE bread using hashtag #TwelveLoaves!

This recipe is also making it’s way to Fiesta Friday now with its own website! We have Angie of The Novice Gardener and her co-hosts Julianna @Foodie On Board and Hilda @Along The Grapevine running the show this week!

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Comments

  2. kudoskitchen says

    April 15, 2015 at 3:30 pm

    Your babka looks delicious and I love that you chose cream cheese and fresh lemon zest. I love the way you write too. Lovely post, lovely recipe.

    Reply

  3. Nancy says

    April 14, 2015 at 2:06 pm

    Bravo to you, Julie, for your successful Babka! It looks picture perfect and I imagine it tasted fabulous. Love your substitution of cream cheese for the farmer’s cheese!

    Reply

  4. stephysweetbakes says

    April 14, 2015 at 7:40 am

    Julie bang up job on this and I just KNOW how amazing it was, I can smell it from here. We both share the love of breads and cakes, yummy lol

    Reply

  8. Lili says

    April 13, 2015 at 12:13 pm

    It’s great to finally see your cheese babka!! Looks delicious Julie!!! Look forward to making it with cheese and ham one day! 🙂

    Reply

  9. Jhuls says

    April 13, 2015 at 1:47 am

    If I could just grab a slice. I am taking my tea right now and a slice of this would be perfect. This looks really simple and delicious, Julie. Have a great week. xx

    Reply

  13. Loretta says

    April 11, 2015 at 7:15 am

    Wow Julie, you’ve become quite daring in the bread-making department. This Cheese Babka looks just gorgeous, and I’m sure with all those yummy ingredients, it went down a treat. How beautiful it looks! This was your first attempt? Bravo to you. Taking those challenges has got to make it pretty motivating for you and definitely more confident in bread baking eh? I still use your English Muffin Bread recipe all the time, it’s so quick and easy to whip up. I hope you are fairing well and that PT is doing it’s thing. I’ve missed this post of yours again, not sure how??

    Reply

    • Julie is Hostess At Heart says

      April 11, 2015 at 7:35 am

      Thank you Loretta! This is my first attempt at this recipe and it was fun and I learned a few things. I do enjoy baking bread and there is still a lot to learn which is fun. I’m down to one crutch and moving quicker! I do love that English muffin bread recipe too. I’ts great for breakfast with a great texture.

      Reply

  15. illcookyouwash says

    April 10, 2015 at 7:46 pm

    That looks great, Julie! I’ve never had cheese babka before but I have plans to make at some point because I LOVE cheese and will try any and every cheese related thing lol.

    Reply

  18. chefjulianna says

    April 10, 2015 at 3:00 pm

    Wow, I take my hat off to you, Julie! This looks amazing! I am also trying to learn a bit more about baking and breads, but then I have to find time to do that too! Congrats on your Babka and thanks so much for sharing this with us today at FF! 😀

    Reply

  20. Cecilia says

    April 10, 2015 at 11:39 am

    I started some years ago my own breadmaking adventure. And now I cannot imagine buying any bread anymore – except it’s an emergency. Babka is one of my favorites, the chocolate of course. Now I have your recipe that I want to try, it sounds so great! Thank you for sharing.

    Reply

  24. Amanda says

    April 8, 2015 at 9:37 pm

    What a beautiful bread!! Baking is something I’m trying to master as well, and I must say, bread is one that always makes me nervous. There’s just something about it that can be intimidating. You did GREAT! I love that #TwelveLoaves idea as well 😀

    Reply

  30. Selma's Table says

    April 8, 2015 at 7:19 am

    Julie, this looks amazing – and I absolutely love the combination of cream cheese and lemon zest! Gorgeous – would never think that it was your first go!!

    Reply

  34. tentimestea says

    April 7, 2015 at 4:38 pm

    Oh yum, this sounds delicious, and an interesting filling! It must make a wonderful breakfast 🙂
    12 loaves sounds like an interesting event; I’m interested in forcing myself to bake bread more often so I may take a look!! 🙂

    Reply

  37. simplyvegetarian777 says

    April 7, 2015 at 1:13 pm

    This is just gorgeous Julie! I wish to join this party at sometime too. Sounds like so much fun. I can’t imagine the textures and flavors of it..:must have been awesome! Bookmarking it!

    Reply

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