Poppy Seeds Babka

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Poppy seeds are super popular where I'm from. We use them in tons of desserts, and the most popular one is strudel with poppy seed filling—it's so tasty. Today, I'm sharing one of my all-time favorite recipes: poppy seed babka. It's packed with flavor, looks amazing, and is just perfect for a cozy autumn day with a cup of tea.

Tips and notes for a perfect babka

• Make the poppy seed filling the day before. This way, you'll have plenty of time, and it thickens overnight, so you won't have to worry about it spilling out of the babka dough.

• If you've got a stand mixer, definitely use it to knead the dough. The better you knead it, the lighter your babka will turn out.

• Bake it just right! This can be a bit tricky. You’ll likely need to poke it with a toothpick a few times to see if it’s ready. Start checking after 40 minutes—if the toothpick comes out clean from the middle of the babka, it’s done. If not, keep it in for another 10 minutes and check again. To prevent the top from burning, cover it with aluminum foil after 30-35 minutes in the oven.

• Use ingredients that are at room temperature, and make sure your butter is nice and soft too. If the butter's still too cold, it won't mix into the dough properly.

• Pick a good quality flour because it really matters. For most of my baking, I use FARINA "00" PASTICCERIA - CAPUTO, it never lets me down.

• If you can, grab some pre-ground poppy seeds. If not, you'll have to grind them yourself using a coffee grinder, or like I did with a food processor, though it took quite a while.

Ingredients

Babka dough

• 300 g flour

• 50g granulated sugar

• 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

• Zest of 1 lemon

• 2 large eggs, room temp

• 65 ml whole milk, room temp

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 tsp almond extract

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 80 g butter, room temp and sliced into smaller parts

Poppy seeds filling 120 g

120 g grinded poppy seeds

125 g whole milk

30 g butter

100 g sugar

1 pinch of salt

2 egg yolks beaten

Sugar syrup

3 tbsp granulated sugar

3 tbsp water

Sugar glaze

50 g icing sure

1 tbsp milk

Instructions

1. Make your poppy seed filling. Grind the poppy seeds.

2. While that's happening, warm up the milk, butter, salt, and sugar over medium heat until the sugar melts and the milk gets frothy.

3. Gradually pour a bit of the hot milk into the egg yolks while whisking quickly with your other hand. This process, known as tempering, keeps the eggs from scrambling. Once you've mixed in about half of the milk with the eggs, pour it all back into the saucepan and cook on medium-low heat until it thickens, just like making pudding. It will take a while.

4. Stir in the poppy seeds and mix everything together. Let it cool down, and you'll notice the filling gets thicker as it cools. You can keep it in the fridge for up to a week or freeze it for up to 3 months.

5. Make the babka dough. Mix the flour, yeast, sugar, and lemon zest in a big bowl.

6. Throw in the eggs, vanilla, almond, milk and salt then mix everything together until it starts forming a dough.

7. Add the softened butter little by little. Make sure each bit mixes well into the dough before adding more.

8. Keep kneading the dough for around 15 minutes. You'll notice it getting more elastic and not sticking as much to the bowl. If it's still too sticky after 15 minutes, just add a spoonful of flour. Be careful not to add too much though, because you want the dough to stay soft.

9. Shape the dough into a ball, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise for about 3 hours. This dough is rich in fat so it take longer for it to rise. If you have time, I recommend leaving it in the fridge overnight—it'll be easier to shape your babka when the dough is cold. But if you're in a hurry, that's okay too.

10. When you're all set to make your babka, move the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out into a rectangle that's about 1 cm thick.

Ready to rise again

Doubled in size babka, ready for the oven

11. Spread your puppy seed filling over the dough nice and even. Feel free to be generous, but don't go overboard, or it might leak out while baking.

12. Roll up your dough from the short side, just like you do when making cinnamon rolls.

13. Stand your rolled-up dough vertically and use a sharp knife to cut the log in half.

14. Put one half on top of the other like in the picture above, and make sure to tuck the ends in well so they don't come apart.

15. Pop the dough into a lightly greased standard loaf pan and let it rise until it's doubled in size, which should take about an hour.

16. When it’s almost twice as big, preheat your oven to 180°C. Once it’s ready, pop your babka in there and bake for about 45 minutes or until it’s done. (make sure to read the notes for baking it up perfectly)

17. When your babka's nearly done, whip up the syrup by mixing sugar and water, then let it simmer for a minute.

    
    

18. Place your babka on a cooling rack, and while it's still hot, give it a brush with the syrup.

19. After 15 min you can take your babka out of the pan and leave it on a cooling rack to cool more.

20. You can whip up your white glaze now if you feel like it, but it's totally up to you.

21. Place your glaze in a freezer bag, snip a small corner, and drizzle it over your babka.