This Vegan Babka is basically like a cinnamon roll, shaped as babka. Totally worth your time and attention!
Course Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert
Cuisine American, jewish, vegan
Keyword babka
Prep Time 1 dayday
Cook Time 40 minutesminutes
Total Time 1 dayday40 minutesminutes
Servings 10people
Calories 220kcal
Author Camila Hurst
Ingredients
Vegan Babka Dough
3/4cupnon-dairy milk177 ml
2teaspoonsinstant yeast6.3 grams, 0.22 oz
1/4cupbrown sugar50 grams, 1.76 oz
2 2/3cupsall-purpose flour340 grams, 12 oz
1/2teaspoonfine sea salt
1/4cupcoconut oilroom temperature (52 grams, 1.83 oz)
4tablespoonsvegan butterroom temperature (56 grams, 2 oz)
Filling
1/2cupvegan butterroom temperature (113 grams, 4 oz)
1/2cupbrown sugar100 grams, 3.5 oz
1 1/2teaspooncinnamon powder
Glaze
1cuppowdered sugar127 grams, 4.5 oz
2tablespoonsnon-dairy milk
1teaspoonvanilla bean pasteor vanilla extract
Instructions
Vegan Babka Dough
Heat milk until it’s lukewarm (90 - 100F). Add yeast and brown sugar, mix to combine.
Add flour, salt and start mixing with a spoon or with your mixer. You can use the paddle attachment on this part, but I just go straight for the dough hook.
Slowly start to add butter and coconut oil 1 tablespoon of each at a time, while you mix.
If you were using the paddle attachment to mix the ingredients, switch to the dough hook now. Knead the dough for 8 minutes, until it’s smooth, incorporated, springy, and tacky, but not sticky.
At this point, place the dough in a bowl lightly coated with oil.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge overnight.*
Filling
Mix butter with brown sugar and cinnamon powder. Stir to combine and incorporate.
Assembly
Prepare a loaf pan by greasing it lightly with oil spray or coconut oil, or butter. You can also use a piece of parchment paper on the pan, to line the bottom and sides to make sure the dough won’t stick. In my experience the dough won’t stick if I remove it from the pan while the bread is still kind of hot.
Remove dough from the fridge and work with the cold dough.
Place it on a surface barely dusted with flour. And start rolling it.
Roll it into a 12”x16” rectangle. Use a knife to trim the sides if you want. You can roll the trimmings and bake them. (or let your 3 year old play with them, if you are me)
Spread the filling all over the surface of the dough, leaving half an inch on each side of the rectangle.
From the shortest side, start to roll up the dough into a log.
Place the log in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Trust me on this one, it will make the process much cleaner and less messy, and your babka will look way better once baked, since the filling won’t have leaked everywhere.
Remove the log from the fridge, slice it in half lengthwise.
You will end up with two halves like this.
Cross both halves in the middle like an X.
Start braiding from the middle to the bottom, and them braid from the middle to the top.
Tuck the ends in and place the babka in the loaf pan.
Let dough rise for 60-90 minutes, depending on how warm your kitchen is, and if the dough came straight from the fridge. It might take even longer for the dough to rise, if it’s a cold day.
Dough will be ready once you touch its surface lightly with your finger and the dough springs back.
Pre-heat the oven to 350F.
Bake dough in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Babka should be golden on top, and cooked in the middle.
Remove from the oven. Let dough cool before pouring glaze on top.
Glaze
To make the glaze, combine powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Whisk until incorporated and smooth. Pour over babka, let the glaze dry before slicing the loaf.
Storage
Store in the fridge for up to 4 days, let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
*I really recommend letting the dough rest in the fridge overnight for best results. However, if you want to make this on the same day, you can let the dough rise on the counter for about 2 hours, and then place it in the fridge for another 2 hours. The quality won’t be the same, but it will save you some time if you are in a pinch.