Description
A delicate raised dough, wrapped around ribbons of a lightly sweet cheese filling with a crumb topping
Ingredients
Scale
for the dough:
- 1 cup whole milk, warmed (110 F)
- 1 packet dry active yeast
- 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk
- 4 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temp
for the filling:
- 16 ounces farmer’s cheese
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 egg yolk
for the crumb topping:
- 1 egg white
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup softened butter
Instructions
for dough:
- Add warm milk to a mixing bowl with yeast, and 1 tablespoon of sugar, stir and let sit for 5 minutes, it should become foamy
- Add remaining sugar, egg, egg yolk, flour and salt, mix until well combined using mixer dough hook for 5 minutes, add butter and mix until fully incorporated about 3 minutes, the dough will be tacky
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temp for an hour, divide dough in half, wrap each piece in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight
for filling:
- Add the cheese, sugar, and egg yolk to the bowl of a food processs and process until smooth.
- Chill.
to assemble:
- Grease 2 9-inch loaf pans
- Roll each piece of dough out to a 16 inch square, spread with 1/2 of the filling, avoiding 1/2 inch around the edge of the dough, roll up as snugly as possible
- Fold the dough in the middle, imagine a hairpin. Hold one end and twist. , place the spiraled dough in prepared pans
- Cover and let rise at room temp for 1-2 hours, during this time preheat the oven to 375 F.
- Brush the loaves with egg white. Combine ingredients for the crumb topping and sprinkle over the babkas.
- Bake 45-50 minutes, internal temp should be 195 F, cool 10 minutes, run a knife around the edge of the pans to remove.
Notes
Let me just warm you that assembling this is a messy process. The dough is very soft. The filling wants to run. Just carry on and know that it will all be covered with the crumb topping.