Time: 30min prep / 1.5 hr rise / 30min shaping / 1 hr rise / 40min bake
Servings: 2 loaves
Rating: 4.5/5
Recipe by Tara Kringlen from The Marble Kitchen: https://www.themarblekitchen.com/blueberry-cream-cheese-babka/
INGREDIENTS
Blueberry preserves
- 3 cups blueberries
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tbs lemon juice
Cream Cheese Filling
- 8 oz cream cheese, room temp
- 1/2 cup sugar
Babka Dough
- 1 cup milk
- 2.25 tsp yeast
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 10 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp
INSTRUCTIONS
- Combine blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice into saucepan. Simmer and crush berries for 15min until thickened. Refrigerate mixture.
- Warm milk and add in yeast. Let stand for 5 min or until yeast foams.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt.
- Add eggs, vanilla, and yeast mixture to large mixing bowl with flour. Mix until dough is smooth.
- Add in butter and mix until dough is sticky.
- Cover bowl and let rise until dough doubled, about 1-1.5 hours.
- Mix cream cheese and sugar together until combined.
- Divide dough in half. Roll each half out into a 12″x16″ rectangle. (Refrigerate dough for easier handling)
- Leave a 1″x16″ border along the long edge. Spread cream cheese over dough rectangle. Spread half of blueberry preserves along top.
- Roll dough into a log and seal with the clean border. Cut log in half along the long direction to make two half circle cylinders.
- Pinch ends together and twist the two strands one over the other to make the braid. Pinch the end tight. Place in a covered loaf pan to rise for an hour.
- Shape the other loaf and let rise.
- Bake at 350 deg F for 40min or until golden brown.
Thoughts
Next time, I would half the recipe to make 1 loaf instead of 2. It was very delicious and moist. I might double the cream cheese next time. The filling can be substituted with jam or other sweet spreads. I skipped the sugar topping, definitely not necessary. The braiding process can also be a little messy.
