Lemon Streusel Twisted Babka

This recipe is from a great new book, Holiday and Celebration Bread in Five Minutes a Day, written by Zoe Francois and Jeff Herzberg. Zoe and Jeff are the authors of the groundbreaking book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

I’ve been baking from Artisan Bread in Five since 2009, so I was excited when their publisher offered to send me a copy of their new cookbook to review.

Zoe and Jeff’s Babka recipe in Holiday and Celebration Bread was adapted from a Ukrainian recipe. The dough uses 16 egg yolks! Although you’ll get three babkas from one batch of dough.

Since it’s a thick dough, they recommend making the dough in a stand mixer. Then you’ll transfer the dough to a lidded 6 quart container to rest in the refrigerator overnight.

The picture on the left above is before the dough has rested on the counter for 2 hours. The picture on the right above is after an overnight rest in the refrigerator. 

It’s a sticky dough so keep your hands, and the rolling pin well floured. I like to roll the dough out on a silicone mat, but you can also roll out the dough on a well floured counter. 

Once the dough is rolled out into a rectangle, you’ll spread the lemon curd on top of the dough. If you put dollops of the curd all around the dough, it’s easier to spread. Then you’ll sprinkle ¾ of the streusel on top of the lemon curd before rolling it up into a log.

Since the dough is sticky, I use a bench scrapper to help roll the dough into a log. Just flour the bench scrapper and gentle loosen any spots that are sticking to the mat or counter. 

Shaping the Babka

One of the nice things about the book is every recipe has a photo, many with great step by step photos that help explain how to shape the dough. The collage of pictures above is from the book. 

Once you have the dough rolled into a log, you’ll cut the log in half lengthwise with a bench scrapper. Then turn the cut sides of each half face side up and carefully twist the halves together. Then shape the dough into an oval and place it in the prepared loaf pan. 

Here’s another picture from the cookbook that shows the loaf after it has risen for 90 minutes sprinkled with the reserved ¼ of the streusel topping. 

Adding oats and nuts was optional, but I love almonds, so I added sliced almonds to my streusel.

I inadvertently skipped the direction to use parchment paper to line the loaf pan. I would definitely use parchment paper next time so it’s easier to remove from the pan. 

Baking the Babka

Just when my bread was perfectly risen and ready to go in the oven, we had an unusual power outage. Luckily, my daughter only lives 10 minutes away. So I called her and asked her to preheat her oven and drove my pretty loaf over to my daughter’s house to bake.  

The loaf has to bake for 45 minutes, so I was able to hold my brand new baby granddaughter while it was baking. So all in all it was a lucky break the power went out.

My daughter’s house smelled amazing while the babka was baking. And I couldn’t have been more pleased with how my babka turned out. Unfortunately for my daughter, I had to bring the bread back to my house without cutting it so I could take pictures. (I did take her some slices later.) 

The directions say to bake the babka until it’s golden brown and well set. I baked it for the recommended 45 minutes even though my daughter wondered if we should take it out earlier because it browned up quickly. The recommended 45 minutes was perfect for us. 

The lemon curd recipe makes more than you’ll need for 1 loaf of bread. My husband and I spread a little extra lemon curd on the bread while we were eating it. 

We couldn’t have loved this bread more. It’s a beautiful bread and sort of like eating a sweet roll.

The lemon streusel twist babka was fun to make and came together easily because I made the bread over two days. The first day I made the dough, the lemon curd, and the streusel. The next day I shaped and baked the dough. 

Babka Variations

The recipe makes enough for 3 loaves of babka. I could have made 3 loaves of the Lemon Streusel Twisted Babka but since my husband and I enjoyed the lemon curd on the slices of bread, I decided to try two of the other versions of the babka in the cookbook. 

There’s directions for making a Chocolate-Raisin Babka Bundt, a Twisted Bundt Babka, and a Coconut Chocolate Twist Babka. I switched things up and made a loaf of Chocolate-Craisin Babka and a Coconut Chocolate Twist Babka Bundt in my coffee cake pan. 

Zoe and Jeff describe the Coconut Chocolate Twist Babka “like having a candy bar twisted into a loaf.” There’s sweetened condensed milk in the filling and it caramelizes while the bread bakes turning it into a sort of dulce de leche combined with coconut and chocolate. We loved this loaf even more than the lemon babka, which I didn’t think was possible.

However, this decadent bread really does need the parchment lining. It was a pain to get out of the pan once the filling started to cool. So be sure and line the pan with parchment and remove it from the pan as soon as it comes out of the oven. 

If you enjoy baking bread for special occasions, you’re going to love this new cookbook. Holiday and Celebration Bread in Five Minutes a Day is filled with fun to make creative breads. I can’t wait to try more of the recipes. You can get a sneak peak of some of the recipes on Zoe Bakes.