Poppy seed babka is full of hidden flavor and is so so pretty
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Making a batch of poppy seed babka is one of the most satisfying things you’ll bake: full of bright citrus flavors of lemon and candied orange peel and the crunch of poppy seeds all in a gorgeous dramatic twist of a bread is something you should treat yourself to right now.
Oh, and there’s streusel, because I’m always looking for more excuses to use streusel. If you’ve never worked with poppy seeds before, you are missing out on their addictive crunch and their mysterious nutty floral flavor. You can try them also in poppy seed rolls, in the best kolache filling, or poppy seed cookies.
All in all, this is a really fun bread to make and it’s perfect for a breakfast bread when you don’t want to make a batch of cinnamon rolls. And for people like me who genuinely love shaping dough, the babka twist has a lot to offer. It may look complicated, but this is easy easy easy to achieve and so lovely to look at. Like my yeast dough strudel, this is a bread that will feed a lot of people in one go and can easily be frozen for later.
There’s so much winning to be had with this bread.
Poppy Seed Babka
What is babka anyhow?
Babka is a yeasted bread made with a dough rich in sugar, eggs, and butter before being filled. After you spread the filling on a rectangle of dough, the dough gets rolled up cinnamon-roll style, then you cut the dough lengthwise to expose the layers of filling. The exposed layers get twisted or braided together to form it’s characteristic beautiful pattern.
It hails from Eastern Europe (Poland and Ukraine are known for theirs) though it’s traveled on down to Israel among Jews who brought it to places like New York. Similar breads can be found across Europe. Mohnstriezel is a rolled or braided version from Germany, and Czechs make Makový závin.
While you can fill a babka with just about anything, chocolate, poppy seed, apples, and cinnamon sugar are favorites. I often ask myself when I’m making a filling, “Can you babka this?” The answer is almost always yes. Sometimes babka is brushed with a sugar syrup afterwards to add moisture and shine to the bread. If you top it with streusel as I do in mine, it’s not necessary to brush it with syrup.
Why this bread will drive away dreary Winter days
- So much good flavor: My poppy seed filling is one of my favorite things I make. My daughter and I will eat it straight on toast, and it makes everything better. The combo of the orange and lemon with a little jam in the poppy seeds gives you a taste of layers upon layers of interesting flavor you won’t get from a regular jam.
- Just plain gorgeous: Babka, with it’s twists and turns visible in its twisted pattern is always a striking bread, and with a high contrast filling like poppy seed, it’s all the more beautiful. If we eat first with our eyes, it’s hard to pass this one up.
- It’s different: everybody loves chocolate babka and for good reason, but this brighter, lighter cousin deserves to be known more.
- So soft and delicate: While this bread looks sturdy, it’s actually spongy and light, making it a tea party worthy dessert you should serve on your best dishes.
Ingredients for Poppy seed babka
Dough
- Milk
- Butter
- Sugar
- Yeast
- Warm water
- Eggs
- Lemon zest
- Vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- Salt
filling and topping
Pro tips when you’re making babka
- Assemble where you’re baking: When you’re first starting to make babka, I find it’s much easier to plop the dough log right on the tray you’re baking it on. Here you’ll be able to shape the babka without worrying about having to lift it up and move it. It’s much sturdier than you think, but you won’t believe that until you’ve made a few babka.
- Cut clean: Cutting through the log of rolled dough can be a hold your breath moment. Use a sharp serrated knife or a bench scraper to cut clean through the dough easily. I find it’s best to only cut half of the log at a time to keep it from becoming unwieldy.
- Don’t smear the filling: When you brush the logs with egg wash, brush down the stripes of dough instead of across them. This way, you’ll keep the filling intact and avoid smearing the filling.
Beyond poppy seeds: Different fillings for your babka
As I said, poppy seed babka is but one choice among and endless list. Here are some other things to fill your babka with:
Poppy seed babka
- Total Time: about 3 hours
- Yield: 30 slices 1x
Description
This is one of the most striking breads you’ll ever make. With bold stripes of twisted poppy seed filling alternating with airy sweet yeast dough, this is the kind of bread that will draw you in and make friends with you forever.
Ingredients
Cardamom Streusel
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour (85 g)
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar (50 g)
- 3 tablespoons melted butter (36 g)
- 1/4 teaspoon cardamom
Dough
- 1/4 cup warm water (59 mL)
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1/2 cup whole milk (118 mL)
- 1 stick butter (113 g)
- 1/2 cup sugar (100 g)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- zest from 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- 3 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (455 g)
Filling
1 cup poppy seed filling
Instructions
Make the streusel
- To make the streusel, In a small bowl, mix the flour, brown sugar and cardamom together until the sugar is evenly distributed in the flour.
- Pour in the melted butter, then use a fork to toss the ingredients together. Stir everything together until the crumbs start to form.
- Cover the bowl, and refrigerate the mixture until you’re done prepping the cake.
Make the dough
- Measure out the sugar, and then sprinkle a pinch of it into a small bowl with the warm water and yeast. Stir to dissolve, and then set aside for about 5 minutes until the yeast is foamy.
Heat the milk in a small pan until you see bubbles at the edges. Cut up the butter then stir it into the hot milk to melt along with the rest of the sugar. When the butter is melted, crack in the eggs and beat them until you get a smooth mixture.
Mix the flour and the salt in a large mixing bowl or a stand mixer and then make a well in the center. Pour the milk/butter mixture into the well, then the yeast mixture as well as the vanilla paste and lemon zest.- Stir the ingredients with a wooden spoon to make a shaggy dough.
- For kneading, by machine, switch to the dough hook on your mixer and let the mixer run on low speed until you get a smooth, sticky, elastic dough, about 5 minutes To knead by hand: turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and use a bench scraper to slap the dough down, then bring the edges towards the center. Repeat this motion for 10 minutes, until you have a smooth elastic dough. Resist the urge to add more flour. This dough will be quite soft, but most of the stickiness will go away after the dough has risen.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set aside to rise for about 90 minutes. Meanwhile, make the poppy seed filling if you haven’t already.
Assemble the babka
- Divide the dough into 2 pieces.
- Line a sheet tray with a piece of parchment.
- Lightly flour a pastry cloth or a clean kitchen towel.
- Divide the dough in two parts.
Sprinkle a little flour on one portion of the dough and then roll out the dough into a rectangle about 11” x 14”. 
- Spread about 1/2 cup of the poppy seed filling over the dough.
- Roll the dough over itself on the long edge into a tight log.
- Pinch the seam on the bottom of the log to seal it well, and then tuck the ends under or pinch the rolled edges of the seam well so that the filling does not leak out during baking.
- Place the dough log onto the parchment lined sheet tray.
- Cut through the log from the center to the end. This will expose all the layers of filling. Rotate the dough pieces upwards so that you can see the filling, and then twist the two pieces of dough together to make a twist.
- Turn the baking pan around and then cut through the second half of the log from the center to the end. Twist these two pieces together.
- Repeat the rolling and filling for the second piece of dough.
- Cover the logs with a clean kitchen towel to rise for 45 minutes.
- Towards the end of the 45 minutes, preheat the oven to 350 F (180 F).
- Just before baking, beat together the egg and milk to make an egg wash. Brush the logs well with the egg wash. Brush on the egg wash down the exposed stripes of dough rather than across them to avoid smearing the filling.
- Sprinkle the logs with plenty of streusel (you can freeze any that is left over).
- Bake the logs for 20-25 minutes until the dough is set and the middle springs back when you touch it.
- Allow the logs to cool completely before slicing.
- Store the babka at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze the baked logs for longer storage.
Notes
Freezer babka: If you want to make this recipe exclusively for freezing, it’s best to divide each log into 2 before baking. This will give you 4 babkas and each will be the perfect size for fitting into a gallon Ziploc bag.
Can I use another filling?: You can babka just about any filling, so feel free to get creative. Homemade nutella, or any kind of jam are particularly nice. Avoid canned poppy seed filling. It tastes nothing like the homemade stuff, which takes less than 10 minutes to make.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- + 2 hours 15 minutes for rising:
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Morning breads
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: German
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 153
- Sugar: 8 g
- Sodium: 49.5 mg
- Fat: 5.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 22.3 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Cholesterol: 24.3 mg
