Babka

babkaFrom Sharon via her mother-in-law

Yeast dough:
1 cup whole milk
2 packages dry yeast
1-1/2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon sugar

Scald milk, remove from heat and cool.  When cool, add yeast, flour and sugar.  Mix well and set aside.

Next part of dough:
1-1/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup butter
12 egg yolks
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6-1/2 cups flour
1 cup golden raisins

Scald milk with butter. Set aside to cool.  In a large bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar until light and fluffy (use a kitchen aid mixer with a whisk attachment if you can).  Add salt and vanilla.  Add flour, 1 cup at a time, alternately with cooled milk-butter mixture (switch to dough hook).  After you have added 4 cups of flour, add the cooled milk-yeast mixture from earlier.  Add raisins.  Set a handful of dough aside for the topping.

Let the dough rise until double in size.  Punch down and put in 2 or 3 greased loaf pans (depending on size).  Add crumbled topping (recipe below) and rise again until double.  Bake at 350o for about 25-30 minutes.

Topping:
Handful of dough
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup butter, room temperature

Hopefully many of you have been making babka and this recipe will give you something new to try.

- Recipe courtesy of Cathy Pollack