So you thought babka needs to be sliced? This babka is simply pull, pull, pulled… and then poof… it’s gone.
When I was growing up, I took my mother’s cooking for granted. She has always liked experimenting with new recipes and unique ingredients. Looking back, I think she was a bit of a foodie before it was officially a word.
When I got married and began cooking, I gained both an appreciation for my mother’s inventiveness… and the constant aromas of my mother-in-law’s baked goods. I bring both of their influences into my own kitchen. It’s rare that you can walk into my mother-in-law’s kitchen and find that she’s not baking. Although all her baked goods are beyond amazing, this is an all-time favorite.
Babka Buns
Ingredients
Dough:
- 2 oz yeast (3 packets or 6¾ tsp dry yeast)
- 1¾ cups warm water
- 7 cups flour
- 3 sticks margarine, softened
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 whole eggs
- 2 egg yolks
Filling:
- 1 cup cocoa
- 2 cups sugar
- ½ cup water
- 1 egg
- 1 (approx. 4-ounce) package instant chocolate pudding
- 2 sticks margarine, melted
Streusel Crumbs (optional):
- 1 stick margarine
- 1 cup flour
- ¾ cup sugar
Instructions
- In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine flour, margarine, sugars, salt, eggs, and yolks. Add yeast/water mixer and mix to combine. Let dough rise for 1 hour. The dough will be sticky.
- Prepare the filling. In a medium bowl, combine cocoa, sugar, water, egg, pudding powder, and margarine, and mix with a spoon. Set aside.
- Prepare the streusel crumbs, if using. In the bowl of an electric mixer, or by hand, combine margarine, flour, and sugar and mix or knead to form crumbs. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- To assemble, divide dough into 4 equals parts. Roll out each part on a floured surface into an approximately 6-inch by 18-inch rectangle. Spread filling evenly over doughs and roll each up into a long strip.
- Cut strips into 1½-inch pieces. Line the buns in rows on prepared baking sheet, leaving ¼-inch space between each piece. Sprinkle with streusel crumbs.
- Bake for 30-45 minutes, until golden brown. I like to lift out one bun to make sure the bottom is not raw before removing from oven.
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I’m so happy to see that Rachel Soloman has a recipe featured! I try her recipes all the time from Binah Magazine. They are all fab! These look heaven!
YUM! These look DIVINE!
Totally having this in my oven tonight.
I’m salivating for this right now.
I Just got around to trying this recipe and OH EMM GEEEE!!! they are DEVINE!. it’s funny bec I have been following @thejewishwomanslife for a while and I always find her food very appealing. We want more! B-)
XOXO
Rikki S.
Los Angeles, CA
Heavenly buns!! Just made two batches one for now and more for yom tov!!
Thanks!!
I tried these babkas. I am generally margarine free but these looked too good. They are divine.
This was the best Babka I have ever tasted! C’mon Rachel Solomon, give us some more recipes like this!
How much yeast does this recipe calls for. I don’t understand what “2 ounces yeast (3 ¼-ounce packets)”
How many teaspoons?
It’s 6 3/4 tsp of dry yeast.
Thank you! We tried it! It is out of this world!!!
Put some in the freezer! Too dangerous to have so many available!!
Thank you!
Thank you!
Can’t wait to try it!
Looks great… approx how many buns does 1 batch make?
48
Just tried these…B’H they came out HEAVEN!
I subbed oil for margarine: in the dough I put 1 and a 1/4 cups, in the filling I put 2/3 cup, and in the crumbs I started with a little oil and added as necessary.
It’s delicious!
thanks for the margarine to oil conversion!
yuuummmmm
Do you coat with egg before adding the crumbs?
HI i made these i just found the baking time too little.
it says 30-45 mins, i put it in for 35 and came out very over done… the second batch i did for 20 mins that was good!!!
anyone else have similar experience with this?
do we need to take challah from these?
YUMMM but the buns came out messy and ugly, so I made the rest into kokush rolls instead. Heaven dough, amazing gooey filling but not artificial tasting (like some others with pudding powder)!! and great amount of filling! I find so often that there’s not enough filling per dough ratio and this one was perfect. Made a double batch to stock the freezer
The dough is crumby, it did not turn into a dough 🙁 what did I do wrong?