Polish Babka Bread

[piwo]

Its Christmas time and one of the staples of our Christmas (and Easter) breakfast is this bread, called "babka". Babka is a form of "Grandma"... It's sweet bread with white raisins, and is terrific. This recipe is my grandmother's, with a slight modification from her daughter, my mom. My mom hated "kneading" the bread because if was so much work, and she tweaked the recipe till that wasn't required. My "babcia" never knew of her modification, but she always really enjoyed my mom’s bread, so the subterfuge didn't affect the end result.. Enjoy!



Polish Babka Bread


This is a batter type “sweet” bread that is not (cannot be) kneaded

a) 3 1/3 cups milk
b) 1 ½ stick butter
c) 3 cakes yeast dissolved in ¾ cup lukewarm water
d) 1 ½ tablespoons sugar- for yeast
e) 3 eggs beaten (brown farm are best, they give a much better color to the bread)
f) 12 cups all purpose flour
g) 2 ½ teaspoons salt
h) 1 ¼ cups sugar – for bread mix
i) 1 cup washed and well drained golden raisins


Scald milk(a) but don’t boil, turn into large bowl, add butter(b) and cool to lukewarm.

Dissolve yeast in the lukewarm water (3/4 cup)(c), and add 1.5 tablespoon sugar (d)(for the yeast to feed on).

When the yeast is clearly “growing” strongly and expanded, add eggs (e) and yeast mixture to milk and beat thoroughly.

Add flour (f) and salt (g) and sugar (h) to mix (should take about 10 minutes to get all the flour thoroughly beaten in). This gets stiff at the end and may take some elbow grease…..

When all the flour has been added and mixed in, add the raisins (i) (if you add them with the flour they will get coated and remain that way)

Cover bowl with a clean towel and set in warm place to rise to double its bulk (it will take about an hour or a bit longer, depending on warmth of the rising place).

Oil 3 loaf pans. The dough will be very soft; scoop out half the dough into your floured hands and jiggle it somehow into an oblong shape, then drop into a pan/pans and cover with a towel again.

When the dough has once again doubled in bulk (about 45 minutes or an hour), bake at 375 degree’s for about 50 minutes. When bread has shrunk from the side of the pan, it is done. Turn onto a rack and cool.

As soon as you remove the bread from the pan, brush some sugar water onto the top. It will leave a shiny glaze, and make the top sweet.

This is killer bread with only butter, or your favorite jelly or jam. It’s a sweet bread that is incredible when eaten warm.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v426/jsquaredjcubed/CIMG1017.jpg

[Beerd]

Piwo,

I remember my Mom and her Mom working at the kitchen table kneading up a batch of their Ukrainian version of this bread and can darned near smell it as it came out of the oven. Boy Howdy!!!

You shouldn't do this to me at lunch time!

I think we have the ingredients in the house. I know what I will be doing tonight.

Thanks for bringing back the memories.
..

[piwo]

Beerd,
I hope it works out for you and is similar enough to your families to bring back the good memories. I love cooking and baking, but seldom "get it right" the first time. My mom gave me the instructions and I was able to make this well the very first time, so I'm sure you'll nail right off. I found that if I slice a loaf into thick slices, and freeze each one in a freezer bag individually, I can just pop it in a microwave and eat it warm anytime I want (which unfortunately is often)!

Please let me know how it works out when you are able to give it a try....

[floodgate]

piuwo:

Thanks for the bread recipe; Bev loves to bake bread - she had heard of that one but never tried it, so we'll have some for the family for Christmas. And a Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Doug

[fatnhappy]

It ain't babka (which btw I love)
this is a family recipe for a milk/yeast roll that everyone in the family loves.


Aunt Wilma’s Neverfail Rolls



1.5 C milk
3 pkg. Yeast
.75 C lukewarm water
.75 C sugar
1.5 t salt
.75 C melted shortening
4 large eggs, beaten
7.5 C flour, sifted

Scald and cool milk. Add yeast dissolved in water. Add sugar, salt, shortening and eggs. Mix well. Add flour. Stir well for 2 or minutes. (use mixer.) Cover and let rise in greased dish unitl double. Turn on board and shape into rolls. Brush with butter or oleo. Let rise until double. Bake at 375 ° for 12 minutes. Makes 16.

[piwo]

I just edited my recipe with a small detail: We use only Brown shelled "free range" eggs from a neighbor with chickens, not the white commercial ones from the store. The color of the yolks are soooooo different, that the bread will take on a pale color if you use the white commercial ones.

It's a small item, but adds to the overall appearance and of course, it is the traditional ingredient. :drinks:

[trooperdan]

Piwo, that is a lot of bread for this old couple only, and both of us on a diet! Can I reduce everything to one third and still come out OK?

[piwo]

Piwo, that is a lot of bread for this old couple only, and both of us on a diet! Can I reduce everything to one third and still come out OK?

Trooperdan,
I don't know, I've never tried. Why not just make it and give it to your neighbors or family to try: :drinks: That way you'll know your getting the results you are supposed to. Then if you like it, you could experiment with cutting it down. I'd be afraid that by cutting it down first, if it didn't turn out right you might think the recipe was bad! :sad:

I'll ask my mom at lunchtime today if she's ever cut it down as I am meeting her for lunch and delivering to her her 4 dozen farm eggs for her baking!

[floodgate]

piwo:

We agree 1000% on the free range eggs; our dozen Araucanas (blue-green eggs - outside) bought last June are just starting to lay in quantity. A couple of months on store-bought eggs --- YECCCHHHHH!

Doug

[piwo]

piwo:

We agree 1000% on the free range eggs; our dozen Araucanas (blue-green eggs - outside) bought last June are just starting to lay in quantity. A couple of months on store-bought eggs --- YECCCHHHHH!

Doug

Doug,
The lady acutally has some of those Araucanas as well (and there are some in the 4 dozen), but I couldn't remember the name of them till you used it in your post :oops:

Trooperdan,
I talked to my mom, and she said she has divided the ingredients by three, then used the quotient X2 so as to make 2 loafs. She's never taken the quotient and used it to make a single loaf but theoretically it should be fine. :Fire:

[Red River Rick]

Piwo:

MMMMMMMMMMMM.........I can smell that Babka bread all the way up here. It sure does bring back fond memories of my "Baba" baking bread while she was still living on the farm. No hydro and no running water. Everything was cooked on a wood stove and boy, did it taste good. Seems to me that food tastes better cooked in or on a wood cookstove.

I'm looking forward to Ukrainian Christmas this year, lots of good tasting "High Cholesteral Food", Perogies, Holopchi, Kolbasa............MMMMMM, not to mention lots of Piwo and Hawreowka (Ukrainian firewater). My Ukrainian background is one thing I'm proud of, who else gets to celebrate Christmas, "TWICE".

Seasons Greetings.

RRR

[Scrounger]

Is "Ukrainian" Christmas the same as "Old Christmas", the Eastern Orthodox one on Jan 6th?

[Red River Rick]

Scrounger:

Yes it is, going by the Julian Calender.

RRR

[piwo]

I made my bread this weekend, and it turned out really well. It's really the only recipe I've been able to make well from the very first attempt, so that's rewarding. I made the dough on Friday, then baked the bread on Saturday. That's right, the "2nd rising" of the dough happened in the fridge. If you want fresh bread for a breakfast meal, you need to do this so you are not up at 3:00AM making dough!

Here's a few pictures I took along the way.

Ingredients:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b253/Piwo/Polish%20Food/Babkaingredients.jpg

After mixing all the ingredients together (man, that takes some elbow grease to get those last two cups of flour mixed in) :o
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b253/Piwo/Polish%20Food/Before1stRising.jpg

I moved the batter to a larger bowl for the 1st Rising: The photo perspective may not show it, but the bowl is at least a third larger then the mixing bowl. Here's what it looked like after the 1st Rising.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b253/Piwo/Polish%20Food/After1stRising.jpg

After the 1st Rising, I fill the greased pans. Yes, I didn't do a very good job of "evening out" the amount in each pans. :-[
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b253/Piwo/Polish%20Food/Doughinpans.jpg

Here's after the 2nd Rising that occurred in the fridge. Still rose quite a bit....
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b253/Piwo/Polish%20Food/After2ndRising.jpg

Out of the oven:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b253/Piwo/Polish%20Food/OutoftheOven.jpg


Ready to eat: SMACZNEGO!
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b253/Piwo/Polish%20Food/ReadyforaSlice.jpg

[725]

Looks fantastic. When I feel adventurous, I'll have to try it. Here is my stand by.

3 cups of self rising flour
3 tablespoons of sugar
1 warm beer. Mix it and bake it. 325 for about 45 minutes. Good in a dutch oven on the fire.

......and yes, yet another reason to have beer.

[GSM]

piwo:

Butter!

We must have butter to go with this bread!

Mmmmmmm.

Was it still warm when you had the first slice?

[piwo]

piwo:



Was it still warm when you had the first slice?

BUt of course! That's the idea with this bread: warm is sooo good. I had a slice this morning yet. Eventually we slice it then put individual slices in zip lock bags and put in the freezer. Then when you want a fresh slice, take it out of the freezer, defrost it and get it good and warm. :drinks:

725,
Ah yes, the many reasons to have another beer....... :Fire: I guess that's the beer batter bread a local cafe has, or something similar. I've had theirs, and it's terrific! I can certainly give that a try as well..:wink: