The not-as-lesser as cinnamon babka

Remember that Sienfeld episode where George and Gerry & Elaine are going to a dinner party and they are planning to bring a Chocolate Babka for a hostess gift.? Elaine got in line at the bakery and there was some confusion over the take-a-number system. The lady before her got the last chocolate babka and Elaine was stuck with the cinnamon babka. The lesser babka, she called it.

I couldn't help but to be reminded of that episode as I was baking this cake. I am not sure where on the babka foodchain a poppyseed babka would place. I personally, would put it on equal footing with the chocolate babka, but I've got strong eastern European heritage on my side, which I'm sure includes a gene for poppyseed cravings.

When I was small, my grandma used to make Pampushky, a Ukrainian yeast donut filled with sweet crushed poppyseeds and I loved them. Grandma used to grow and harvest her own poppies for the seeds, so I guess it never occurred to me that you could buy a similar filling already prepared. I was so enchanted by the discovery that you can in fact purchaser prepared poppyseed filling, that I bought a huge tin of it without any idea in my head what I would do with it. It's been sitting in my cupboard since last March, waiting to be turned into something yummy.

It struck me last week, that I could probably use it to make something like the a poppyseed kugelhopf that I used to buy on Acland street at the Europa Cake Shop. The Europa's poppyseed kugelhopf was a twisty many-layered doughy thing, filled with sweet poppyseeds and topped with lovely chocolate ganache.  I spent a few hours looking up kugelhopf recipes on the internet and although there were plenty of poppyseed ones,  all the recipes I found were for a soft dough that you mixed the seeds directly in and then dropped by spoonsfull into the pan - like drop scones. Hardly the twisty layery confection I craved. On a hunch that babkas might be similar to kugelhopf, I had a look for some babka recipes and came up with a couple that weren't quite right. I ended up pasting together bits of four or five recipes to come up with what I actually made. It's pretty close to what I recall of the kugelhopf at the Europa - doughy, chewy, buttery and full of sweet poppyseeds. Now I know why they charged $25 for theirs. They are a lot of work. I can't imagine how much more work would be involved if you grew and crushed your own seeds! Luckily, I know where to get the big tins of filling. Mwaaaa haaa ha ha.

This is a really nice cake - not too sweet or cloying. I guess it's more of a grown up late-night-coffee type dessert. It's less flashy and more honest than a lot of the deserts you see nowadays. There's something refreshingly peasant-y about it while still being very elegant. The poppyseeds also provide an interesting taste and texture change from chocolate. It'd be a pretty impressive end to a special winter meal, or a nice middle of the afternoon snack.

Poppyseed kugelhopf

• 12 grams yeast
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 2 yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups flour
• 2/3 cup butter
• 1 (950 gram) tin poppyseed filling (or make your own)
• 3 egg whites
• 1 egg ( for egg wash)

Warm up milk, add teaspoon of sugar and dissolve yeast in the warm milk mixture for 5 mintues, or until it begins to foam slightly. If the yeast has been refrigerated it might take a few extra minutes. Pour yeast mix into mixer bowl (I used my kitchenaid). Add sugar, vanilla, egg and yolks and mix to combine well. Using your mixer's paddle attachment, start the machine on low-mid speed and add the flour, a cup at a time until you have about a half cup flour remaining. Remove the paddle attachment and attach the dough hook. Add in butter (cut into chunks) and the remaining flour. Mix until smooth, soft and a bit sticky to the touch - about 3-5 minutes.

Turn dough out onto well floured surface and knead for 5 or 10 minutes. Form into a ball, coat with soft butter and place in a covered bowl in a warm spot to rise until double in bulk (30 minutes should do it).

Punch the dough down and roll out on a well floured surface to a thickness of about 1/8" (approx. 2 mm). Try to get the rolled dough roughly into a rectangle shape. Brush the perimiter of the dough with eggwash. Spread the poppyseed filling out evenly over the dough, leaving a two inch border on both short edges and on of the long ones, and a 4 inch border on the remaining long edge.

Whip egg whites to stiff peaks. Spread egg whites over the top of the poppyseed filling. Roll the dough up the long way, like you would a jelly roll, pinching ends of the roll, and the final long seam together. Really squish the seams together, It's important that they stay shut because you're going to twist and turn the dough log quite a lot and you don't want it popping open and getting poppyseed everywhere (mine did a bit).

Gently twist the dough log so that you get diagonal candy-cane like twist marks, and pull gently to stretch it out a bit longer. Double it over and gently stretch and twist some more until you've got a twisty dough log that will fit into your bundt pan in a circle. Butter your bundt pan and press the dough into the pan gently to make sure the hollows and dips in the pattern are filled. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and place it in a warm place to rise for 20 to 30 minutes.

Remove plastic wrap and bake the cake in the oven at 350 for 55 minutes. Allow to cool slightly in the pan and then turn out to continue cooling.

Drizzle whatever icing you want over it while it's still warm. A lemon icing might be nice with poppyseeds. Or you could make a ganache of dark semisweet chocolate melted with a bit of butter and cream and a touch of sugar, drizzle it over the top and let it run down the warm cake. I was going to make a nice chocolate ganache, but I put the chocolate in the microwave too long and burnt it. Boo. I managed to save the day by making a stellar shiny glaze out of 1 cup corn syrup, 1/3 cup (very) dark cocoa, 1 tsp vanilla, which I whisked on the stove until it bubbled, and then stirred through 2 tablespoons each of of thick cream and butter. I let it cool slightly and then drizzled it over the top and down the sides.

Wait until it's almost completely cool before you slice it, or it will fall apart.

If you don't want to use the poppyseed filling you can make a chocolate filling (450 grams almond paste, 1/4 cup unsalted butter and 250 grams grated bittersweet chocolate - plus the whipped egg whites). Also, if you cant find the poppyseed filling, you can google the words "poppyseed filling recipe" and use whichever one strikes your fancy.

This cake is very similar to the one I used to buy at the Europa, but to get closer, I'll have to work on making my dough layers thinner and work on some more convoluted twists. Perhaps if I make several small rolls and sort of twist them together it might be more convoluted. Also, the one from the Europa had a bit of space between the layers. I was hoping the whipped egg whites would help in that department by taking up space and making steam, but they don't seem to have. If you've got any suggestions, I'd love to hear.

Like most yeast doughs, this cake gets less moist the longer it sits, but just zap a slice in the microwave for a half a minute and it's as warm and soft as when it came out of the oven.

Comments

[Molly]

Wow--that is one beautiful babka! My paternal grandparents were Eastern European (Polish Jews, actually), but I had my first taste of babka only last September, in New York. To think--all those years of babka-eating I missed! Something tells me I may have to try making it myself now, and give your rendition a go. Just gorgeous!

[Nic]

Good lord that looks amazing. It reminds me of my rather sad last attempt on a babka last Christmas, but I'll definately try again with this recipe!

[ilva]

Wow, what a cake! Although I grew up in Sweden, not far from Poland I have never tried a babka but now I will make my own here in Italy!

[Jane]

This cake sounds great. Have to try one myself.

[Lyn]

Molly, Nic, Ilva, Jane,

It really is a nice coffee cake. I think I'd probably add a bit more sugar (maybe a 1/4 cup more) to the dough, as I like these things to be really sweet. And in retrospect, it's probably not as hard as I thought.... I was feeling a bit sorry for myself.

[Lindy]

That is looking really good. I'm going to try my first babka very soon, for sure.

[Cecile]

That looks amazing! How do you make the poppy seed filling? This is not something I can find in my area!

[Lyn]

Celia,
I found a traditional Ukrainian poppyseed filling recipe Here: http://www.recipezaar.com/77541.

[Regina]

I bought a half serve of Chocolate Kugelhopf yesterday from a Polish Deli. It was really delicious and it has a space in between the layers. After searching for the recipe today, really no wonder it was expensive. It was $10 for half the tin. Yours looks like the one that I am looking for but as you said, lack of the space. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

[CARA]

When I made two regular sandwich bread loaves this week, the dough was first flattened into a rectangle then folded and pinched down three times to get it into the loaf pan.

With the regular white bread, the dough rose nicely but with the dough to which I had substituted the harder Teff grain for white flour, the dough was stiffer and less puffy and THAT loaf ended up with spaces inside where the dough was folded.

[Air Jordan shoes]

Have a dream, pay your action! Dream is very far away, but must be true!