I simply love all baked goods with cinnamon. In general, cakes that are spicy and spongy top my list of favourite cakes, and here you get the recipe for an old-fashioned cinnamon babka that is definitely the whole package: Spicy with cinnamon, spongy and totally chewy. I think it most of all reminds me of a good combination of cinnamon twisters, cinnamon sticks, pretzels and bread. So it’s a sure hit!
The cinnamon babka is incredibly beautiful when cut into slices, as the marbled cut becomes visible. It can also be pulled apart as it is soft and chewy inside with the cinnamon remnant, and golden and crispy on the outside. So it is quite satisfying to leave the bread knife lying.
Soft and delicious cinnamon babka with butter
No butter has been spared in either the dough or in the remnant, and therefore the result is a soft and snazzy cinnamon bread in shape. So yes, a spongy cinnamon bread with butter we can safely call it – just as it should be!
When you pull your delicious, snazzy, butter-baked cinnamon bread out of the oven, it should just cool down a bit before eating. However, it is the best snug, so there is no need to wait longer than absolutely necessary. The bread can be pulled apart or cut into slices, and if you feel like it, you can spread a little extra butter on it.
Old-fashioned cinnamon babka:
This recipe for cinnamon babka is super easy and fits perfectly if you invite guests. There is a lot of bread, and even though it is soft and chewy, it is still quite light.
The inspiration for the cinnamon bread comes from cinnamon swirls and cinnamon snails with icing, which you can probably guess that I also have a great fondness for! I have taken the best of both worlds, namely the soft bread from the cinnamon snail and the creative shape from the cinnamon rolls, and it has thus become cinnamon babka in shape. You can also find the recipes for my two other baked goods with cinnamon on the website – both my cinnamon angels and my cinnamon rolls.
TIP: If you want to icing on the bread, you can stir icing sugar and water together and put it on the warm cinnamon babka.
Cinnamon babka baked in shape – this is how you do it
The process is the same as making cinnamon rolls or cinnamon twisters, but instead of cutting the dough into strips or snails, the dough is cut into squares and stacked in a loaf pan. That it is baked in a mould helps to make it an old-fashioned cinnamon babka.
So you start by rolling out the dough into a rectangle and smearing filling on. Then cut the dough into three strips, which are laid on top of each other and cut into squares, which are then stacked. I use a rye bread mould of 3 L and think it is easiest if you place the mould upright and thus stack it inside the mould – a bit like a brick major tower.
TIP: If you are good at spinning, you can also choose to twist this bread instead of stacking it.
Once the bread has come into shape, it should be raised and brushed with an egg so that it becomes nicely shiny. When you bake the bread, it is a good idea to keep an eye on it in between, as ovens can fluctuate in degrees, and the bread will look best if the surface is golden and crispy. If you find that the bread starts to get too dark before it is finished baking in the middle, you can possibly put a piece of silver paper over the mould.
Cinnamon Babka:
25 g yeast
200 ml of milk
2 eggs
100 g butter
0.5 teaspoon flake salt *
15 g cane sugar *
0.5 teaspoon crushed cardamom *
500 g wheat flour
1 egg
Filling:
250 g butter
175 g brown sugar
4 teaspoons cinnamon
Kitchen equipment
Rye bread tin (3 L)
Notes
TIP: If you want to icing on the bread, you can stir icing sugar and water together and sprinkle over the warm cinnamon bread
Prep
The dough
Dissolve yeast in lukewarm milk. When dissolved, add eggs, soft butter, salt, sugar and cardamom.
Add half of the flour and knead the dough for two to three minutes at medium speed on a mixer.
Add the rest of the flour – wait with the last approx. 50 g. Knead the dough until it is smooth and pliable and releases the edge of the bowl. Let the dough rise covered for 60 minutes at room temperature. Get the rematch ready.
Filling;
All the ingredients are stirred well together.
Cinnamon Babka:
- Turn the oven on 175 ° hot air. Fold the dough together, sprinkle the table with flour and roll out the dough into a rectangle.
- Fold the dough together, sprinkle the table with flour and roll out the dough into a rectangle.
- Distribute the remnant in an even layer, all the way to the edges. Cut the dough into three long strips and place them on top of each other so that you have a long strip with a total of three layers, with the remnant facing up.
- Cut the long stem into eight-nine squares to fit your shape.
- Now you have to stack your squares in the mold, and it is easiest if you line up the mold lengthwise (see pictures at the top of the post above the recipe). Fill out the entire mold. Let the bread rise covered for 30 minutes at room temperature.
- Brush the bread with a beaten egg
- Bake the bread for approx. 30 minutes until the bread is cooked through and has a golden surface.
Take the bread out of the mold and let it cool on a baking sheet.
