babka | A little Swiss, a little Canadian

There is something so comforting about the smell of baked nuts and cinnamon, fresh out of the oven!

We made this babka with ingredients we already had at home, it turned out so delicious! Perfect for a wintry afternoon treat, especially during lockdown.

Vegan Cinnamon Pecan Babka

Ingredients:

300 g white spelt flour
1 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
60 ml olive oil or coconut oil
120 ml plant based milk, I used unsweetened cashew milk
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp honey

Filling:

150 g ground pecans
4 tbsp coconut sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 – 6 tbsp plant based milk, I used unsweetened cashew milk
3 tbsp apricot or apple jelly

-Line a 35 cm loaf pan with parchment paper.

-Combine spelt flour, salt and instant quick yeast. In a small saucepan or in the microwave, combine the milk, oil and honey, heat it up over low heat, do not let it come to a boil, it only has to be lukewarm.

-Add the milk, honey and oil mix to the dry ingredients, mix well and knead dough on a lightly floured surface until you have a smooth ball of dough.

-Lightly grease a large bowl with a bit of olive oil, place the dough in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel. Let rise until doubled in size, for about an hour.

-In the meantime, mix all ingredients, except jelly, for the filling, adding enough milk to make a moist mixture.

-On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into a rectangle, spread the jelly on top, then spread the filling evenly on top.

-Tightly roll up the dough to form a long log, cut in half lengthwise, then lay them side by side. Weave the pieces back and forth over each other, like braiding but with only two strands.

-Tuck into the prepared baking form, cover and let rise for another hour.

-Bake in preheated 350F oven for 45 minutes or until deep golden brown.

-Optional: glaze the still hot babka with a simple icing, using icing sugar and lemon juice.

Happy Weekend!

Enjoy!

Ursula

This is just a simple sweet yeastbread filled with pumpkin and spices and glazed generously with spiced maple syrup. I just love the smell and taste of this. I usually make babkas (Nussstriezel) filled with ground hazelnuts or almonds, I was surprised how good it was with a pumpkin filling.

Nothing complicated for the filling, just pumpkin puree sweetened with coconut sugar, spiced it up with cinnamon and pumpkin spice mix. For the dough I used my sweet yeastbread recipe that you can find here: Almond Croissants just changed the flour ingredients to 200 g unbleached all-purpose flour and 100 g spelt flour and spiced it up a bit by adding 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 tsp cinnamon:)

Pumpkin Spice Babka

Dough:

Almond Croissants
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon

Pumpkin Spice filling:

200 g pumpkin puree, (not pumpkin pie filling)
3 tbsp coconut sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice mix

Spiced Maple Syrup Glaze

3 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice mix

-Prepare dough in advance, it needs at least 1 hour to rise. In the meanwhile prepare your pumpkin filling by mixing together pumpkin puree, coconut sugar and spices.

-Whisk together maple syrup, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice mix, set aside.

-Line a loaf pan or a baking sheet with parchment paper

-When doubled in size, roll out dough into a rectangular shape. Then spread pumpkin filling evenly all over. Start rolling dough up from the longest side, like you would for a cinnamon bun and gently pinch ends together. Cut log lengthwise in half so filling is exposed, pinch one end. Twist both pieces, pinch the other end to secure.

-Place in prepared loaf pan or baking sheet. Cover and let rise for another 30 minutes.

-Bake in preheated 350F/180C oven for 40 minutes.

-About 25 minute into baking brush some of the syrup onto babka. Bake until golden brown. Remove from stove and brush with remaining syrup. Let cool before cutting.