This is a simple recipe for babkas that's far more nutritious than most versions. Depending on how you make the breads (with or without sugar), the babkas also can be incorporated in a diabetic diet. Rather than butter, I use canola oil in the dough, which makes the dough easy to work as well as reducing the saturated fat in the breads. Plenty of white whole-wheat flour keeps the nutrition high and gives the breads a nice, rich, nutty taste. Although I use a little date puree to sweeten the babka dough, you can use brown or white sugar, if you prefer. I also use a homemade no sugar added jam for the babkas, but feel free to substitute your favorite jam. If you're diabetic, I recommend a no-sugar-added version. The babkas are quite tasty, whatever jam you choose to use, and they will smell amazingly good as they bake. I like slices of babka toasted for breakfast, and slices also are great served with tea or coffee as a snack. Or try pieces of the babka topped with cheese and air fried until the cheese melts. Enjoy!
Sourdough Fruit Babka -- Makes 2 Loaves
1 cup of sourdough starter/discard
1/4 cup of canola oil
2 large eggs
1/4 cup of milk
1/4 cup of date puree (cover 1/4 cup of dates with boiling water--enough to just cover
the dates--let the dates/water stand for 10 minutes, and mash the dates/water with a
fork) or brown or white sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup of white whole-wheat flour
In a large bowl mix well the starter/discard, oil, eggs, milk, date puree (or sugar), and vanilla. Stir in the cup of white whole-wheat flour until completely blended. Loosely cover the mixture with plastic wrap and let the mixture sit for at least an hour (I usually let my mixture sit for 3-4 hours because it's convenient, and that's fine). When you're ready, add to the mixture:
1 cup of white whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
Mix, then knead in the white whole-wheat flour and salt. Dump the dough onto a floured surface and knead the dough for 3-5 minutes, adding an additional 1/2 cup of white whole-wheat flour as you knead to prevent the dough from being too sticky to work. Flour your work surface again and pat or roll the dough out into a 12-inch square (approximately, you don't have to have a ruler!). Spread evenly over the rolled/patted out dough:
1 - 1 1/2 cups of fruit preserves or jam (preferably no-sugar added, but use what you like/have)
Sprinkle evenly over the preserves/jam:
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
Roll up the dough from one end, jelly-roll style. With a sharp knife, slice down the middle of the roll, vertically, from one end of the dough to the other, making two long pieces. Take one piece of dough and lay it over the other, making a big X. From the middle, start folding one piece of dough over the other (like a braid, but with only two pieces). Do the same on the other side of the X. With your knife, cut the long piece of dough in half, crosswise, to make two pieces. Spritz two 8" x 4" loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray and put one of the dough pieces in each pan, tucking the ends of each dough piece under to neaten up the loaf. Spritz the dough loaf in each pan with non-stick cooking spray and loosely cover the dough with plastic wrap. Let the dough loaves rise until they just barely reach the top of the loaf pans. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake the loaves for 40-50 minutes or until a pick inserted in a loaf comes out with no wet dough attached (the pick may have jam on it, but you don't want unbaked dough). Let the loaves cool in their pans for about 20 minutes before removing them to cool completely. The loaves will slice best after they've cooled.
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