Polish Easter Babka
This is my cherished Polish Easter Babka, a pillowy soft sponge that I whip out every Easter. I hope you love it as much as we do. And any excuse to use a beautiful Bundt tin I say!
INGREDIENTS:
3 tbsp breadcrumbs, for dusting
2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened, for greasing
4 eggs, room temperature
200g caster sugar
1 cup (160g) plain cake flour (see Notes)
1/2 cup (90g) potato flour (see Notes)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
200g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
100g sour cream, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Glaze:
Juice of 1-2 lemons
225g icing sugar
METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees conventional (or 150 fan forced).
Grease a 10 cup Bundt tin with butter, taking care to coat every curve and crevice, and dust with breadcrumbs.
Beat the eggs and sugar in a stand mixer on medium speed for around 10mins until pale and creamy.
Meanwhile melt the butter in a small saucepan and set aside to cool.
In another bowl, sift the flours and baking powder. When the sugary eggs are ready, gently combine with a wooden spoon in two batches.
Put the sugary eggs & flour mixture back on the stand mixer. Combine the melted butter with lemon juice and zest and add into the batter, beating slowly between each addition.
Add the vanilla to the sour cream and also beat into the batter until just combined.
Pour the batter into the tin and give it a few taps to make sure it fills the mould evenly.
Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or when a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in the Bundt tin before turning out carefully onto a plate.
For the glaze, simply mix the lemon juice with icing sugar until smooth and shiny. Add very small amounts of lemon juice to the icing sugar at a time and test the consistency after each addition before adding more. It needs to be pourable but able to hold its own weight so almost as thick as a whipped cream.
Drizzle the babka with glaze and enjoy.
Notes:
Cake flour is a lower protein flour than bread flour and gives a much better result when baking cakes.
In Australia, potato flour and potato starch are the same thing. Most items will say “potato starch” rather than “potato flour” on the packaging.