Blueberry Sourdough Babka
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This Blueberry And Lemon Sourdough Babka is next-level delicious. It is filled with a generous amount of blueberry lemon filling and glazed with a simple lemon syrup. Best enjoyed alongside a cup of freshly brewed black coffee.
Table of contents
Recipe Run Through
This recipe has five parts: the levain, tangzhong, main dough, blueberry and lemon filling, and simple lemon syrup. Make sure to scroll down for the complete recipe and check out the Bakers Schedule to help you plan your bake.
Levain
The levain is a stiff, sweet levain. Because of its low hydration, it will take a little longer to peak (double/triple in size). You want the levain to be mild and milky and not too sour.
- Sugar – Regular granulated sugar
- Sourdough Starter – Active sourdough starter at 100% hydration, fed 12 hours prior with only white/all-purpose flour.
- Milk – Whole milk, cold from the fridge
- Flour – All-purpose flour.
Tangzhong
Tangzhong is a Japanese baking technique that I often use in my recipes. It involves pre-cooking a portion of the recipe’s flour and liquid, causing the mixture to thicken and gelatinize. In my experience, the Tangzhong causes the bread to remain softer with an extended shelf life.
- Milk – whole milk
- Flour – all-purpose flour
Main Dough
The main dough is a brioche-style, sweet, and mild bread dough. It’s lovely to work with as long as you get the hydration right. All flours have different levels of thirstiness. Start low on the hydration and add more liquid if needed.
- Flour – I’ve used both a weaker all-purpose flour and a stronger bread flour for this recipe. Both babkas turned out good with slight variation in crumb texture. You might want to adjust the hydration accordingly: lower for all-purpose flour and higher for bread flour.
- Sugar – Regular granulated sugar.
- Eggs – Two medium-sized eggs.
- Milk – Whole milk, cold from the fridge.
- Salt – Regular sea salt.
- Butter – Unsalted or salted, I’ve tried with both and typically use whatever’s in my fridge (as long as it’s real butter!)
Blueberry And Lemon Filling
- Frozen Blueberries
- Sugar
- Lemon Juice and Zest – I recommend using an organic lemon for this recipe since we’re using the zest.
Lemon Syrup
- Sugar
- Water
- Lemon Juice
How To Shape The Babka
Shaping this babka can be a bit messy. Remember to work on a surface that will not get stained by the blueberries, sharpen your knife, be confident, and always have flour on hand.
- Place the dough onto a floured work surface and roll it out into a square that measures approx. 13×13 inches/35×35 cm.
- Evenly spread out the filling using an offset spatula.
- Use both hands to roll up the square like a roulade.
- Tuck in the sides to even out the roll. Check to see if the length matches the length of your bread tin.
- Transfer to the fridge, seam side down, and rest for at least 20 minutes before continuing with the next step.
- With a heavily floured and sharp knife, cut the roll in half lengthwise.
- With the cut sides facing up, starting from the middle, lift the left half over the right half, followed by the right half over the left half. Repeat all the way down to create a two-stranded plait.
- Gently tuck in the ends and transfer to a 10 inches/25 cm lined or buttered bread tin.
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Blueberry Lemon Sourdough Babka
Blueberry Lemon Sourdough Babka
This Blueberry And Lemon Sourdough Babka is next level delicious. It is filled with a generous amount of blueberry and lemon filling and glazed with a simple lemon syrup. YUM! Best enjoyed alongside a cup of freshly brewed black coffee.
Equipment
- Digital kitchen scale
- Stand mixer
- Brød & Taylor proofer box (optional, but recommended)
- Bread tin
Ingredients
Sweet Levain
- 5 g sugar
- 15 g active sourdough starter 100% hydration, white
- 30 g whole milk cold
- 40 g all-purpose flour
Tangzhong
- 80 g whole milk
- 20 g all-purpose flour
Main Dough
- 320 g all-purpose flour or bread flour
- 50 g sugar
- 100 g eggs approx. 2 medium eggs
- 110-130 g whole milk cold
- all the levain
- all the tangzhong
- 6 g sea salt
- 65 g butter softened
Blueberry And Lemon Filling
- 200 g frozen blueberries
- 95 g sugar
- 2 tsp lemon juice 10 g
- 1 tsp lemon zest 2 g
Lemon Syrup
- 40 g sugar
- 30 g water
- 2 tsp lemon juice 10 g
Instructions
Sweet Levain
- Combine sugar, sourdough starter, milk, and flour in a bowl to make the levain. Place it in a warm spot, at around 75°F/24°C for 8-10 hours, or until the levain has doubled/tripled in size.
Tangzhong
- Add milk and flour to a small pot. Heat up over medium heat while stirring with a whisk. Once the mixture has thickened and reached the temperature of 150°F/65°C, it is ready.
- Transfer the tangzhong to a clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap that touches the entire surface of the tangzhong. Cool to room temperature before continuing with the next step.
Main Dough
- Add all ingredients, except salt and butter, to the bowl of your stand mixer. Mix until just combined. Rest/autolyse for 30 minutes.
- Add the salt and knead on medium speed for 10 minutes.
- Slowly add in cubed, softened butter, one cube at a time. When you have added all the butter, scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl and continue mixing at medium speed until the dough passes the window-pane test. This typically takes around 15-25 minutes, depending on your mixer.
- Transfer the dough to a clean, lightly oiled bowl and proof for two hours at around 75°F/24°C.
- After the two hours proof, you can transfer the dough to the fridge and let it cold-proof for 8-12 hours. Meanwhile, prepare the blueberry and lemon filling:
Blueberry Lemon Filling
- Gather all your ingredients and add them to a small pot.
- Bring the mixture to a boil while constantly stirring.
- Taste to see if it's sweet enough for your liking. Add more sugar if desired. Once the mixture is boiling, turn down the heat to med-low, and let it simmer for 10-20 minutes until it is very thick and jam-like. Transfer the filling to a bowl, cover, and let it cool to room temperature before placing it in the fridge.
Shape
- Take the filling and dough out of the fridge. Give the filling a good stir.
- Place the dough onto a floured work surface and roll it out into a square that measures approx. 13×13 inches/35×35 cm.
- Evenly spread out the filling, leaving a ½ inch/1 cm border all around.
- Use both hands to roll up the square like a roulade.
- Push in the sides to even out the roll. Next, place it in the fridge, seam side down, and rest for at least 20 minutes before continuing with the next step.
- With a heavily floured and sharp knife, cut the roll in half lengthwise.
- With the cut sides facing up, starting from the middle, lift the left half over the right half, followed by the right half over the left half. Repeat all the way down to create a two-stranded plait. (see pictures above for reference)
- Gently tuck in the ends and transfer to a 10-inch/25 cm lined or buttered bread tin. Cover the tin and proof at 75°F/24°C for 6-8 hours or until the dough fills up about 80% of the tin.
Bake And Lemon Syrup
- Preheat your oven to 390°F/200°C. Bake the babka for 20 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F/175°C and bake for another 20 minutes. Cover with aluminum foil if it browns too quickly.
- While the babka is in the oven, prepare the syrup:
- Add sugar, water, and lemon juice to a small pot over medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Take the syrup off the heat and leave it to cool.
- The babka is ready when the internal temperature is at least 203°F/95°C, and the exterior is golden brown.
- When the babka is out of the oven, immediately brush/pour over the syrup. Then leave it in the bread tin until it is cool enough to handle. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
It was outstanding:) Thank you for your recipes
This recipe looks amazing!!!!! Is there any was I can use yeast instead of sourdough starter? I accidentally forgot to feed my starter for over 2 months.
This recipe is aces! I made it this weekend and it disappeared in 2 hours. Thank you for the recipe! I’ll be making it again!
This recipe is very straightforward (don’t be scared off by the starter or tangzhong) and the taste is definitely worth the effort. One tip: use your blueberry lemon filling chilled out of the fridge as it will be thicker and easier to deal with when rolling the dough
Hi Vanessa! I made this recipe with my unfed started and 2 tsp of active dry yeast because my starter was not mature enough. It turned out amazing. I just warmed the milk, added yeast to it and proceded as instructed 🙂 It even cut my bulk proofing time to 2 hrs
Hi Elise, I’m going to pick blueberries today and was wondering if I can use my fresh blueberries for this recipe or if I have to use frozen?
Either works! Happy baking.
Looking so delicious and yummy yummy
Elise,
First off, your breads are the most beautiful I have seen. I mean seriously, the most beautiful.
Question on this loaf. If I don’t do the overnight proof, how long should I let it proof? Wanting to do same day baking.
Thank you!!!
Elise,
You can ignore my previous comment about baking without overnight rest. I decided to follow the recipe as written although I should have paid attention to the baker’s schedule. It would have saved me a 2am and 4am wake up. I didn’t mind too much. The smell of fresh baked bread at 2am was worth it. This bread is phenomenal. The dough itself will replace all my other sweet dough recipes. Moving on to make your cinnamon rolls. Thank you for baking beautiful bread and for sharing it with us.
This bread was amazingly beautiful and so good.
Doing it again today 2nd time around coz it’s that good. Did make your cinnamon rolls too and they were amazing!
Keep doing what you are doing because you are really good at it. Well done!
Couldn’t believe how deliciously soft and fluffy this loaf turned out! Amazing recipe! I made a few modifications though:
1. I love lemon flavor so I used more than was called for. For the syrup I didn’t use water, just lemon juice.
2. I read the recipe wrong and didn’t rest the dough before adding the salt, and my proofing times were quite different, I just went be how my dough looked. I was sure I over mixed and under proofed but it turned out amazing!
3. While baking the top for very dark quickly and was nowhere near done in the center. Next time I think I’ll only bake for 10-15 min at 200C before lowering the temp.
All in all, highly recommend! My family devoured it.
WOW! I can’t believe how for good this was!!!
This was so good! Thanks for sharing
This recipe is aces! I made it this weekend and it disappeared in 2 hours. Thank you for the recipe! I’ll be making it again!
I could eat the blueberry filling alone. A wonderful recipe and sure to make again.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi! your recipe seems delicious, I may have some difficulties to find the active sourdough starter, can I swtich it with something else? dry or fresh yeast?
Thank you in advance 🙂
I don’t have a stand mixer so hand kneading was a long workout. For the effort I doubled
the quantities and made two loaves, freezing one for a later day. Second loaf I replaced blueberry jam mix with overripe bananas, ginger powder and maple syrup.
I had to leave the bulk ferment overnight which was definitely too long – but it still came out alright, even squished into a 9″ loaf tin. The only thing I would modify next time is the glaze which I found to be too sticky. Otherwise, perfect!
Amazing results! Can this recipe be directly doubled to make two loaves (or more)?
Sure! I would divide the dough after kneading and let the two loaves proof in separate bowls.
This looks amazing! Would I be able to use 2% milk instead of whole milk?
Hi Clare! 2% milk should work just fine.
I’m baking this for my self, and will try really hard not to eat the whole thing in one sitting… with that being said… how do you recommend I store left over bread? 🙂 is it possible to freeze it?
Hi Yessica! I usually store leftover babka in plastic containers, it’ll stay good for a couple of days. You can also freeze it in slices if you want.
It turned out so great!!! Thank you!
Would it be ok to use regular yeast instead of the sourdough mix or does it have to be specific
Hi Alia! You do need sourdough starter for this recipe.
I followed your instructions almost to a T, adjusting rise times as needed. I substituted huckleberries for blueberries because its what I had on hand. The babka turned out AMAZING. This recipe is a keeper and your instructions are very nicely written. Thank you:)
This turned out so well! I did realize I started at a bad time and rather than end up baking in the middle of the night I placed the dough directly into the fridge after kneading in the butter. It stayed there for almost 24 hours before I took it out and let it proof at room temp for just over 2 hours before rolling filling and shaping. It still turned out beautifully.
Hi Ruby! Thanks so much for your comment – happy to hear the babka turned out well!
Absolutely delicious
Thank you
This recipe has become a staple for our family brunches! The kids ask for it every time!
I do have a problem when slicing the loaf to braid though. I feel like every time the sides fall open and everything tries to spill out. How do I prevent this from happening?
is there any replacement for the suredough?
I have made this several times and it’s WONDERFUL! Next time I’m going to do a cinnamon raisin version. Elise can you offer any advise on that modification? Would you use butter in the cinnamon sugar mix? Or would that impede the dough ?
Thanks so much for your kind comment! Butter, cinnamon, and sugar should work well as a filling and not negatively affect the dough. 🙂
Just made this, substituting flour for mix of Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 GF flour mix and millet flour, with an additional 20g of psyllium husk. Worked wonderfully, though braiding was a little difficult (enevitably due to having a GF dough) and baking took closer to an hour and a half.
Recipe is fantastic. I added a cinnamon sugar sprinkle over the fruit spread for a twisted flavor. Focus on that finish temp with the bake, not the time…mine went considerably longer.
Thanks Elise!
Wonderful recipe, looks fantastic.