Caramel Pecan Babka!

A delicious homemade bread with a pecan brown sugar swirl, drizzled with caramel… my caramel pecan babka is amazing!

I LOVE baking bread. Honestly, it’s therapeutic, it’s fun and more importantly when it’s homemade, it is utterly delicious. I have had a few bread bakes on my blog over the years now, and i just can’t get enough of them… my homemade cinnamon rolls is probably my most popular, but on the savoury side you have my garlic bread rolls. 

I find the idea of kneading the bread by hand so therapeutic, but there’s no harm in using a dough hook when you’re making bread too. I always look at the homemade bread recipes and I can recognise all ingredients that are in that bread, compared to the endless amount of weird sounding ingredients from shop bought bread. Honestly, this is the best. 

The dough

• Flour – For this recipe, I used a combination of white bread flour and plain flour because it creates a slightly different texture that I adore
• Yeast – I used a dried active yeast that doesn’t need activating first, but if yours does, add it to the warmed milk before using in the recipe 
• Sugar – A little caster sugar goes a long way in a bread bake, and it’s perfect in this recipe
• Butter – cold and cubed unsalted butter is best 
• Milk – I always use whole milk in my baking as I believe it works best 
• Egg – one egg, medium or large, is perfect 

When it comes to the bread dough, it sounds a bit faffy, but it really is not. You have to rub the dry ingredients together to a bread crumb texture, add warmed milk and egg and knead for 5-10 minutes until it’s a soft and springy dough. I know it’s boring, but yes you do then have to let it rise and prove somewhere warm for 1-2 hours, until it has doubled in size. 

The filling

For the filling, I went down a similar idea to the cinnamon rolls that have been on my blog for years. I used some melted unsalted butter that I spread onto the rolled out dough with a pastry brush, and then I sprinkled on the light brown soft sugar. You can of course still add some cinnamon into this if you fancy, but it’s optional. 

I then added some chopped pecans, because I just ADORE pecans at the minute. I think they’re one of my favourite nuts in the world, and they work wonders in this caramel pecan babka as well. I sprinkle them over the butter/sugar and then push into the dough ever so slightly and roll the dough into the sausage shape. 

Shaping

Probably the most important part of a babka recipe, is the design and shape. It’s the key part, that makes it a babka. Now, I will say, it can be a smidge messy, but it’s much easier to make a babka than you think, I promise. 

I made my babka by rolling my filled dough into a tight sausage shape for long side to long side. It’s important to make sure the dough isn’t too thin to make sure that the dough can roll into the sausage shape quite easily, and to do the rest of the design as well. 

I chop down the middle of the sausage, keeping one end attached, and essentially plait the two parts of the dough around each other (turn one side over the other) a couple of times together, and then pinch the end together and tuck it in. This is when a few of the pecans can fall out, but just plop them back on top.  

Baking

Add the twisted babka dough into a 2lb loaf tin, and let it rise again whilst you preheat your oven. It needs a bit of proving time for a second go to make sure the dough is over being shaped, and the yeast is still working and rising to create a lovely fluffy texture to your dough. 

You can line the tin if you wish, I tend to add a strip of parchment to make it easier to get it out of the tin, but that’s up to you. Once the oven has preheated, you can bake in the oven until it’s golden. I leave it to cool for about 30 minutes, and then remove and drizzle with caramel to have a warm and scrumptious slice of caramel pecan babka. 

Tips & Tricks 

• Keep an eye on your tin size as they can vary annoyingly despite being termed the same size. I use this 2lb loaf tin for reference
• This is always best on the day of baking, but can last a couple of days
• This can freeze 3+ months
• You can do the second prove in the fridge overnight so you can bake it fresh in the morning, leave it 30 minutes before baking 
• I use this pastry brush
• You can use any nut you want, I just adore pecans! 

Caramel Pecan Babka!

A delicious homemade bread with a pecan brown sugar swirl, drizzled with caramel... my caramel pecan babka is amazing!

Print Pin Rate

Category: Bread

Type: Babka, Bread

Keyword: Caramel, Pecan

Prep Time: 2 hours hours

Cook Time: 50 minutes minutes

Cooling time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 3 hours hours 20 minutes minutes

Servings: 10 slices

Author: Jane's Patisserie

Ingredients

Bread dough

• 150 g strong white bread flour
• 150 g plain flour
• 7 g dried active yeast
• 25 g caster sugar
• 75 g unsalted butter (cold and cubed)
• 125 ml whole milk
• 1 medium/large egg

Filling

• 25 g unsalted butter (melted)
• 75 g light brown soft sugar
• 75-100 g pecans (chopped)

Decoration

• caramel drizzle

Grams - Ounces

Instructions

• Add the bread flour, plain flour, yeast and sugar to a large bowl 
• Add the cold butter and rub together until it resembles breadcrumbs
• Add the warm milk and egg 
• Knead for 7-10 minutes until smooth and elastic
• Tip into a lightly oiled bowl and leave to prove until double in size in a warm place
• Tip the risen dough onto a floured surface and roll to a large rectangle
• Brush the butter onto the bread and sprinkle on the brown sugar and then pecans 
• Roll up into a tight sausage from long side to long side
• Cut along the dough keeping one end attached and then twist the two sections together
• Add to a 2lb loaf tin
• Preheat the oven to 160ºfan and let the dough prove for another half an hour
• Bake for 50-60 minutes
• Leave to cool for 10-30 minutes then remove from the tin and drizzle with caramel and enjoy 

Notes

• Keep an eye on your tin size as they can vary annoyingly despite being termed the same size. I use this 2lb loaf tin for reference
• This is always best on the day of baking, but can last a couple of days
• This can freeze 3+ months
• You can do the second prove in the fridge overnight so you can bake it fresh in the morning, leave it 30 minutes before baking 
• I use this pastry brush
• You can use any nut you want, I just adore pecans! 

ENJOY!

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