From Sharon via her mother-in-law
Yeast dough:
1 cup whole milk
2 packages dry yeast
1-1/2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
Scald milk, remove from heat and cool. When cool, add yeast, flour and sugar. Mix well and set aside.
Next part of dough:
1-1/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup butter
12 egg yolks
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6-1/2 cups flour
1 cup golden raisins
Scald milk with butter. Set aside to cool. In a large bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar until light and fluffy (use a kitchen aid mixer with a whisk attachment if you can). Add salt and vanilla. Add flour, 1 cup at a time, alternately with cooled milk-butter mixture (switch to dough hook). After you have added 4 cups of flour, add the cooled milk-yeast mixture from earlier. Add raisins. Set a handful of dough aside for the topping.
Let the dough rise until double in size. Punch down and put in 2 or 3 greased loaf pans (depending on size). Add crumbled topping (recipe below) and rise again until double. Bake at 350o for about 25-30 minutes.
Topping:
Handful of dough
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
Hopefully many of you have been making babka and this recipe will give you something new to try.
- Recipe courtesy of Cathy Pollack