Everyone loves pumpkin these days, eh? Every cafe carries their own version of a pumpkin latte and pumpkin-themed candies overflow on supermarket shelves during the fall. ‘Tis truly the season of pumpkin, and I am not really complaining.
I love finding news ways to cook and bake with pumpkin including white pumpkin cheddar ale soup, pumpkin pizza and pumpkin corn ricotta enchiladas, which is a perfect dish this time of year when pumpkin is first coming into season and fresh corn is still in abundance at local farmers markets. Some other fun pumpkin recipes to try? Pumpkin Flan, pumpkin challah and of course some classic pumpkin bread.
As with many recipes I dream up, I was merely staring in my fridge when a leftover can of pumpkin puree came into me view. Pumpkin spice babka just seemed like an obvious choice.
Well, I whipped up a batch of babka dough, impatiently let it rise, and filled it with pumpkin puree, brown sugar and cinnamon. After 35 minutes of baking, my apartment smelled like a perfect piece of autumn heaven, and a new pumpkin recipe was born.
I love a spice of this babka with some warm apple cider or a good cup of coffee in the morning. Because you can use canned pumpkin, you can make this recipe year-round, so you can enjoy a little slice of pumpkin spice even when pumpkins aren’t in season.
Need a little babka help? See our step-by-step below.
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Ingredients
For the dough:
4 ½ cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
½ cup lukewarm water
¾ cup plus 2 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted
½ cup milk or almond milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp ground clove
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
For the filling:
1 ½ cup canned pumpkin or pureed fresh pumpkin
¾ cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
For the syrup:
2/3 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 whole cinnamon stick
Directions
Place yeast and sugar in a small bowl. Add lukewarm water and set aside until foamy, around 5-10 minutes.
In a stand mixer fitted with dough hook, mix together flour, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove and allspice. In a separate bowl, mix together melted butter (or margarine) and milk (or almond milk).
Put mixer on low and begin adding the water yeast mixture, then the butter-milk mixture. Add the eggs one at a time.
When the dough begins to come together, after about 3-5 minutes, raise the speed to high and mix for another 5-10 minutes until the dough is shiny and elastic.
Place dough in a greased bowl with a damp towel on top. Allow to rise until it has doubled, about 1-2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut dough into three equal parts. Roll out dough until it is a rectangular-like shape. Spread with ½ cup of pumpkin, ¼ cup brown sugar and ½ Tbsp cinnamon. Working from the longest side, roll up dough using quick fingers, like you would in order to make cinnamon rolls.
Once the dough is a long log, cut it straight down the middle so the filling is exposed. Secure the ends on one side, and twist both the pieces. Pinch and secure at the other end.
Repeat with two additional babkas. Place in a greased loaf pan.
Bake for 35 minutes.
While the babka is baking, combine 2/3 cup water, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and 1 whole cinnamon stick in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Once it comes to a boil, remove from heat and swirl around to ensure all the sugar is dissolved.
About 20-25 minutes into baking, spoon about half the syrup onto the baking babkas.
When you take the babkas out of the oven after they have baked completely, immediately brush extra syrup on top of all three babkas. You may have syrup leftover.
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