Carrot Halwa Babka

Babka Bread.

Can bread look sexy?? They sure can! Especially when a bread has the perfect pretty curves, with bright red filling, and an awesome fragrant aroma. Well, here I am talking about this Carrot Halwa Babka Bread. This might be the most delicious sweet bread that I have had in a long time. I know most of you might be thinking – A Carrot Halwa Babka? Just trust me, once you try it you’ll not be able to stop eating it. Especially when it’s glazed with Saffron Cardamom Glaze-heavenly. 

Now what really is a babka? Babka is an Eastern European Bread, mainly originated from Poland Ukraine area. The word babka comes from the word Baba which means Grandmother. And since grandmas are known to make most of the treats, hence it’s name -Babka. It’s made with rich Brioche dough which is an enriched bread. Hence, the pillowy soft, buttery, and airy texture. Ah, so good. 

Mothers’ Day Treat.

Most commonly, the babka is filled with chocolate and sometimes it’s topped with streusel as well. However, by now you must have had a pretty good idea about my love for combining different cultural flavors into one. This European bread filled with one of the most popular Indian desserts – Carrot Halwa (Gajar Halwa), is truly a very scrumptious flavor combination. Babka is a quite popular festive bread, especially during Easter and Christmas. However, we don’t need a special occasion to bake a special bread. We can celebrate any day or season or life in general and treat ourselves with a special bake:) Actually, mothers’ day is coming up, how about treating your mom with something extra luxurious and bake this luscious bread. 

I wish my mom was visiting me for this Mothers Day, so I could treat her with this special Carrot Halwa Babka Bread. Anyway, I will definitely celebrate with her when I see her next. She undoubtedly will not want to share it with dad. Good thing this recipe makes  2 loaves, so they can both have their own share. 

Babka Dough.

For the babka bread, I used the Swiss Brioche dough recipe that I had from my culinary school time. Surely a no fail bread recipe. To the dough I added some cardamom and cinnamon. This was to give earthy Indian notes to it. Additionally the orange zest and the juice gives a beautiful citrus flavor that goes so well with carrot filling. You’ll notice that for the dough I added more yolks than whole eggs. Yolks make the bread a lot richer without adding too much moisture to the dough. 

The buttery taste in the bread comes from all that butter that goes into the dough. The butter is added later and very slowly while mixing the dough. The fat can interfere with the gluten formation, so you need to mix the dough with liquid first and then start adding butter while mixing to keep working on the gluten. 

Filling Fest.

For the filling, I decided on going with carrot halwa, weird right? However, I have been meaning to make this bread for almost 3 years. And finally I made someone a carrot halwa babka for last year’s Easter. Unfortunately I never took any photos, so I couldn’t post it. But take it from me, it was love at first bite. Definitely I knew that I had to share the recipe with everyone. The carrot halwa is a very popular Indian dessert. Usually eaten during winter months and served hot. However it needs to be either room temperature or cold for the filling. The halwa is made with carrots cooked in whole milk, until all the milk is evaporated and the milk fat is all mixed with cooked carrots. Absolutely heavenly. It does have some amount of ghee, but for the bread I did not add too much of it, as the bread dough had enough fat content already. 

The thing is I went over board with the filling, the second time I made it. Bad idea you guys. I know you can be tempted to add a lot of filling. Don’t, it will not braid as clean and consequently not bake as evenly. However, I added coarsely crushed pistachios. They not only gave a nice bite texture but also added the nutty pistachio flavor. 

Glaze it up!

The glaze, is cardamom and saffron flavored. So rich and so fragrant. The saffron gives that floral sweet aroma that is so consuming. Secret-I could drink that syrup just by itself I swear it just draws me in. One loaf had less glaze than the other just to try out and see how it would turn out. It all depends on your personal preference, how much glaze you would like. You need to glaze when the loaf is fresh out of the oven so it’s hot enough to soak up all that liquid. The glaze makes the loaf a bit moist. So I will leave this part for you to experiment and see which works best for you.

This was intended to be very short, but I wanted to explain a bit of the process before jumping straight to the recipe. If you would like to see behind the scenes of this bread making, then I have step by step process saved on my Instagram under highlights. Have fun treating yourself or your mom or just anyone in your life who deserves a treat with this sweetness in as many ways as you can!

If you do treat yourself with this carrot halwa babka bread I would love to see your version, so do share with me on my Facebook page , or Instagram.

If you want to try another Carrot Halwa dish, then this Carrot Cake with Carrot Halwa is one of my favorite carrot cakes to make. Must try.

5 from 7 votes

Print

Carrot Halwa Babka

Cook Time

45 mins

 

Baking babka is not an ordinary task. This polish bread says luxury and sweetness kneaded into one. Cinnamon and cardamom combined in the dough is nothing without the citrusy notes from the orange zest which goes awesomely with the carrot halwa filling. This is all good but better with the saffron cardamom glaze that honestly consumes you alive. Just make it you'll see what I'm talking about!

Course: Babka Bread

Cuisine: Indian, Jewish, Eastern European, Polish

Keyword: Babka Bread, Carrot halwa, Brioche Bread

Servings: 2 9 inch Loaves

Author: Esha

Ingredients

For the Brioche Bread

• 550 grams bread flour
• 1.5 tsp green cardamom powder
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 175 ml milk
• 2.5 tsp active dry yeast
• 100 grams sugar
• 1 tbsp orange zest
• 4 tbsp orange juice, freshly squeezed
• 3 yolks from large eggs (46-50 grams approximately)
• 1 egg, large
• 225 grams butter

For The Filling (Carrot Halwa) (This should yield about 250-275 grams)

• 175 grams carrots, grated
• 25 grams red beets, grated (you can add only carrots instead of beets)
• 1/2 tbsp ghee
• 400 ml whole milk
• 1/2 tsp green cardamom powder
• 5 saffron strands
• 1 tbsp sugar (you can increase or decrease according to your sweet taste)

For The Glaze (Saffron Cardamom Glaze)

• 70 ml water
• 25-30 grams sugar
• 1/4 tsp green cardamom powder
• 10-15 saffron strands
• 50 grams pistachios, coarsely crushed (You can increase or decrease the amount. Or change the nuts of your linking)

Instructions

For The Brioche Dough

1. Sift bread flour, cardamom powder, cinnamon, and salt. 

2. Warm the milk either in a sauce pan over stove or in microwave, until it reaches the 100 - 110 degrees. Add 1 tsp of sugar in the milk and give it a stir. Sprinkle the yeast over the milk and give a stir. Set aside for proofing. The yeast should foam up in 8-10 minutes. If it doesn't foam in 15 minutes, then discard the milk and start over. 

3. Meanwhile, in your standing mixer with dough hook attachment, add the sugar and orange zest. Rub the zest in the sugar with your fingers to release the citrus flavor. 

4. Add the sifted dry ingredients over the sugar and zest.

5. Then add the orange juice and start mixing at low speed (speed 1). Add the proofed yeast and milk mix.

6. Increase the speed to 2, and start adding the yolks and egg one at a time. mix for 7-8 minutes till eggs are well incorporated. The dough will feel very dry. That's quiet normal, as it will all come together once butter is added. However if its really dry, you could add 1/2 - 1 tsp water and check. But it won't be required.

7. Now start adding butter cubes one at a time. Total time to incorporate butter should with 15-20 minutes. This will help knee the dough and work the gluten.

8. Once the dough is all kneaded, wrap the bowl tightly with cling wrap. At this time you could put the bowl in refrigerator for over night. Then take it out and leave it at the counter for around 1 hour until it comes at room temperature. It should proof to almost double in size. Or, you could skip the refrigerator method and directly proof at room temperature for 3-4 hours. I personally prefer keeping it in refrigerator and meanwhile I can work on filling.  

For The Filling (Carrot Halwa)

1. Heat ghee in a wok and saute carrots and beets for 5 minutes on medium heat.

2. Meanwhile, Warm the milk either in microwave or on stove top. Add the warmed milk to the carrot mix and stir. Let it simmer for 10-15 minutes on low heat.

3. Add Cardamom pwd and saffron strand. Cook uncovered, while stirring till all the liquid evaporates and it gets thick. This process can take upto 45 minutes to an hour. 

4. Add the sugar and cook for another 10-15 minutes, as sugar will release liquid. 

5. Take off the heat and let it cool completely. Then store in air tight container in refrigerator. The halwa should be cold or room temp. to be filled in the dough. The halwa can be made months in advance and can be frozen. Thaw it completely before filling.

For The Glaze (Saffron Cardamom Glaze)

1. Put sugar in a saucepan. Add Water and bring to boil over medium heat. Once all the sugar is completely dissolved, take the pan off the heat.

2. Add cardamom powder and saffron strands in the hot water. Keep to aside to cool completely. 

Assembly For The Carrot Halwa Babka

1. Line 2 baking loaf pans with parchment paper, allowing 2-3 inches of overhang on both the longer sides.

2. Divide the dough into 2 equal parts.

3. Lightly flour the surface and roll one part into a rectangular of 16 inch by 14 inch approximately. Repeat this for the other part as well.

4. Spread approximately 125-150 grams of Halwa on each rolled out dough. Leave around 1 inch all around the edge. Do not overfill the dough with too much filling.

5. Sprinkle crushed pistachios on top of the halwa.

6. Brush egg wash on all around the edges.

7. Roll the dough tightly starting from the longer side. Once rolled, pinch the edges to seal the dough. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes, seal side down. This will help seal the dough properly. Repeat this for the other dough as well.

8. Using a serrated knife, cut the log lengthwise in the middle. if the dough is too soft, then chill for 10 minutes in refrigerator. This will make it easy to cut and braid.

9. With the filling side up, criss cross the 2 rolls to form a braid. Repeat this for the other filled log. 

10. Gently transfer the braids into the prepared pans, in such a way that the overhang dough folds into the centre to fit in the pan. Don't worry if the dough has gaps and is not sealed. The second proofing time will fill the gaps and seal everything. Repeat the same for the second log.

11. Cover both the pans with damp towel and let it proof at the counter for 2 hours. 

Baking The Carrot Halwa Babka

1. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F.

2. Bake the babka loafs for 35-50 minutes, until golden brown. You can check by inserting the toothpick in the loaf and it should come out clean. However, I prefer checking the loaf with instant read thermometer, and it should read between 200-210 degrees F when done.

3. Immediately brush the cardamom saffron glaze on the hot loaf while still in the pan.

4. Cool on the wire rack for 30-40 minutes before slicing. The loaf or the slices can be frozen at this point.

Recipe Notes

Halwa can be made before and can be frozen. 

For the halwa, you could use all the carrots instead of beets. I added beets to give the red color. If you have red carrots, then you don't have to add beets to get that red color.

The bread slices freeze well for few months.

If you don't like pistachios, then cashews work great as well.

For nut allergic people, sunflower seeds or any seeds of your linking would work great