Tutorial Tuesday: 7 Unique Babka Fillings You Need to Try

Luxe fillings are twirled and swirled into soft, pillowy bread to create the best in comfort food baking. Here are 7 Unique Babka Fillings You Need to Try Now:

If you follow other bakers on social media, you’ve likely seen beautiful babka swirls in your feed from time to time. Babka is a dense, sweet, yeasted bread that is commonly filled beautifully rustic layers of with cinnamon sugar or chocolate. Traditionally found in Jewish or Eastern European bakeries, babkas have been making their way into every corner of the food world. And with their sultry swirls, particularly into the grammable world of social media.

On Thursday we’re featuring a Israeli-inspired babka from a Israeli-Canadian baker in Hamilton, ON that you won’t want to miss. It’s sweet and simple to prepare, but probably unlike anything you’ve tasted before. In the meantime, read on for some inspired babka fillings so that you can start planning your weekend baking.

If you mixed babka with one of the trendiest food items right now, you’d get this Everything Bagel Style Babka from Julie Resnick at The Feed Feed. It’s pure genius and sure to make an exceptional base for the egg sandwich of your dreams.

Salted Caramel and Apple is a classic combination, but still unique to the babka world. Chunks of soft apple, sweet, buttery caramel, and flecks of salt all come together in perfectly pliable dough to form magic. It’s an easy win. As Cloudy Kitchen knows, sweet and salty is a winner everytime.

And since we’re talking caramel, how about Cashew Caramel. I rarely think to put cashews into sweet recipes, but this babka from Pie and Tacos loaded with chopped cashews has me considering all of my baking fall-backs. Though many nuts would work in a babka (walnuts, hazelnuts, and pecans are the obvious choices), considering cashews makes it a game-changer for me.

It’s hard to imagine anything better than soft babka dough with gooey ribbons of cheese throughout, crispy crunchy edges, and some added punch from scallions and Dijon mustard to bring it all together. This noteworthy recipe is from Posie (Harwood) Brien via Food52 (recipe there) and the stunning photo is courtesy of Lisa Lin’s feed.

When summer rolls around I’m always trying unsuccessfully to find a way to incorporate corn into my sweets. I have no doubt that this Sweet Corn and Raspberry Babka from Sweet Recipeas will be calling come July.

Cynthia from Two Red Bowls loves easy comfort food with a twist. She finds inspiration from a range of places, including her Chinese heritage, her husband’s Korean mother, and some Southern US flare from a childhood spent in South Carolina. This Red Bean Babka is an example of east meets west in the most delicious way.

I had to share this Chocolate Banana Babka recipe from Occasionally Eggs because as a perfect compliment to talking about incredible babka fillings, can we also just talk about how you can also up the ante on your babka dough? Alex flipped the script with this banana brioche dough and, as a result, says it’s one of the most popular recipes on her blog. It’s obvious why.

Bonus! Ok, so it’s not terribly unique. But this Hazelnut Vanilla Bean Babka from the archives of our site is a real crowd-pleaser (and easy Sunday project). So, you’re very welcome.