Bobka – Polish Easter Bread You Will Love

This rich bobka, also spelled babka, is a sweet yeast bread traditionally served around Easter.

I used chopped dried apricots, lemon zest, cinnamon, and almonds to flavor this bobka, but you can customize the flavor to your tastes.

Chocolate or fruit zest with cinnamon, raisins, and rum are popular varieties in Central and Eastern European countries, including Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus.

As is appropriate for an Easter bread, you need to let the dough rise.

Traditionally you let it rise twice, once in the mixing bowl and then again for another hour in the pan before you bake it.

For the second rise, I only let it sit for as long as it took the oven to preheat. That was sufficient to make the bundt pan full.

Some recipes call for a third rise, but I simplified my version to make it more approachable.

What is Bobka?

This sweet bread is similar to paska, a Ukrainian Easter bread, with the addition of raisins (in my case apricots). Both breads use lots of eggs, another symbol of Easter, to make the dough rich. Paska is often decorated with religious symbols.

People traditionally eat paska around Lent, a period of fasting recalling the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus. Paska represents the body of Jesus, which is why people leave paska loaves complete, without any hole in the middle.

By contrast, bobka served at Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. The hole in the middle represents the opening of the tomb and Jesus rising.

Bobka in History

The first reference to bobka, or babka, dates back to the 12th century Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus. He described it as a sweetened bread prepared and eaten during pagan harvest celebrations in the Baltics. This makes sense as eggs, a major ingredient in bobka, have long been symbols of the cycles of birth, death, and regeneration.

The name bobka, or babka, comes from the Slavic name for grandmother. This is thought to be because a) the bread resembles the pleated skirts these women traditionally wore, or b) that’s who will most likely bake you delicious treats like this one.

An alternate theory states that, according to Polish legend, King Stanislaw Leszczynski invented the bread and named it after the character Ali Baba from the One Thousand and One Nights, his favorite book. If you would like to read the stories about Ali Baba, you can do so here. The follow up theory to this one states that this exiled king brought bobka to France, where it evolved into baba al rum (here’s my recipe).

By contrast, some food historians believe that Italian panettone, a similar sweet bread, was introduced to Poland in the 16th century, where it evolved into bobka, and then spread to the US along with Polish and other Slavic immigrants of Jewish descent.

Adaptation

For bobka, you will need something like a bundt pan or fluted tube pan. To be rightfully considered bobka, your bread should be narrower at the top than the bottom, and also should be taller than it is wide.

Since I used a bundt pan, I skipped a traditional step in the recipe. Before putting the bread in the oven, you would brush an additional egg yolk mixed with water over the top and sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar (and raisins, walnuts, almonds, or whatever toppings you are using).

As I figured the cake on the top of my bundt pan would end up at the bottom once I turned it out onto my serving tray, I didn’t bother. If you are using a savarin ring or something similar where there isn’t a defined top and bottom, you could certainly add this topping for added deliciousness.

How to separate egg whites and egg yolks

1. Grab an extra bowl and get cracking (over the bowl, that is).
2. Once you crack the egg, leave the halves together and let the whites drain out into the bowl.
3. Some people pass the yolk back and forth between the two halves to get all the whites out. That would be fine for this recipe, but I wouldn’t recommend it for something like meringue because the sharp points of the eggshell can easily pop the yolk, and then you’ll have some yellow yolk in your whites (and meringue).

Bobka Ingredients

Before you begin, you will need:

Edible Ingredients

• 4 cups of flour
• One 7-gram package of active dry yeast (about 2 1/4 tsp if you have yeast in bulk)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter (1 stick)
• 1 1/3 cup milk, lukewarm
• 4 egg yolks
• Zest of 1 lemon (for a refresher on how to zest a lemon, see this lemon pepper pasta recipe)
• 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots (about 14 dried apricots)
• 1/3 cup slivered almonds
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Tools

• A large mixing bowl and spoon (a stand mixer or hand mixer would make this a bit easier, but are not required)
• Measuring cups and spoons
• A knife and cutting board
• Something to zest your lemon (I used a vegetable peeler, but if you have a zester, great!)
• A ring pan of some kind (I used a bundt pan)

How to Make Bobka, or Polish Easter Bread

First, make the dough

1. To begin, add 2 cups of flour, the yeast, the sugar, the cinnamon, and the salt to a large mixing bowl and combine.
2. Then, warm the milk to lukewarm (about 45 seconds in the microwave will do it) and stir it into the dry ingredients in your bowl.
3. Next, melt the butter (20 seconds or so in the microwave) and add that to your mixture as well. Keep the wrapper to grease the pan. Blend well.
4. Add in another cup of flour and combine.
5. After that, add four egg yolks to the bowl and keep stirring. (You will not need the whites for this recipe, so feel free to set aside for an egg white omelette for later.)
6. Add in your final cup of flour and blend thoroughly. The dough will be soft and stretchy.

Let the bobka dough rise and prep everything else

1. Now, cover the dough and set it in a warm place to rise until about double in size. This could take an hour or two depending on your climate. (For best practices on getting your dough to rise, see the notes on my baba al rum recipe.)
2. While the dough is rising, zest your lemon and dice the dried apricots into small pieces. Set aside.
3. Once that’s done, grease the bundt pan well with the butter from the butter wrapper, and then sprinkle some powdered sugar over the butter and shake the pan to coat it with a light layer of powdered sugar.
4. When the dough looks ready, preheat your oven to 350°.
5. Now, blend the lemon zest and dried apricots into the dough.
6. Place the dough evenly in a ring in your bundt pan and let it rise a little more until the oven is done pre-heating.
7. Once hot, place the pan in the oven and bake about 32-34 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Let the cake cool completely.
9. Turn it out of the bundt pan onto your cake stand (in my case cutting board).
10. Now, mix your lemon juice and powdered sugar, then pour the glaze over the bobka. Sprinkle your slivered almonds over the top while the glaze is still wet so they will stick. Serve and enjoy!

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Variations on this Bobka Recipe

Traditionally, this recipe has raisins instead of chopped dried apricots.

You can add some orange juice to the dough in order to enhance the fruit flavor.

Use walnuts, pecans, or any nuts you want instead of almonds, and feel free to mix the nuts into the bread instead of just using them as a garnish.

As I mentioned earlier, many people make chocolate bobka by adding a ribbon of chocolate paste, similar to how you would make cinnamon rolls. Just roll out some dough, add your chocolate layer, and roll it back up before baking.

You can use my gianduja recipe (homemade Nutella!) for the chocolate layer described above.

In addition, you may also enjoy my vegan monkey bread, which also features raised, yeasted dough.

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I hope you enjoy this bobka, or Polish Easter bread!