BABCI’S BABKA

from Babci Soja Kaczor
(Grandma Sarah Kaczor)

Babci Sarah is no longer with us, but her memory lives on in her special cooking and baking which she did with love. This is her babka bread recipe.

INGREDIENTS:
5 lbs. bread flour
1 lb. butter
1 quart of milk
1 dozen eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. rum (optional)
2-1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp. olive oil
1 whole orange peel grated
¼ lb. or a little more fresh yeast or two strips (6 packages) dry
1 tsp. salt
1 box golden raisins

TO START
• Melt butter and cool. Then add vanilla, rum and oil into the butter. Set aside.
• Grate orange peel on wax paper and set aside
• Separate egg yolks from whites and beat yolks until creamy and lemon-colored. Set aside (Save egg whites for another time, may freeze)
• Measure 2 cups of sugar and from the sugar take 3 tablespoons out. Put into a cup and add to it 4 tablespoons of flour and set aside.
• Take 1 quart of milk and put it into a pot and scald, then let set until warm.
• Add yeast to the warm milk and work it out until dissolved. Then add the sugar and flour mixture that’s in the cup slowly to the yeast, milk and leave a little flour to sprinkle on the top and let bubble.

IN A LARGE BOWL OR 10 QUART PAN:
• Put 4 cups of flour and salt, then add sugar, orange peel, butter mixture and knead.
• Keep adding flour and kneading dough until it doesn’t stick to the bowl and your hands.
• Pour dough out of the bowl and knead a bit more until smooth.
• Oil the bowl lightly and place the dough back into it to rise.
• Cover. Let the dough double in bulk in a warm place.

THEN:
• On a floured surface, empty the dough from the pan and knead again.
• Cut the dough into 6 equal pieces and put into 6 greased non-stick loaf pans or 8-inch round cake pans.
• Cover and let rise again.

THEN:
• Brush tops of loaves with beaten eggs.
• Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.
• Check the loaves after 20 minutes and change the top loaves to the bottom rack and vice versa.

When the baking time is up, remove one loaf and tap the bottom or sides. It is done if it sounds hollow.

THAT’S IT!

GOOD LUCK AND LOVE,
BABCI SARAH