The Good Egg's pistachio butter and jam babka
Babka is very similar to brioche – soft, pillowy and irresistible. Created for the Cook for Syria charity bake off, The Good Egg's version marries together green pistachio butter, sumac and rose to create a fragrant offering of Syrian-inspired flavours
Serves 12
Preparation time 30 mins
Cooking time 1hr15
Ingredients
Babka dough
- 2 large eggs
- 120g milk
- 25g caster sugar
- 25g honey
- 420g strong flour
- 18g fresh yeast
- 5g table salt
- 170g butter
PBJ Filling
- 140g green pistachios
- 140g purple pistachios
- 3g ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch Maldon sea salt
- 30g honey
- 300g cherry jam or just your favourite jam
- 5g sumac
- 100g fresh cherries
Finishing
- 50g water
- 50g caster sugar
- Rose petals to decorate
Method
- For the dough, put the eggs, milk, sugar, honey, flour and yeast in the order listed into a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment. Knead for 2 minutes on the lowest speed.
- Add the salt and increase the speed to 2 for 3 minutes.
- Add the butter slowly and knead until the dough is elastic and shiny.
- Prove the dough for 4-5 hours overnight in the fridge.
- Add the sugar and water to a small saucepan and heat while whisking until the sugar is dissolved to make the sugar syrup. Allow to cool.
- For the pistachio butter, blitz the pistachios, cinnamon, sea salt and honey in a food processor, saving some green pistachios for decoration.
- Take out your babka dough and roll out to a 45x55cm rectangle.
- With a palette knife or spatula spread the pistachio butter all the way to the edges of the dough.
- Spread the jam (The Good Egg makes their own cherry and sumac jam when cherries are in season) over the pistachio butter layer and scatter over the halved and pitted cherries and sumac.
- Tightly roll up the babka.
- Split into two lengthways, cross the two pieces over each other and twist both ends around the other to shape your babka.
- Transfer to a parchment lined loaf tin and proof for another 2-3 hours.
- Bake at 155 °C for 1 hour 15 mins.
- Pour over sugar syrup as soon as it comes out the oven, and top with the reserved crushed green pistachios and rose petals. Allow to cool for at least an hour before slicing.
