A summery take on a bakery-favorite bread, this lemon blueberry babka looks impressive but is completely doable in your home kitchen. A rich lemon-hinted dough is beautifully swirled with a homemade blueberry filling, and topped with buttery brown sugar crumbles. A drizzle of lemon icing is the perfect finishing touch! You can also reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
This recipe is brought to you in partnership with Red Star Yeast.
Have you ever made homemade babka before? Babka is made from a rich, buttery dough. It originated in the early 1800s with the Jewish community. Leftover challah dough was filled with jam or cinnamon, rolled up, and baked in a loaf pan. The babka we see all over the place today is richer and sweeter than its ancestor, typically filled with chocolate or other fillings like pesto or almond paste. Food52 has an in-depth article all about babka if you want to read more about its history and wonderful rise in popularity!
I have recipes for Nutella babka and apple cinnamon babka, and for today’s version, I wanted to introduce some fresh summer flavors to this unique twisted bread.
This Blueberry-Filled Babka Is:
- Buttery, moist, and flaky, with just the right amount of sweetness
- Swirled with blueberry filling made from fresh blueberries
- Topped with brown sugar crumbles and a tangy-sweet lemon icing
- Worth the effort, trust me!
Ingredients You Need
These are the ingredients you need for the filling, dough, and brown sugar crumb topping:
- Fresh Blueberries: Use fresh blueberries to make the blueberry jam filling. In testing, the filling made with frozen blueberries was overly runny, which made for a very, very messy shaping experience. I do not recommend using frozen berries for this filling.
- Sugar: A little sugar feeds the yeast in the dough, increases its activity, and tenderizes the dough. You also need sugar for the blueberry filling.
- Milk: Liquid activates the yeast. For the softest bread, use whole milk. Nondairy or low-fat milks work too, but whole milk produces the best texture.
- Yeast: You can use active dry yeast or instant yeast. If using active dry yeast, the rise times will be a little longer. I recommend Platinum Yeast from Red Star, which is an instant yeast blended with natural dough improvers.
- Butter: Butter promises a flavorful and soft bread. Make sure it’s softened to room temperature. You also need butter in the crumb topping.
- Egg + Egg White: 1 egg provides structure and richness in the dough, and you also need an egg white to brush on top of the loaf before baking.
- Lemon: You need zest for the dough, and juice for the blueberry filling and optional lemon icing. 1 regular-size lemon should be enough for all of it.
- Salt: You can’t make flavorful bread without salt!
- Vanilla Extract: A little vanilla for extra flavor.
- Flour: You can use bread flour or all-purpose flour in this dough. All-purpose flour is convenient for many, but bread flour produces a slightly chewier babka. You also need flour (either kind) for the crumb topping.
- Brown Sugar: A little brown sugar for the crumb topping.
Let’s Walk Through the Steps
The full written recipe is below, but let me walk you through the steps so you can understand the process before starting:
Make the dough. This is a soft, rich, puffy, and buttery yeast dough. If you need extra help with the kneading step, see my detailed video tutorial on How to Knead Dough.
Let the dough rise in a warm environment until (roughly) doubled in size. Since this dough is so rich with butter, it takes quite a while to rise. Do not be alarmed if your dough takes up to 4 hours; this is completely normal.
If your room temperature is on the cooler side, you can use your oven to help with rising. Preheat your oven to 150°F (66°C), then turn the oven off and place the covered bowl of dough inside. Leave the oven door slightly cracked open.
Time-saving tips: As the dough rises, you can make the blueberry filling because it needs to fully cool down. You can also make the crumb topping during this time.
Easy Blueberry Jam Filling
We are essentially making a quick blueberry jam (without the pectin). You need just 3 ingredients: fresh blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Combine them all in a saucepan/pot over medium heat. You’ll bring it all to a boil until it’s somewhat reduced (if you have a candy or instant-read thermometer, it should reach about 215–220°F (102–104°C).
You should have about 1/2 cup, or around 160g, give or take.
Success Tip: Again, the homemade blueberry jam filling must cool completely before you spread it on the dough. To speed this up, pour the filling into a shallow heat-safe dish (I use a Pyrex pie dish) and let cool. The filling will thicken as it cools.
How to Shape Lemon Blueberry Babka
Note that you should shape the lemon blueberry babka on a surface you don’t worry about possibly getting stained, because should the blueberry filling run over the edges, it will stain.
Punch down the dough to release the air. You’ll be left with super soft and supple dough. Roll it out into a 9×15-inch rectangle. Spread the blueberry filling on top:
Roll it up into a log, as if you were making cinnamon rolls. Fold log in half, then twist into a figure 8. Like this:
Why am I shaping the dough like this? Babka dough can be rolled up and then sliced down the center of the log so the filling is exposed. It’s how I shape Nutella babka, in fact. However, today’s filling and the filling in my apple cinnamon babka, are both quite messy. Shaping it this way, without the filling exposed, is much easier and neater. (And again, this filling can stain your work surface! So today’s shaping method is ideal.)
Let the shaped babka rise in a greased loaf pan for about 1–1.5 hours. After it rises, brush the surface with egg white, and then poke holes in the surface with a skewer or toothpick, to allow steam to escape. This helps prevent the layers from separating.
Quick Crumble Topping
Mix a little brown sugar and flour together. (You could even include a little lemon zest if you have extra!) Add cold butter and use a pastry cutter, fork, or your fingers to mix it all together into crumbs. You can make this while the dough rises, and store it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it. Sprinkle it on top of the babka:
The only thing better than eating babka is smelling babka as it bakes—just you wait!!
The bread takes about 50 minutes to bake, give or take. If you notice the top browning too quickly, loosely tent the pan with aluminum foil. (I usually set a timer for 30 minutes, tent with foil, then set a timer for 20 more minutes.)
Let’s Eat!
Whisk together a simple lemon icing and drizzle on top of the warm babka. This is an optional finishing touch, and the bread is plenty delicious without it.
Now comes the best part: slicing into your masterpiece, and getting your first look at those beautiful blueberry swirls inside! Every single loaf looks different. In fact, today’s photos were taken of two different loaves and the swirls are vertical in one, and horizontal in another. I can’t wait to see how yours turn out!
This is no lowly loaf of bread—this is lemon blueberry babka, and you made it from scratch. 🙂
Lemon Blueberry Babka
- Prep Time: 5 hours
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 6 hours, 20 minutes
- Yield: 1 loaf
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Jewish
Description
A summery take on a bakery-favorite bread, this lemon blueberry babka looks impressive but is completely doable in your home kitchen. A rich lemon-hinted dough is beautifully swirled with a homemade blueberry jam filling, and topped with buttery lemon crumbles. Creamy lemon icing brings it all together, but is totally optional.
Ingredients
Dough
- 2/3 cup (160g/ml) whole milk, warmed to about 110°F (43°C)
- 2 and 1/4 teaspoons (7g) Platinum Yeast from Red Star (1 standard packet)*
- 6 Tablespoons (75g) granulated sugar, divided
- 5 Tablespoons (71g) unsalted butter, sliced into 1 Tbsp-size pieces and softened to room temperature
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 and 3/4 (358g) bread flour or all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more as needed
Blueberry Filling
- 1 and 1/4 cups (170–180g) fresh blueberries (do NOT use frozen)
- 6 Tablespoons (75g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Crumble Topping
- 3 Tablespoons (24g) bread flour or all-purpose flour
- 3 Tablespoons (38g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
Brush on Assembled Loaf
- 1 egg white, beaten
Lemon Icing (Optional)
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar
- 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon whole milk, heavy cream, or half-and-half
Instructions
- Prepare the dough: Whisk the warm milk, yeast, and 1 Tablespoon of sugar together in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook or paddle attachment. Cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes, until foamy and frothy on top. *If you don’t have a stand mixer, mix the dough by hand using a silicone spatula or wooden spoon.*
- Add the remaining sugar, butter, lemon zest, egg, vanilla, salt, and 1 cup (130g) of bread flour. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula, then add another 1 cup of flour. Beat on medium speed until relatively incorporated (there may still be chunks of butter). Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula. Add 1/2 cup of flour and beat on medium speed until the dough begins to come together. As the mixer runs, add another 2–4 Tablespoons of flour (up to 2 and 3/4 cups total) depending on how wet the dough looks. This should be a very soft and almost creamy-feeling dough. Do not add more flour than you need.
- Knead the dough: Keep the dough in the mixer (and switch to the dough hook if using the paddle) and beat on low speed for an additional 6–8 full minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 6–8 full minutes. (If you’re new to bread-baking, my How to Knead Dough video tutorial can help here.) If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading process, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour at a time on the dough or on the work surface/in the bowl to make a soft, slightly tacky dough. Do not add more flour than you need because you do not want a dry dough. After kneading, the dough should still feel a little soft. Poke it with your finger—if it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise.
- 1st rise: Lightly grease a large bowl with nonstick spray or butter. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides. Cover the bowl tightly and allow the dough to rise in a relatively warm environment until nearly double in size, about 3–4 hours. This dough is rich with fat, so it takes longer than other doughs to rise. Do not be alarmed if it takes around 4 hours. (If desired, use my warm oven trick for rising. See my answer to Where Should Dough Rise? in my Baking with Yeast Guide.)
- While the dough is rising, make the blueberry filling: Combine blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice together in a small saucepan with tall sides over medium heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, pressing the blueberries against the sides of the pan (stand back in case they splatter!). Once the blueberries are mostly smashed and the sugar has dissolved, stop stirring and allow to come to a boil. Boil, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is slightly reduced, about 10 minutes. (If you have a candy or instant-read thermometer, the mixture should reach about 215–220°F.) You should have about 1/2 cup (around 160g). Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. The filling will thicken as it cools. You can transfer it to a shallow heat-safe dish and place it in the refrigerator to cool down quicker. Set aside.
- Grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray or butter.
- Shape the dough: When the dough is ready, punch it down to release the air. Flour a work surface, your hands, and a rolling pin. Roll the dough out to a 9×15-inch rectangle. *Note: Should it run over the sides of the dough, the blueberry filling can stain a work surface. If needed, transfer the rolled-out dough to a piece of parchment paper or silicone baking mat.* Gently spread the blueberry filling mixture on top, leaving a 1/2-inch border uncovered. Using floured hands, tightly roll up the dough to form a 15-inch-long log. Place the log on its seam. Fold in half, then twist it to form a figure 8. Pinch the ends together. Place in the prepared loaf pan. Visuals for this step:
- 2nd rise: Loosely cover the shaped babka. Allow to rise until it’s puffy and nearly reaches the top of the loaf pan, at least 1–1.5 hours.
- Make the crumble topping: Mix the brown sugar and flour together in a small bowl. Add the cold butter and, using a pastry cutter, two forks, or your fingers, cut the butter into the brown sugar mixture until pea-size crumbles form. Refrigerate or freeze until ready to use. (Cold crumbles are best!)
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Brush the surface of the babka with egg white. Using a toothpick, poke 10–12 holes all over the top of the loaf; this helps prevent an air bubble gap in the interior layers. Sprinkle with crumble topping. Visuals:
- Bake: Bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown on top. The surface of the bread browns quickly, so I recommend loosely tenting the pan with aluminum foil around the 30-minute mark. To ensure the bread is done at 50 minutes, give the warm bread a light tap. If it sounds hollow, it’s done. For a more accurate test, the bread is done when an instant-read thermometer reads the center of the loaf as 195°F (90°C).
- Remove from the oven and allow bread to cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes before icing (next step), slicing, and serving. A serrated knife is best for slicing.
- Make the lemon icing, if using: In a medium bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, and milk. Drizzle over the babka.
- Cover leftover babka tightly and store at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Baked babka (without icing) freezes wonderfully. Wrap the cooled loaf in plastic wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw wrapped loaf overnight in the refrigerator or at room temperature, then unwrap and warm to your liking. You can also freeze the dough. After punching down the dough in step 7, wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then punch the dough down again to release any air bubbles. Continue with the rest of step 7.
- Make-Ahead Instructions: Prepare the dough through step 3. Place into a greased bowl (use nonstick spray to grease). Cover tightly and place in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Remove from the refrigerator and allow the dough to come to room temperature, then let it rise until doubled in size, about 3 hours. Continue with step 6. You can prepare the blueberry filling and crumble topping ahead of time as well. Let the filling cool completely, then store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Refrigerate or freeze the topping for up to 1 week.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Stand Mixer or Large Glass Mixing Bowl | Citrus Zester | Citrus Juicer | Silicone Spatula or Wooden Spoon | 9×5-inch Loaf Pan | Rolling Pin | Pastry Cutter | Pastry Brush
- Yeast: Platinum Yeast from Red Star is an instant yeast. Any instant yeast works. You can use a 1:1 substitution of active dry yeast instead with no changes to the recipe. Rise times will be slightly longer if using active dry yeast. Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
Reader Comments and Reviews
It was delicious. I loved the crumble top with the lemon icing. The bread was a little dry. I don’t think I over-worked it or used too much flour, but who knows.
Delicious! I made both this and the smores ice box for the baking challenge and we loved this one! Perfect breakfast/brunch treat!
First time to enter challenge. I was surprised how easy recipe came together, such amazing instructions. Found challenge fun and rewarding. I think I will certainly do again.
Thank you so much.
Love your recipes. I am looking forward to your new cookbook.
This turned out delicious. Buttery sweet dough with a jam swirl running through and yummy crumb topping, what’s not to love? Easy to follow instructions, it is a time consuming recipe, but definitely worth the results.
My family had so much fun making this babka! We’ve tried many babkas over the years—mostly chocolate and cinnamon—so we were excited to try this more original twist. The dough was a pleasure to work with—so smooth and buttery—and we loved making the homemade blueberry jam, which was absolutely delicious!
“Wow! This is amazing!” was the first thing I thought when I sunk my teeth into this for the first time!! I have often thought that Sally has done herself with some the recipes I have tried from her, but so far this is the pinnacle. I started this recipe late and didn’t finish it until 11:00p.m. and I was a bit worried that it wasn’t going to be worth the time spent and the lack of sleep…..IT ABSOLUTLY WAS!!! If you haven’t tried it yet, take it from me, YOU NEED TO!!! It really is THAT good. I can’t wait for my Dad and brothers to get back from work. They are going to love it!!
Thank you, Sally, for yet another wonderful recipe!
This was a time-consuming recipe, but the resulting babka was worth the time! The instructions were easy to follow and my babka has lovely flavor and texture! For me, the lemon flavor was subtle, but my family doesn’t love lemon, so that was fine with them!
One thing of note is to watch your blueberry filling carefully while preparing it. I ended up having to remake mine because the sugar burned in my first batch.
Delicious, and the house has aroma of freshly baked bread. Recipe simple and pictures easy to follow! Will make again love the blueberry lemon combination taste like summer
The Lemon Blueberry Babka turned out beautifully! The recipe was easy to follow and the pictures helped along the way. It tasted sweet and would be perfect to make ahead for a breakfast treat. I highly recommend!
Here’s a tip to reduce the time for the first rise: I used SAF Gold yeast, which is hydrophilic and intended for enriched doughs (those with butter, milk, sugar, etc). The first rise was done in about 2 hours.
The aroma of every stage of this baking project is reason enough to make it!!
Curious to know if anyone has used a different fruit filling. We can’t eat blueberries and I have an amazing guava jam that I think would be delicious! Could I just swap?
Hi Melissa! While we can’t say for sure, a guava jam that isn’t too loose should work well in the babka.
I set my covered dish on my back porch, so I was pleased that the first rise was shorter than 3 hours! The flavor of the dough and blueberries is nice, but it’s hard to taste the lemon, except for in the glaze. Next time I’ll wait to glaze the bread until just before slicing as it hardened and cracked off on most pieces.
This is an amazing recipe because my bread came out perfectly after kneading in my stand mixer – the very first time! It looked right and felt right; not all the flour was used. At one point, the rolled dough and blueberry spread looked exactly like her picture. The slicing, the icing – everything perfect and it was delicious! I made it for my brother-in-law for Father’s Day, and it was a smash hit. I would make this recipe again. It’s flawless and delicious!
Easy to make because of the precise instructions! Delicious, impressive, and fun! Perfect for summer brunch!
This wasn’t too difficult to make. Next time I would add more lemon zest to the bread.
I have made many kinds of bread, but this babka was better than all of them. The lemon and blueberry flavors were perfect, and I also loved the swirls inside of the babka. My only issues were that, while shaping the dough, some of the filling seeped out through the dough because it was too thin. I also struggled to make the crumbles, and they melted into the babka, since they were obviously made of butter. In the end, neither of these were a big deal for me, so thank you for this recipe!
Yummy bread! The blueberry jam adds such a nice summery touch to the bread, and the technique of folding the bread makes a lovely swirl. Drizzled with lemon glaze is amazing!
This was very good and a new bake for me. Thanks again for all the instructions
Very yummy! Made a double batch, and it worked great. One for us, one to share.
Easy & delicious! I doubled the crumb topping (bc I LOVE crumb topping!) and put in a little extra lemon
This Lemon blueberry babka is so delish! Not too difficult to make, so perfect for a special occasion or brunch. One thing I ran into is that the blueberry jam became super thick when it cooled, so it was difficult to spread. Perhaps it needs to cool slightly instead of cooling fully. Otherwise, this recipe is fairly easy and straightforward. I’ll definitely be making this again.
I brought all the ingredients with me to make this during our camping trip. I made 1/3 of the recipe in a food prep dish. My bittersweet chocolate ganache was lovely; shiny and smooth. My meringue? I could have whipped it for an hour and I never would have gotten stiff peaks. 95% humidity really takes a toll on meringue. It was glossy, and tasted great. I thought I would get six servings out of it, but my husband ate half at one go. He doesn’t even like s’mores.
The blueberry swirl is everything! This was so good. My kids might actually like it better than the Nutella babka!
Very delicious and versatile recipe. The texture of the bread was terrific with a subtle lemon flavor. I used a combination of blueberries and blackberries. My family almost ate the whole loaf before I could get a pic!
This was so delicious even though it was not nearly as pretty as yours. The slices looked very pretty however. The lemon really adds a lot.
This was my first time baking bread and I found this recipe very easy to follow! I also enjoyed that it was a little sweet (if you add the glaze) but not too sweet.
What a fun recipe to try and the flavors were so light. The perfect treat for a summer afternoon
Is it bread? Is it dessert? It’s both! AND it’s delicious!!! Your step-by-step instructions never fail, Sally. So when I saw this yummy summer treat with lemon and blueberries, I just couldn’t wait to make it. ♥️
Made this for Father’s Day, for my 96 year-old father-in-law. It was a hit and everyone enjoyed. Thank you, Sally for another great recipe.