Lemon Blueberry Babka

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.

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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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Butter: Butter promises a flavorful and soft bread. Make sure it’s softened to room temperature. You also need butter in the crumb topping.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Salt: You can’t make flavorful bread without salt!
9. Vanilla Extract: A little vanilla for extra flavor.
10. 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.
11. 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.)

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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. 🙂

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