You may be familiar with sweet babka (a braided bread, often swirled with chocolate and traditionally served on Easter Sunday), but we've given it a savoury twist with a delicious basil and garlic butter.
Serve warm as is with lashings of butter or use as a base to elevate your favourite picnic sandwich. It also makes a great accompaniment to fresh pasta dishes like this simple summer lasagne and crowd-pleasing courgette and tomato pasta bake.
Find more of our most popular picnic recipes for summer lunching.
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Yields:
10 serving(s)
Prep Time:
40 mins
Cook Time:
50 mins
Total Time:
1 hr 30 mins
Cal/Serv:
328
Ingredients
For the dough
450 g strong white flour, plus extra to dust
7 g fast-action dried yeast
75 g unsalted butter, melted, plus extra to grease
250 ml milk
For the filling
100 g unsalted butter, softened
3 garlic cloves, crushed
100 g basil, leaves and stalks
For the glaze
2 Tbsp. runny honey
Directions
Step 1For the dough, in a freestanding mixer fitted with a dough hook, or in a large bowl with a wooden spoon, mix the flour, yeast and 1/2tsp fine salt. Add the melted butter and milk and mix to form a dough. If making by hand, tip on to a lightly floured work surface. Knead by hand or on medium speed for 5-10min, until smooth and elastic. Return to the bowl, if needed, cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 1hr 30 min, or until doubled in size.
Step 2Lightly grease a 900g loaf tin. For the filling, in a food processor whizz the butter, garlic, basil and plenty of seasoning until fairly smooth.
Step 3Tip the dough on to a lightly floured work surface and roll out to a rough 30 x 40cm rectangle. Spread the filling over the top of the dough. Roll up tightly from a long edge, then slice in 1/2 lengthways to make 2 long pieces with the filling exposed.
Step 4Lay the pieces side-by-side with the filling facing upwards. Lightly press 2 of the ends together, then twist the lengths into each other, by lifting 1 piece over the other repeatedly, making sure you keep the filling exposed.
Step 5Once you have a long, twisted length, push both ends simultaneously into the centre to shorten the length slightly. Lift and squeeze it into the greased tin (it will seem too big but will fit!).
Step 6Loosely cover with greased clingfilm (butter-side down) and leave to rise again in a warm place for 1hr 30min-2hr, or until noticeably puffed.
Step 7Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4. Bake the babka for 45-50min, or until deep golden (loosely cover with foil if browning too quickly).
Step 8As soon as the babka comes out of the oven, brush the honey over the top of the babka to glaze. Leave to cool completely in the tin before transferring to a board. Serve in slices.
Get ahead
Make, knead and cover dough up to a day ahead. Chill (no need to rinse). To serve, allow dough to come to room temperature and rise. Complete recipe.
To store
Once cool, wrap well in foil and keep at room temperature for up to 2 days.
The GH Kitchen Team are Good Housekeeping’s resident recipe developers and all-round food obsessives. GH Kitchen Director Sarah Akhurst is our resident hosting pro and loves nothing more than putting on a foodie feast for friends. Our GH Kitchen Manager Linzi Pucino is our very own Italian food expert (originally hailing from the North East of Scotland!) and can be found working her way through midweek recipes that cover all bases, from haggis to ragu! Our Kitchen Editor Nadine Brown loves digging into the stories behind her favourite foods and enjoys applying her eclectic tastes to more modern, flavour-forward recipes - just don't give her too much chilli! Our Junior Food Content Produce Frankie Prichard combines a love of beautiful presentation and flavour-led, seasonal cooking in her recipe development, along with a passion for bringing people together through food. With a wealth of professional kitchen experience between them, they’re dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work every single time
