VEGAN BABKA WITH LINGONBERRIES

Vegan babka with lingonberries is a festive scrumptious bake and perfect for the season! Topped with a gooey vegan caramel sauce, this babka is a wonderful flavor burst of both tart and sweet. We baked this vegan babka together with Jenni from the popular Liemessä blog & Instagram and we also filmed a little video. It was so inspiring and fun to create together, and I hope you will enjoy this amazing vegan recipe as much as we did creating and eating it 🙂

Vegan Babka and Creative Collaborations

This year I’ve been a little braver than before making connections IRL! As an introvert I’ve found it hard to take the first steps towards making contact, but this fall I discovered that I like – or love – contacting people I intuitively feel are amazing.

I am thrilled to have an opportunity to create together with the amazing Jenni, who has always been a great inspiration. She is a multi talent making delicious recipes and taking GORGEOUS photos (of not just food btw, also her nature photos are stunning). They are simply a work of art ♥

You can find Jenni’s recipes and photos on her blog and Instagram:

Jenni’s blog: Liemessa.fi

Jenni’s Instagram: @liemessa

From Jenni’s blog you can also read this babka recipe in Finnish!

What is a Babka?

You might have seen a babka or two on Instagram as it has become a popular cake / bread to bake any season. I’ve seen super delicious chocolate, cinnamon and berry babka versions.

Babka is a traditional braided soft bread or cake originating from the Jewish communities of Ukraine and Poland (source: Wikipedia). It is made from a yeast-leavened dough, and I think it is quite similar flavor wise to a Finnish filled pullapitko = long braided bun.

If I did my research right, the original dough recipe for babka is similar to a brioche dough, which calls for eggs. Jenni created a vegan version of the babka dough, similar to a vegan bun dough, and it is sooooo good. This vegan babka dough is the perfect combination of both a traditional babka and the traditional Finnish cardamom bun!

Vegan Babka with Lingonberries or Lingonberry Jam

Jenni had a brilliant idea to fill the babka with lingonberries. Lingonberries are tart berries with a beautiful unique forest berry flavor like no other!

We filmed the vegan babka in September so I could still pick a few fresh lingonberries from the forest. They make such pretty decoration for the festive season.

If lingonberries are not available where you live, I recommend buying lingonberry jam, which can be found at IKEAs all around the world. Cranberries would work well too, since they have a similar tartness to lingonberries.

Now let’s start baking!

♥ Tiina

Jenni (Liemessä) and Tiina (Myberryforest)

Vegan Babka with Lingonberries

This juicy vegan babka is filled with sweet forest flavors of lingonberries and topped with a thick layer of gooey vegan caramel - the perfect sweet cake for the holidays! This recipe is made in collaboration with Liemessä Jenni.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: vegan

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

  

Vegan Babka Dough

• 150 ml (1/2 cup + 1/8 cup) almond milk Or you can use any plant milk you prefer.
• 11 g dry yeast In Finland we have dry yeast in 11 gram packages
• 45 g (3 tbsp) cane sugar or light brown sugar Regular granulated sugar is ok too.
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 100 g vegan butter, softened in room temperature

Lingonberry Filling

• 3/4 cup lingonberries You can use cranberries too or sub berries and sugar with ~3/4 cup lingonberry jam
• 50 g (1/4 cup) sugar
• + extra 1/3 cup lingonberries for decoration

Vegan Caramel Topping

• 1/2 cup coconut cream
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar

Equipment

• Hand mixer or stand mixer with dough hooks.

Method

 

Vegan Babka Dough and Lingonberry Filling

1. Use a stand mixer or hand mixer to make the babka dough.

   Warm the almond milk to about 42 C (max 45 C). Add the dry yeast and let set for a few minutes.
2. To the warmed milk and yeast, add the sugar, salt, cardamom, cinnamon and flour little by little kneading the dough.
3. Keep kneading the dough for 5 minutes.
4. Add the soft vegan butter and knead for another 5 minutes until the dough easily detaches from the bowl.
5. Let the dough rise covered in room temperature for an hour.
6. Prepare the lingonberry filling by blending the berries together with the sugar with an immersion blender.
7. Prepare a loaf pan with parchment paper.
8. When the dough is ready roll it into a sheet on a well floured surface. Spread the lingonberry puree and sprinkle extra lingonberries on top.
9. Roll the dough and cut it almost from the top into 3 parts leaving about a 2 cm piece on the top uncut to keep the roll together. Braid the 3 parts, give a gentle squeeze from both edges when its braided and lift the babka roll into the prepared loaf pan.
10. Let the babka rise in the pan for 30 minutes.
11. Preheat the oven to 170 C / 340 F.
12. Bake the babka in the oven for about 40 minutes.

Vegan Caramel Topping

1. In a saucepan on high-medium heat combine the coconut cream and sugar together stirring continuously. Let bubble away on low-medium heat for about 5 minutes stirring often. The caramel should thicken during this time or continue stirring on heat until it is thicker. Add a sprinkle of salt.
2. Note: the caramel will thicken once it cools down. You can warm it up a bit before serving so that it's easier to drizzle on top of the babka.

Notes

The babka is best after about 1 day when it has dried a bit and when cut into pieces you can see the beautiful lingonberry stripes. We had to cut the babka right after baking so it is still very soft in these photos (but of course absolutely delicious either way!).

Get inspired by more lingonberry recipes

Lingonberry caramel oatmeal (vegan & gf) 

Lingonberry cheesecake tarts (vegan & gf)

Lingonberry nicecream (vegan & gf)

Click here to see the Vegan Babka Reels we filmed together!