You’ll fall in love with each layer of deliciously sweet and addictive Nutella babka. It’s beautifully swirled and topped with buttery cinnamon crumbles. Make this New York bakery favorite in your own kitchen! Follow my step-by-step photos and helpful tips for best results.
Let’s travel deep into the layers of babka today. Located somewhere between bread and decadent dessert, this irresistible treat uses the dough from my homemade cinnamon rolls recipe as the base, is filled with Nutella, and topped with buttery cinnamon crumbles.
Babka has a rich history. When I read more about the treat as I worked on this recipe, I learned that it originated in the early 1800s with the Polish Jewish community. Leftover challah dough was filled with jam or cinnamon, rolled up, and baked. The babka we see all over the place today, I read, is much richer and sweeter than its ancestor. You can find it filled with chocolate or almond paste—this is a delicious chocolate babka recipe—or the newer babka variations with pizza fillings, Nutella, pesto, and more. Food52 has an in-depth article all about babka if you want to read more about its history and popularity today.
Tell Me About This Nutella Babka
I include lots of step-by-step babka pictures showing you how approachable homemade babka truly is. (If you’ve ever made my raspberry twist bread, cinnamon crunch bread, or homemade cheese bread, you’re already familiar with the shaping method.) This is a fun starting point for yeast baking—just wait until you see how it all comes together. You’ll be pleasantly surprised that babka is totally something you can (and should) pull off!! Nothing to fear, I promise.
There are many ways to make babka, and today we’re using dough based off of my homemade cinnamon rolls. This babka recipe makes 2 loaves—freeze one or gift it to someone special. Trust me, someone will want this gift!
While babka may look a little intimidating, follow these simple steps for perfect babka every time. Let’s review:
- Make the dough. This is a soft, rich, puffy, and very buttery yeast dough—we’ll review the dough below. If you need extra help with the kneading step, see my detailed video tutorial on How to Knead Dough.
- Let the dough rise. Let the babka dough rise in a warm environment until (roughly) doubled in size, about 90ish minutes. I use my oven to help with rising—it’s very simple. Preheat your oven to 200°F (93°C) then turn the oven off and place the dough inside the warm-ish oven. Leave the oven door slightly cracked open. Leave it alone, watch it grow!
- Punch down the dough. This helps release the air bubbles. You’ll be left with super soft and supple dough.
- Divide dough into 2 pieces.
- Roll them out. Spread with Nutella. You can also fill babka with a homemade chocolate filling—or really anything at all—but I reached for Nutella. I want today’s main focus to be on the dough and process, so let’s use a little shortcut for the filling. Bonus that it’s NUTELLA and it’s fabulous.
- Shape the babka, then let it rest.
- Add with crumble topping. I know what you’re thinking. Is the cinnamon crumble really necessary? The answer is YES. Isn’t cinnamon crumble always necessary? You’ll just need some brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter.
- Bake. The only thing better than eating babka is smelling babka as it bakes—just wait until you experience that.
- Enjoy. And get lost in the layers!!! Some recipes instruct you to brush the baked babka with sugar syrup when it comes out of the oven, but I skipped this step. It ensures a super crisp crust, but I liked the babka without it, too.
Baking with Yeast Guide
Reference this Baking with Yeast Guide whenever you work with baker’s yeast. I include practical answers to all of your common yeast questions.
Nutella Babka Uses a Rich Dough
We use a rich dough for homemade babka, which means that it’s prepared with fat like milk, butter, and eggs. Rich doughs make soft breads such as monkey bread, dinner rolls, and glazed doughnuts. Lean doughs, on the other hand, are made without much fat and produce crusty bread such as homemade bagels and pizza dough.
Today’s babka dough is egg rich, butter rich, calorie rich. It comes together with 7 basic ingredients: milk, yeast, sugar, butter, eggs, salt, and flour. You likely have them all in your kitchen now. Let’s review the importance of each babka ingredient:
- Milk: Liquid activates the yeast. Whole milk or even buttermilk is ideal for this dough. You can get away with 2% or 1%, but I do not recommend skim.
- Yeast: You can use an instant or active dry yeast—the rise time will be a little longer if you choose the latter.
- Sugar: Sugar feeds the yeast, increases its activity, and tenderizes the dough.
- Butter: Butter promises a rich and flavorful dough.
- Eggs: Eggs provide structure and flavor.
- Salt: Salt adds flavor.
- Flour: All-purpose flour is the structure of the dough.
It’s a little messy, but don’t all of the best foods need a little clean up? Place the twists into loaf pans, cover them up, and set them aside as you make a cinnamon crumble topping. This gives the dough time to rest before baking. Brush the babka with beaten egg white + milk (egg wash), then top with your cinnamon crumble.
Want to know why this Nutella babka is so irresistible? Because each bite is different. Some bites are overflowing with gooey Nutella and others are full of soft flaky dough and cinnamon crumbles. Each twist and turn is unique, no loaf will look the same, and the whole thing stays moist for days. Good luck with it in your house!
Do you have a favorite babka recipe? How do you usually fill yours?
More Nutella Favorites
- Nutella Swirl Pound Cake
- Nutella Crinkle Cookies
- Nutella Tart
- Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Nutella Brownies
Nutella Babka
- Prep Time: 2 hours, 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 40 minutes
- Yield: 2 loaves
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Deliciously sweet and addictive bread swirled with Nutella and topped with buttery cinnamon crumbles!
Ingredients
- 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons (270ml) whole milk, divided*
- 2 and 1/4 teaspoons active dry or instant yeast (1 standard size packet)*
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature and cut into 4 pieces
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature and divided
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 and 1/4 cups (531g) all-purpose flour, (spooned & leveled) plus more for dusting/rolling
- 2 cups (600g) Nutella, divided
Crumble Topping
- 1/4 cup (50g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (31g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup (4 Tbsp; 56g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
Instructions
- Make the dough: Heat 1 cup of milk to about 95°F (35°C). You can use the microwave or stovetop. Pour the warm milk into the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment (or you can use a handheld mixer or no mixer, but a stand mixer is ideal). Manually whisk in the yeast and 2 teaspoons of the granulated sugar. Cover the bowl with a clean towel. The mixture should be frothy and foamy after 5 minutes.
- On low speed, beat in the remaining sugar and the softened butter until butter is slightly broken up. Next beat in 1 whole egg plus 1 egg yolk (reserve the egg white) and the salt. The butter won’t really be mixing in, so don’t be alarmed if it stays in pieces. On low speed, gradually add the flour. Once it is all added, beat on medium speed until a soft dough forms, about 1 minute.
- Knead the dough: Keep the dough in the mixer and beat 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. You can also do a “windowpane test” to see if your dough has been kneaded long enough: tear off a small (roughly golfball-size) piece of dough and gently stretch it out until it’s thin enough for light to pass through it. Hold it up to a window or light. Does light pass through the stretched dough without the dough tearing first? If so, your dough has been kneaded long enough and is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading until it passes the windowpane test.
- Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and form into a ball. Place into a large greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. (I just use the same mixing bowl that I made the dough in—remove the dough, grease it with nonstick spray or olive oil, put the dough back in.) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in a warm environment to rise until doubled, about 90 minutes. For this warm environment, I preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C) then turn the oven off and place the bowl inside the warm-ish oven. Leave the oven door cracked a bit.
- Once doubled in size, punch down the dough to release any air bubbles. Remove dough from the bowl and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Punch down again to release any more air bubbles if needed. Using a sharp knife or dough scraper, cut dough in half. Work with only half of the dough at a time. Place a clean towel over the dough you aren’t working with.
- Generously grease two 9×5-inch loaf pans with butter or nonstick spray.
- On slightly floured work surface, roll one dough half out into a 9×13-inch rectangle (approximately). Spread with 1 cup of Nutella, leaving a 1/2 inch border uncovered.
- Tightly roll the dough into a 13-inch log. Place the log on its seam. Using a sharp knife, cut the log in half lengthwise. I find a serrated knife works best. Criss-cross one half, cut side down, on top of the other half, forming an X. Twist the two together. Place in prepared loaf pan and cover with a clean towel. Repeat with 2nd half of dough. This step can get a little messy! (If you need a visual for this step, see the video tutorial for homemade cheese bread starting at the 2:54 mark.)
- Allow both shaped (and covered) loaves to rest for 20-30 minutes as you prepare the crumble topping and preheat the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Make the crumble topping: Mix the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl. Using a pastry cutter, cut the cold butter into the brown sugar mixture until coarse crumbs are formed. Set aside.
- Whisk the remaining 2 Tablespoons of milk with the leftover egg white. This is your egg wash. Using a pastry brush, brush the babka loaves with egg wash. Do the best you can as some Nutella is exposed. Top each loaf with crumble topping.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes or until babka is golden brown on top. Gently tap the loaves—if they sound hollow, the bread is done. Remove from the oven, place each pan on a wire rack, and allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
- Cover and store leftover babka at room temperature for a couple days or in the refrigerator for 1 week. (It won’t last that long!!) You can also freeze the baked babka for up to 3 months, then thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before serving. Or warm it up in the oven.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: After dough has risen two hours in step 4, punch down the dough inside the mixing bowl and cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight or for up to 2 days, then remove from the refrigerator and continue with step 5. OR freeze for up to 2 months, then allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator and continue with step 5.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Stand Mixer | Whisk | Dough Scraper | 9×5-inch Loaf Pan | Rolling Pin | Pastry Brush | Glass Mixing Bowl | Pastry Cutter
- Milk: Whole milk or even buttermilk is ideal for this dough. You can get away with 2% or 1%, but I do not recommend skim. You’ll need 1 cup in the dough and you’ll use the other 2 Tablespoons for the egg wash in step 12.
- Yeast: Active dry or instant yeast work—if using instant yeast (such as Red Star Platinum) the 1st rise time will be a little shorter. Reference my Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
- Filling: Instead of Nutella you can try a homemade chocolate fudge filling. This one is excellent. But I really love how the Nutella tastes in this!
Is this the same dough as your apple cinnamon babka? I was wondering if I could make one loaf Nutella and one apple? Thanks, love your recipes!!
Hi Ayla! They’re very similar. You can use both fillings here.
This was so delicious Thank you for this recipe. My grandkids also thank you
I had to do a presentation for a college class on Babka, and made this recipe to share with my professor and classmates. Happy to report I got 100%!! Such a fantastic recipe, turns out perfect every time!
Agree with most comments – everything great except time in the oven was too long by at least 10 minutes!
Recipe was easy to make and tasted delicious. The only modification I did was on the cook time. Recipe calls for 45 to 55 minutes, mine way done by 30 so watch for that!
definitely a do again.
Love it! I’ve been using another babka recipe for years. The ingredients & measurements are the same but the butter gets added after the flour and it’s a messy endeavour. This one yields such a beautiful dough that is a so nice to work with. Sticking with this recipe! Wish I had read the comments, next time I won’t leave it as long as the Nutella got a little burnt.
Hi! I’ve made this recipe half a dozen times now and it’s a hit with all my friends and family. We like your cinnamon apple babka too but what we really need is a cheese babka recipe! I’m waiting patiently while I bake everything else on this blog!
Super delicious and fun to make! The braiding is very, very messy but it’s supposed to be and the finished babka is worth it! I will say, the outside “crust” is darker than I was expecting. Thankfully I read the other comments and was watching it closely so it didn’t burn. Total bake time was only 40 minutes which turned out to be pretty perfect. The outside is a bit dark but doesn’t taste burnt and has a nice crunch. The inside is cooked perfectly with Nutella still moist. Overall, super yummy and I will definitely make it again. Thanks for another great one, Sally!
Love this recipe so much!!! It is so delicious! Could I double the recipe to make four loaves?
Hi Kelley! For best results, I recommend making the dough twice (separately) as doubling would be too much dough to work with at once.
Litterally one of my favourite recipes to make- Made one loaf today and refrigerated the other half of the dough as instructed in step 4- However ny dough rose as a bread loaf would. Is there anyway to prevent this as I want to make this next week for a function but would have to make the dough a day in advance. Thank you again for such great recipes.
Hi Ari, so glad this one is a favorite for you! If refrigerating the dough, it’s okay if it rises a bit. Simply punch down the dough when ready to proceed with the recipe.
OMG – I followed the recipe exactly and it was too good. I could not stop eating it. Spot on!!
Good recipe- however mine also was a bit overdone on the sides and bottom at 45 minutes so it has a slightly burned taste. I will try cutting down the cooking time next time but it’s hard to tell because the top side wasn’t overcooked.
Hey Sally, I’ve made your cinnamon rolls before and did the overnight thing where I made the cinnamon roll and then baked it in the morning. I was wondering if I could do that instead of stopping at step 4?
Hi Linda, we fear that allowing the shaped babka to rest overnight will allow it to over rise and lose its shape. For best results, we recommend sticking to the overnight instructions from the recipe Notes. Hope you enjoy this recipe!
Hi, I am wondering what the best way to freeze this bread is. The notes only talk about freezing the dough and not a baked loaf. What is best to wrap it in?
Hi Lindsay, you can wrap the baked babka in a layer of Press N Seal or plastic wrap to store. To keep as much moisture out as possible, we also recommend another layer of foil and then you can store the bread in the freezer. See Make Ahead Baking for more tips on freezing breads.
I made a “New Year’s” resolution to bake babka and after research I opted for this recipe as SBA never fails and this did not disappoint! The sweet, yeasted dough was a dream to work with the process much simpler than I would have imagined (if you’ve ever made cinnamon rolls, this will be a breeze.) I did have trouble shaping/braiding the first babka but since the recipe makes two loaves I considered this first loaf “practice” and the second was much better looking (that loaf is in the freezer to be gifted at a later date.) I will most certainly be making this recipe again and again, only I will be adding 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips or chopped semi-sweet chocolate to the filling. I opted for a simple syrup (1:1 granulated sugar to water) versus the crumble in the recipe and I thought it was just perfect and less work/ingredients than the crumble.
We’re so thrilled to hear that this recipe was a hit for you, Josh!
Hi Sally! Which setting should the oven be set to? Bake or bake with convection? Aka fan or no fan?
Hi Lucy, We always recommend conventional settings for baking (not convection/fan). The flow of air from convection heat can cause baked goods to rise and bake unevenly and it also pulls moisture out of the oven. If you do use convection/fan settings for baking, lower your temperature by 25 degrees F and keep in mind that things may still take less time to bake.
I made this recipe and found it to be really nice. I have a cottage bakery and for some reason I decided to throw babka on my thanksgiving menu. Well, someone ordered it. I had never made it before but always wanted to give it a go. Came out wonderful. I sold one and froze the other bread. Just had a slice. It’s really quite good. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Sally. This is one of my favourite recipes and one of the first yeast recipes that I’ve ever attempted. With your precise instructions I got it right and have made it a few times. I have left the dough to rise overnight on one occasion but the bread ended up tasting too yeasty if that makes sense. Yet every time I had made it on the day it was perfect and devoured by all. I have never had left overs to even test ehat it would taste like the next day. I do want to make it for eid but as I have a very early morning in winter (June in my country) and would like to know if I could make the bread and bake it and then and freeze it until needed? Would it taste just as fresh? Any advice will be appreciated
Hi Ar! So glad you love this recipe. Yes, absolutely. You can freeze the baked babka for up to 3 months, then thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before serving, or warm it up in the oven.
Hi Sally! The dough didn’t rise at all. Is it possible that we overworked it? I was thinking that the mixer might be going to fast at it?
What options do I have? Just restart from scratch?
Hi Aina, there are a few things that could have happened if the dough did not rise. Was your yeast expired? If the milk was too hot in step 1, it could kill the yeast which will make it ineffective in the dough. Over kneading could also be a culprit. Our Baking with Yeast Guide will be helpful to review if you decide to give this recipe another try — hope you enjoy it!
Hello Sally! If I use instant dry yeast do I follow the same steps?
Hi Klara, if using instant yeast (such as Red Star Platinum) the 1st rise time will be a little shorter. Reference our Baking with Yeast Guide for answers to common yeast FAQs.
I am making this for the first time and am new at baking I only have 1 Loaf pan or can I use round cake pans? Maybe shape into buns maybe 3 per cake pan?
Hi Paulette, we’d recommend sticking with your loaf pan. You can keep half of the dough in the fridge while the first is baking. Enjoy!
This bread is lovely! I was wondering though, if I could do a punpkin filling? Any recommendations for that?
Hi Emily! So glad you loved this Nutella babka! Pumpkin would be a tricky filling since it’s so wet. You may be able to add some pumpkin puree to the dough to add some pumpkin flavor, but that would require testing to get right. Let us know if you try anything!
Hi Sally! I’ve recently started to play with Almond meal, as I read it’s a hidden secret to super moist baked goods. I also love this hint of almond. Any suggestions with recipes like this?
Thanks in advance for your time?
Hi Michele, are you asking to replace some of the flour with almond meal? I don’t recommend that in this recipe. I do love almond flour or almond meal in these almond butter coconut macaroons though.
Could I use half and half instead of milk?
Hi Mary, that should work for this dough – enjoy!
I made this yesterday for a pool gathering. Both breads
were devoured!!!I I wish I could attach a picture of how high and beautiful it rose! The only two little tweeks I made to this recipe were: margarine instead of butter..couldn’t even tell the difference. I always use margarine as a substitute
for my breads (cheaper, too!). I also added chopped walnuts right on top of the Nutella before I rolled it up. It gave the breads a little of a crunch, which my Italian family likes. Pecans may be nice next time. Also, next time I won’t put so much Nutella (even though my family loved it). Next time I will put 3/4C on each bread next time.
As for cooking it, mine turned out perfect at 350f on the middle rack for exactly 45mins. After 35 minutes or so I put foil not on top of the breads, but on the very top rack so that it didn’t brown too much.
Also, I let the dough rise in the oven with the light on for about 65min, not the full 90. It didn’t need it. I also did not let it rise after I rolled it and placed it in the loaf pans. They rose in the oven while cooking! I bought fresh baking powder, so maybe that’s why. I also used plain old 2% milk, not whole. It turned out perfect.
Thank you so much for this recipe! EVERYONE couldn’t believe this was homemade.
Cheers from Stouffville, Ontario
Hi Sally! I absolutely loved this recipe, and my loaves of babka were so tasty. I matched it with a book in my newsletter.
Thanks again for the awesome recipe.
Hey Sally! Is there a way to make the crumble chocolate flavored? My family are huge chocoholics and anywhere I can put more chocolate they’d appreciate. We’re not big fans of cinnamon, so I’d leave that out.
Hi Izzy, what a great idea. I would leave out the cinnamon, as you suggest, and replace 1 Tbsp of flour with unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or dutch process, doesn’t matter).
Hi, can I use a combination of cake flour and all purpose flour for this recipe?
Hi Kat, cake flour is too light for this dough. I recommend all-purpose flour or you can use bread flour (or a combo of the two).
This was a lot easier to make than I thought. For us, we all agree it’s too much nutella. I will reduce it by maybe 1/3 to 1/2 next time. It’s a gorgeous 2 loaves, and tastes like a dessert bread. The directions were great.
Hi Sally – I’m pretty bummed right now because this came out super burnt. I noticed around the 30 min mark that it was browning more than I’d like, so I made a foil tent. The issue ended up being that the bottom and sides just burned to a crisp. I have an oven thermometer inside of my oven so I was monitoring the temperature. The dough was beautiful and I followed the recipe exactly. I made your cheese bread and sandwich bread and they were absolutely perfect. I have no idea what went wrong!
Hi Holly, this could be fixed for next time using a lighter colored loaf pan (we love using USA Pan brand loaf pans– not sponsored, just genuine fans!) or reducing the oven temperature and extending the bake time. Also be sure that the pans are very generously greased to help prevent the burning, too. Hope this helps!
Hi Sally, baked this bread today. We love it so much. Thank you for the recipe.
I reduced the nutella and its perfect sweetness for us.
Keeping the half of the dough in the fridge.