Baked Cheese Babka

I recently discovered an early recipe for Baked Cheese Babka, a Ukrainian Easter dessert, in an out-of-print 19th century cookbook published in western Ukraine. What intrigued me most was the fact that this Baked Cheese Babka is flourless. After researching other baked cheese babka recipes, I realized the uniqueness of this recipe. Other baked cheese babkas are essentially sweet breads with ricotta or cottage cheese added to increase the moisture in the dough.This flourless Cheese Babka, made primarily of cheese, is, so far as I know, the only one of its kind, and finding this recipe provided a glimpse of a long ago Easter celebration.

I was eager to recreate the flavor of that time. A special dessert like this Cheese Babka was probably served at the end of the early morning Easter breakfast (rozhovlyannya), an essential Ukrainian ritual during the year’s most important religious holiday.

The Easter breakfast is an elaborate affair. After 40 days of fasting and an all-night Resurrection liturgy, Ukrainians sit down to an early breakfast of foods forbidden during Lent. This meal is an explosion of tastes: salty hams and sausages, silky pâtés, bitter white and beet-flavored horseradish, cool egg or chicken slices under flavorful aspic and crunchy spring salads followed by a variety of Easter sweets.

Growing up in a Ukrainian immigrant family, I remember the impressive array of dishes at our Easter breakfast but I have especially fond memories of desserts: the baked sweet breads – paskas and babkas,* cheesecake, almond torte and luscious uncooked cheese paska, molded in a cheesecloth lined red clay flower pot.

Although family recipes for cheesecake and torte were lost over time, my sister Maria and I continue this Easter breakfast tradition for our extended clan, including baking babkas and molding a cheese paska. But I miss the other sweets we enjoyed years ago and I was delighted to discover another Easter dessert.

As I was translating and adapting this Baked Cheese Babka recipe to contemporary cooking methods and equipment, I realized that the inclusion of raisins, citron and candied cherries probably means that this recipe was urban in origin. In the 19th century such ingredients were expensive and available only in Ukrainian cities, not villages. The recipe also calls for “soft homemade cheese” which means the cook probably had access to fresh milk and made her own cheese, not unusual at the time in cities.

“Soft homemade cheese” is difficult to find commercially in the US and, while there are many recipes, I was not inclined to make it myself. The term “soft homemade cheese” is often translated in Europe as pot cheese, quark, curd cheese, white cheese or tvoroh. These cheeses are usually dry curd but with a slightly tart, vibrant taste which is quite different than much more caloric and fattier cream cheese.

Baker’s cheese is the closest and best substitute in North America. Regular cottage cheese has too much milky liquid which is impossible to drain and makes a wet, spongy babka. Baker’s cheese produces a not -too rich, perfectly balanced, sweet and tangy cheese babka, reminiscent of the Easter cheesecake I enjoyed years ago. If you are not a fan of heavy cheesecakes, this babka version may change your mind.

I used a tall springform pan (7 inches (17.8 cm) tall x 5 inches (12.7 cm) in diameter) intended for panettone I purchased in Europe. A comparable, although slightly smaller, pan is available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Patisse-Springform-black-nonstick-4-Inch/dp/B00FVTV6IK/ref=sr_1_5?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1491664666&sr=1-5&keywords=patisse+springform+pan

But any round springform cake pan at least 9 inches (22.8 cm) in diameter X 3 inches (7.6 cm) high will work.

Because the cheese mixture reached the top of my pan, I added a 3 inch (7.6 cm) well-buttered parchment paper collar to the top to prevent spillover, and also placed the pan on a rimmed cookie sheet for baking. This Baked Cheese Babka will puff up during baking and then settle as it cools.

Baked Cheese Babka

36 ounces (1k) baker’s cheese**
6 eggs, separated
4 tablespoons (60 g) sugar plus 1 additional tablespoon
2 packages vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons (57g) unsalted butter, softened, plus 1 tablespoon for buttering baking pan
2 tablespoons fine dry bread crumbs
Pinch salt
4 tablespoons (55g) cream of wheat
1 teaspoon lemon zest
⅓ cup (50g) candied citron
2¼ tablespoons (25g) candied cherries
½ cup (75g) raisins
⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar

Pre-heat oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter a springform pan. Cut out parchment circle and line bottom of pan. Butter bottom again. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons bread crumbs into the pan and shake to coat walls thoroughly to the top edge. Tap pan upside down to remove excess bread crumbs.

Purée cheese in a food processor until smooth and empty into large bowl. In a mixer with paddle attachment, cream egg yolks with 4 tablespoons sugar and vanilla. Stir in salt, 4 tablespoons of cream of wheat and lemon zest. Add softened butter and mix until combined. Then combine egg mixture with cheese mixture, stirring until well incorporated.

Dice citron and cherries into ¼ inch equal-sized pieces. Place into small bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and stir to coat candied fruit to separate pieces. Add raisins to candied fruit and mix into cheese mixture until well distributed.

Whip egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff. Stir in one half of the egg whites into cheese mixture until smooth. Fold in remaining egg whites just until no egg whites are visible.

Spoon cheese mixture into prepared pan. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 65 minutes, covering top with foil after first 25 minutes. Depending on the pan, longer baking may be required for the babka to set. Bake covered until internal temperature reaches 155°F (68°C). Cool in oven with cracked door until warm to touch. Remove to baker’s rack and cool until room temperature.

To serve, sieve powdered sugar over top of cool babka. Garnish with candied cherries. Cut in wedges.

Serves 8.

*A Note on Semantics: Babka and Paska

Babka and paska are two different Easter breads, but often the words are used interchangeably in many regions of Ukraine. Paska is a rich round not-too-sweet bread with elaborate symbolic dough ornaments baked into its top. The name is based on the Hebrew word for Passover (pesach).

Babka, on the other hand, is richer, almost cake-bread, much taller, than a paska, and with a round top, without dough ornamentation. Babkas are sometimes glazed with royal icing or just shiny from a beaten-egg-and-milk wash. The name baba, or babka, means grandmother or old woman.

To add to the terminological confusion, both terms are also used for non-bread preparations in some areas of Ukraine. Thus, my family’s Easter dessert was an uncooked molded cheese paska, while the featured recipe is called a Baked Cheese Babka because it is baked in the traditional cylindrical babka shape.

** Baker’s cheese is available on-line from West Allis Cheese and Sausage Company at https://www.wacheese-gifts.com/P/340/BakersCheese or from Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Bakers-Cheese-5-LB-Tub/dp/B0000DK5J8

*** This recipe can be made without the candied fruit and raisins in the original recipe. As alternative flavor, I suggest adding another teaspoon each of vanilla extract and lemon zest.