Cinnamon Babka

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This beautiful twisted bread starts with a soft and fluffy enriched yeast dough that’s swirled with cinnamon sugar ribbons and a sandy cinnamon streusel topping. This loaf of bread tastes like a big cinnamon roll! See my post about baking with yeast for answers to all of your common FAQs.

TESTED & PERFECTED: THIS BABKA RECIPE WON’T LET YOU DOWN

Many years ago, in 2018 in fact, I was just starting to get my feet really wet with yeast dough. My mom had taught me how to make her cardamom rolls and my paternal grandmother’s Italian anise bread, two recipes I’m really proud of and that still frequent my kitchen. Once I was comfortable with those two basic recipes, I started to apply my new skills to other spaces in the yeasted bread world. 

During that adventure, I branched out into white sandwich bread, pesto pull-apart bread, and this cinnamon babka recipe. The thing is, though, that since I was just getting my feet really wet, the original recipe fell short of the standards I now hold my recipes to that I publish on my website.

The original recipe produced a loaf that was a little more dense than I’d prefer, one that was way too big for a traditional loaf pan, and while it definitely received positive reviews, it got more negative reviews than I like to get on any one recipe, especially given its small pool of reviews.

Over time, I have landed on solid basics in my yeasted bread world: my standard classic cinnamon roll that turned into 12+ variations during the 2025 monthly recipe series, a basic yeast roll that’s great for beginners, and pull-apart breads ready for any filling your heart desires. 

That said, when it came time to revisit this babka, I retested the recipe 4 times before deciding that my small batch cinnamon roll recipe was the perfect jump point to create a new cinnamon babka recipe I could be proud of. So that’s what you’ll find here— an updated recipe that produces a fluffy loaf of twisted bread with plenty of buttery cinnamon sugar swirled through every bite, and one that you can rely on to work for you on the first try, even considering it requires some slightly-above-beginner techniques.

CINNAMON BABKA INGREDIENTS

Here is a visual of the ingredients you’ll need to make this bread. See the recipe card below for exact measurements and how to prepare your ingredients.

You’ll see that included in this list are ingredients you likely already have on hand if you are even a sometimes baker. If you aren’t a frequent yeast bread maker, you may need to acquire some dry active yeast. This recipe uses about half of a packet (or 1 and ⅛ teaspoon). I highly recommend making a small batch of any of my cinnamon rolls with the rest (almost all of them are already written to be small batches, so you’re all set). 

STEP-BY-STEP: HOW TO MAKE BABKA

This bread may look complicated, but it’s really not a whole lot more difficult than making cinnamon rolls. In fact, the process is almost identical, save for one more rise with babka and slicing your log of dough in half rather than into individual rolls. 

Let’s walk through the steps together with photos. There’s also a video in the recipe card below to help support your visual understanding and learning.

STEP #1 — start by activating your yeast: if you’re buying a fresh packet, it’s likely your yeast is just fine. Personally, I keep a jar of yeast in my refrigerator at all times since I bake bread so often. It gets replaced about every 6 months, but it typically is always nice and active. You’ll proof the yeast with warm water and some sugar. 

STEP #2 — once your yeast mixture is bubbly: add in the remainder of the bread ingredients except the flour and butter. Mix everything together until you have a cohesive liquid mixture.

STEP #3 — start adding the flour: you’ll add about 1 cup (a little less than half of the total flour) and let it start to incorporate. The mixture will still look very wet at this point.

STEP #4 — add in the softened butter: why are we adding this in now? The same way pie crust and biscuits leave behind flakes once baked, we’re aiming for the same result with this babka. Adding the butter in now allows the flour to coat the butter chunks, encouraging flakes in the final bake.

STEP #5 — add the rest of the flour: continue mixing until you have a cohesive dough. If you’re doing this by hand or stand mixer, it will look the same, just take different amounts of time. Stop mixing when the dough is mostly together. It may be shaggy, but it may not. You just want to make sure it’s not too sticky to handle.

STEP #6 — turn the dough out onto a floured surface: begin kneading the dough with your hands. You can continue to knead it with the mixer, if you prefer. Add in 1 Tablespoon of flour at a time if the dough is too sticky. It will become smoother as you knead, and after about 8-10 minutes, your dough should be soft, smooth, and the texture should feel like PlayDoh.

STEP #7 — allow the bread to rise: cover the dough then let it rise for about 1 and ½ to 2 hours, or until it has about doubled in size. Once doubled, punch down the bread to release the air, then let it rest for a few minutes. You can prepare the filling as it rests (we’re just letting the gluten relax a bit to make the shaping step easier).

STEP #8 — make the filling: this is just a matter of combining white and brown sugars and cinnamon and melting butter.

STEP #9 — shape the dough: the same way you’d shape your dough into a rectangle for cinnamon rolls, you’ll do the same here. I use a combination of a rolling pin and my hands since the dough will be pretty apt to shaping at this point. Aim for a rectangle about 9” by 12”. 

STEP #10 — fill the dough: pour the melted butter onto the rectangle, spread it around with a pastry brush or the back of a spoon, then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar filling over the butter. You’ll want to keep about ½” border around the edges.

STEP #11 — roll, cut, and twist: roll the dough up into a tight log, then use a sharp knife to split the log in half long ways. It will start to get messy at this point as the folds of dough will expose the filling, but that’s what we want! Once split in half, create an X with the two halves, gather the ends, and twist the dough (the video is helpful here). 

STEP #12 — let the shaped dough rise in the pan: the dough will get one more shorter rise here, only about 20-30 minutes. While it’s rising, you can make the streusel topping. 

STEP #13 — top with streusel + bake: you’ll think you have to much streusel, and to that I say “there’s no such thing.” Remember that in the oven, this bread will rise up as it bakes, so some of that streusel will fall down into the sides of the pan and get itself all up in the sides of the bread. 

YOU WILL LOVE THIS BREAD

I wish I could pick my very favorite part of this bread, but it’s a toss-up between the way it looks (I MEAN SERIOUSLY — ALL THE GOOGLY HEART EYES), how soft the interior bread part is, the cinnamon streusel on top, or the sticky parts of the filling that just melt in your mouth when fully-loaded bites come along. 

Some bites are BURSTING with cinnamon filling, some of them are just graced with it and let the base bread flavor and texture shine through. And I’m telling you that those pockets of cinnamon filling that seem they got all bubbly during the baking are unreal.

Some parts even get a little firm with caramelized cinnamon + sugar and those bites also rock.

See? Impossible to pick. You’ll probably agree.

If you’re looking for a slight challenge in your kitchen, go for this cinnamon babka. I promise it’s not has hard as it might look on the surface, and you can totally nail the twisting part, even if it doesn’t work perfectly the first time. It just means you’ll have to make subsequent loaves (DARN). No two loaves will ever look the same, and that’s the beauty of a twisted bread.