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Have you ever picked up an old cookbook off of your shelf, you know, one that you have used for decades and turned it to a recipe you haven’t seen for ages and suddenly been transported to the last time you tasted that dish? That happened to me recently with this recipe. It is excellent. It’s not quite a bread and it’s not quite a cake. It can be served for breakfast, brunch or dessert.

Babka:
1 cup milk
1/4 cup warm water
2 pkg yeast
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 stick butter, softened
4 eggs
1 egg yolk
4 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup raisins
topping:
1 egg white
4 Tbsp flour
4 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 Tbsp butter
In a small sauce pan, heat milk until bubbles form around edge of pan. Remove from heat. Cool to lukewarm. In a large bowl, combine warm water and yeast, stirring until dissolved. Add lukewarm milk, 1/2 cup sugar, salt, stick of butter, eggs, egg yolk and 3 cups flour. With electric mixer, beat until smooth and blended. Stir in remaining flour, stirring until dough leaved side of bowl. Mix in raisins. Cover with towel; let rise in warm place until double in bulk (about 1 hour). Grease and flour a 9 inch springform pan. Turn dough into prepared pan. Cover and let rise until dough is 1/2 inch from the top of the pan. Meanwhile, make the topping by mixing flour, sugar, cinnamon and butter in a bowl with a pastry blender. Brush the egg white on top of the babka and then sprinkle on the topping. Bake 350 degrees 60 minutes or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool pan on wire rack 15 minutes. To serve, remove from the pan and cut in wedges.

This is SO good!!!!