Cinnamon Babka

Made with a cottage cheese dough, this cinnamon babka is guilt free and doe not sacrifice on taste.

This one is an absolute winner. Each slice is 151 calories and has 7 grams of protein in it, making it a pretty damn good option for a sweet treat. The biggest issue is one piece isn't enough... It's soooo good.

Ingredients after instructions

Add cottage cheese to a food processor and mix until smooth (if you don't have a food processor, an immersion blender works. A blender can be used as a last resort if you add some liquid-- so in this recipe, the maple syrup and vanilla extract). 

Add the whipped cottage cheese to a mixing bowl with the all purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 gram of cinnamon and 10 grams of maple syrup. 

Mix the ingredients with a spatula until it starts to form a dough. You will need a spoon to clean your spatula, this is a stickier dough. 

Form a dough ball, and wrap in plastic wrap. Let the dough chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

When you're ready to fire up the babka, preheat your oven to 350°. 

In a smaller mixing bowl, add the remaining cinnamon and maple syrup with the vanilla extract, vanilla greek yogurt, lite cream cheese, and vanilla protein powder. 

This step is optional, but a keeper in my opinion-- add a teeny tiny dash of cayenne pepper. This will help the cinnamon pop.

Roll the dough out over a floured cutting board. The dough should roughly be 12 inches by 18 inches. 

Spread the cinnamon filling over the dough, and begin to roll the dough from one end to the other. Roll the dough from the short (12 inch) end.

Using a serrated knife, cut the rolled dough down the middle, exposing the cinnamon layers.

Once in two pieces, press the ends of the two pieces together, and begin to braid. The braid should be tight, and the cinnamon insides should be exposed. 

When you've run out of dough, pinch the butt ends together, and tuck under neath the braid.

Lightly oil a bread tin, and place the babka inside.

Bake the babka for 30 minutes. Towards the end of the timer, make a simple syrup with brown sugar and water.

Take the babka out, and smother it in syrup. A pastry brush works really well here.

Cover the bread tin in aluminum foil, and bake for another 10 minutes. The foil will keep the sugared top from burning. 

The babka should be in the oven for a grand total of 40 minutes.

Let cool, and enjoy. Try not to eat the whole thing in one sitting (or standing over your cutting board), but if you do, I can't blame ya!

 

Ingredients 

Dough
200g All Purpose Flour
226g Cottage Cheese, whipped
20ml Maple Syrup
10g Baking Powder
3g Salt
1g Cinnamon

Cinnamon Filling
10g Cinnamon
5ml Vanilla Extract
20ml Maple Syrup
70g Lite Cream Cheese
50g Vanilla Greek Yogurt
15g Vanilla Protein Powder
Optional dash of Cayenne Pepper

Simple Syrup
20g Brown Sugar, 20ml Water to top

Nutrition Per Slice, Makes 9
151 Cals, 7g P, 26g C, 2g F