Mother's Polish Bread

[justjohn]

Mother's Polish Bread

11 cups flour, sifted
1 heaping tbsp. salt
2 oz. yeast cake
3/4 cup water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 cups milk
1/4 lb. butter
1 cup golden raisins
1 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs, beaten

In six-quart pot, warm the milk; stir in sugar, salt and butter, then cool to lukewarm.
Measure warm water into small bowl, crumble in yeast and stir until dissolved. Add to milk mixture. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Gradually add the flour. Knead dough in pot about 30 minutes until it no longer sticks to your hands. Add raisins, knead into dough, cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.

Punch down dough, cover and let rise again.
Punch down again and divide dough in half. Shape into loaves and place in two greased 9x5x2 inch bread pans.

Combine one egg yolk with two tablespoons water, brush bread with mixture and let rise, uncovered in warm place.

Bake in 350 degree oven 40 to 50 minutes until done.

[piwo]

It would have to look an lot like this, since it is the identical recipe (for us, minus one egg, and the vanilla)!

[suzanne]

Looks and sounds delicious! I'll eat anything with raisins in it.

[piwo]

My mom allways used golden raisins, never the dark ones. I have have tasted the same bread with dark raisins, and don't like it nearly as much.

What raisins do you other "babka bakers" use??

[jeanne]

My Polish aunts always made that bread and they used golden raisins. I agree that it just doesn't taste the same with dark raisins. I have my aunts' recipe and I really want to try to bake the bread, but in the past I have had disastrous results with yeast breads. I guess I have to just keep working at it!