I…I…I…don’t even know what to say…. but BREAKING THE INTERNET comes to mind!! Move over Kim Kardashian because I’ve got Salami Babka in the house!!
I don’t know how I’ve held it in for this long – this gorgeous savory babka has been eating away at me (or have I been eating away at it?) ever since I conceived of it months ago… I wanted to shout it from the rooftops the second this baby came out of the oven, but it was not to be, because, as you know, I save all my SALAMI revelations for Purim! Yes, Purim. The holiday of booze, dress-up, and here at Busy In Brooklyn, SALAMI.
My salami hacks have been making their mark each year for the holiday, and I think I might have finally outdone my drunken hasselback salami, because, lets face it – ain’t nothin better than bread – and when you fill that bread with the sweet and savory fillings of apricot jam, mustard, brown sugar and salami – well…. you basically BREAK. THE. INTERNET.
Babka has been all the rage this year, from the famous Bread’s bakery babka (who’s recipe was recently made public in the Baking Breads cookbook) to the spreads in The New York Times, Bon Appetit Magazine, and all that other stuff. I have to admit that I have never made true, authentic babka (with buttery brioche dough), although I often fill my leftover challah with gooey chocolate spread, twist it up and call it a day.
I’ve had savory babka on my mind for a while now, and I was kind of surprised that I haven’t seen too many savory variations on the net. Especially since turning traditional sweets into savory adaptations is kind of a thing right now. My biggest obstacle with a salami babka was the brioche dough. The good stuff is loaded with butter and I just couldn’t stand the thought of using all that margarine (the rules of kosher forbid me from eating milk with meat, so no butter and salami together). And yes I realize that’s ironic since this thing is loaded with salami (insert facepalm emoji here!)
I considered going with a challah dough, but I finally decided I would make this super easy for everyone and just use pizza dough. Of course you can use any dough you choose, and even go crazy with the deli you stuff it with. Don’t worry about all of the mess – the little bits of salami that poke out of the bread and get all crispy and caramelized are my favorite part of this recipe!
Now if you’ve missed my whole salami situation – the reason for my yearly Purim salami postings are due to a little nugget of information that I read a couple of years back. I don’t know if it was true, or it was all a Purim joke – but it made mention of the fact that some people have a tradition to eat salami on Purim since it is hung, like Haman. I thought it was the coolest food custom I had ever read, so I adopted it. The part that you don’t know though, is that that was a huge deal for me! Why? read on.
So growing up, my mom would make salami sandwiches every Friday afternoon for lunch for my siblings and I. She’d send us outside to the courtyard of our building to eat them, so we wouldn’t make a mess inside the house before Shabbat. Little did she know, we all hated those little hard white pieces inside the salami (I’m pretty sure they were solid fat!), so one by one, we all chucked our salami sandwiches down the incinerator chute – every. single. week. My poor mom thought we were eating lunch and little did she know!
From thereon out, I never looked at salami again. For years. Until I got married and the only thing my husband knew how to cook from his Yeshiva days was salami and eggs. I always swore I’d never try it, until one day, he convinced me, and the rest is history! I learned that cooking out the salami fat leaves you with a super crispy, tasty bits of heaven that are so perfect for trashing up in fun ways!
Just. Like. This. Lets get hangin’!
Salami Babka
1 lb. pizza*, challah or brioche dough
1/3 cup apricot jam
2 tbsp deli mustard
2 tbsp brown sugar
7 oz. Abeles & Heymann salami, thinly sliced
2 tbsp everything bagel spice
Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Flour your work surface and roll the dough out to about 11″ x 16″. Melt your apricot jam in the microwave or in a small saucepan and brush over the dough. Squeeze some mustard over the jam and sprinkle with brown sugar. Spread the salami slices out in one layer and starting from the long end, roll up jelly-roll-style. Slice the roll in half down the center, and gently twist the two strips around each other. Don’t worry if some of the salami falls out, or if pieces stick out of the dough, just try to keep the layers from falling apart. Place the salami babka into a greased loaf pan and sprinkle with everything bagel spice. If any of the salami fell out, just tuck it into the sides of the pan.
Bake the babka until golden, about 35-45 minutes. Remove from the loaf pan and slice. Serve warm, with mustard for dipping.
NOTE: I know this recipe seems messy but the idea is to have some of the salami piece sticking out of the dough so that they get crispy and caramelized, while other pieces stay moist on the inside. The thinner you slice the salami, the more your babka will hold together, so try to slice as thinly as you can.
VARIATION: Try this recipe with kosher bacon, or other deli meats like turkey and/or pastrami.
*of course I used store-bought pizza dough because I’m about the 1-2-3!
This post is sponsored by Abeles & Heymann. Follow them on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter!
Related Recipes:
drunken hasselback salami
salami quiche
beer battered salami chips with beer mustard
salami chips with dipping sauce
this is hysterical!!! I am planning my shalach manos now, and I was planning to attempt a deli babka. I just got all the ingredients this afternoon. Can’t wait to try this out!
No way, so cute!
Bacon?? Did I read that right?? I know you have all kinds of followers but YOU are still Jewish, are you not? I’ve always been a fan. Now I’m kind of in shock.
Hey Aviva, I’m so sorry you find that insulting. Bacon is a term used to describe cured belly – it can come from beef, lamb, even turkey! When I say bacon, of course I mean kosher bacon, since this is a kosher blog! Kosher beef and lamb bacon has become a staple in many kosher homes. I will add the word “kosher” before the word “bacon” just to make myself clear!
Oh the horror, the horror. Good call, I think Aviva almost had a heart attack..
Tere is bacon kosher not pork of course
Yes, it’s made from beef belly.
This is awesome! Can you pretty please adapt it for a pulled beef babka??
Just put in pulled beef :)
First of all, if I made this on a friday night for our typical pizza and a movie night, I would have my husband bowing down at my feet. This looks soooo right up his alley. And, your photos are beautiful.
Thank you Maria, I really appreciate that!
Kosher website might wanna check on using pizza dough with meat!! Sounds like recipe for disaster
When I say pizza dough, I mean pareve pizza dough. Traditional pizza dough is pareve, unless you buy it from a pizza store!
Great Idea. I love it. This will be tested and tried down here in my kitchen.
Looks and sounds delicious.
Thanks Chanie
Thanks Avi!!
love all your stuff and cant wait to make this! can you post a pic of the “Slice the roll in half down the center, and gently twist the two strips around each other.” part? i cant figure out how to get from the jelly roll to the way it looks in the pan… Thank you!
Maybe this infographic will help: http://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/how-to-make-babka-your-step-by-step-guide/
Thank you!! i actually figured it out! Looks awesome cant wait to serve it on Purim!!
Can I freeze this?
You can probably freeze it, I would suggest freezing it unbaked so you can bake it “fresh” from the freezer and it doesn’t dry out.
What size loaf pan? Thanks!
The largest one you can get!
My brother just texted that he’ll bring sausage babka to the Purim sedua. I thought it was a typo. Then I checked your blog. Now I realize that When in doubt, BIB will always come through and set you straight. This looks fun and probably travels well too. Looking forward to trying it!!
Happy Purim Chanie!!
That’s awesome Shoshana! Happy Purim!
Did anyone try freezing this raw and baking later? I would love to prepare this today and bake it on Purim
I haven’t done it, but I would freeze it raw. I think it would freeze well.
looks yum! which pizza dough did you use?
I love the pizza dough from The Breadsmith on Ave M in Brooklyn.
I just made this for dinner and, DAYUMMMM! Messy but incredible!
Thanks Ruthy! So glad you enjoyed!
I’m so honored that you chose to eat this in honor of your father. I’m sorry for your loss!
Hi change. I totally adore your recipes and upbeat commemtaries! Keep it up! Do you maybe have a dough recipe for the savry babka because here in Yerushalyim I can’t find parve pizza dough. Thanks!
I wish I did but babka dough is more of a brioche which is always made with butter so I decided not to go in that direction. I would suggest using leftover challah dough.
I made it for Shabbos dinner. Tips, roll it jellyroll style, place in loaf pan and then make slits in places where no deli is sticking out. egg and sprinkle on everything but the bagel mix.
Just made this tonight & used Molly Yehs challah dough. This was soooooo amazingly delicious, I’m still in awe of it. The challah dough recipe was for one large loaf, so instead of using a bread loaf pan, I placed the larger babka loaf on parchment and baked it that way. Such an impressive & gorgeous appearance & truly incredible!! Thank you so much for this & so happy to have discovered you!❤️
I’m so happy to hear! I’m a big fan of Molly’s too! Welcome to BusyinBrooklyn, I hope you enjoy the ride!
Does this need to be refridgerated?
Yes
Can this be frozen?
Yes