spiced pumpkin pecan babka

spiced pumpkin pecan babka

• 10 Nov 2025

I know it's Fall in the Northern Hemisphere which means its pumpkin spice season. Pumpkin spice everything not really a thing in Sydney as we don't celebrate Thanksgiving and in general pumpkin is reserved for savoury recipes. I wanted to bake something pumpkin flavoured and when I saw some pumpkin spiced buns on Nicola Lamb's substack I decided to make a custard filled version of the buns. 

I'm still a bit jet lagged and making custard seemed a bit too much for me, so the pumpkin buns morphed into a spiced pumpkin and pecan babka. How I thought this was less time consuming than making custard is beyond me as I had to roast pumpkin for the puree, toast and chop the pecans and make some cinnamon scented syrup. Please note, you will need to start this recipe the day before baking. 

I adapted my own cinnamon bun recipe but I found the pumpkin puree made the dough very soft and sticky, so you might want to reduce the milk in the recipe a little. It also takes more time to mix, about 10 minutes for the dough and an additional 5 minutes for the butter. Whenever I make a sweet dough I always activate the yeast first. You can leave this step out and simply add the dried yeast to the flour. 

Here's the recipe for you which makes 1 babka. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. 

Spiced Pumpkin Pecan Babka - you will need to start this recipe the day before baking. 

Yeast sponge
1¼ tsp dried yeast
1 tsp plain flour 
1 tsp caster sugar 
1 tbs warm water 

Dough

100 mls lukewarm milk (this can be reduced to 75mls)
30g caster sugar or honey
1 room temperature egg 
140g pumpkin puree (I made my own)
1 tsp vanilla extract
330g plain flour 
½ tsp salt

yeast sponge or 1¼ tsp dried yeast
65g room temperature unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Pecan filling 

80g unsalted butter at room temperature, cubed  

100g light brown sugar 

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp each ground ginger and nutmeg

¼ tsp ground cloves or mixed spice

pinch of salt

1 tsp maple or golden syrup 

1 tbs almond meal 

65g coarsely chopped toasted pecans

Syrup 

75g caster sugar 

1/3 cup water 

1 cinnamon stick 

Yeast sponge

Mix the dry ingredients together in a small jug or bowl before adding the water. Stir until it forms a smooth paste. Cover the bowl and leave for 15-20 minutes until the yeast starts to froth and bubble. If it doesn’t froth and bubble, leave for anther 15 minutes. If nothing happens then the yeast is dead and you'll need to start over with fresh yeast. 

Dough

Grease a large plastic container and set to one side. Place the milk, the sugar, the egg, the pumpkin puree and the vanilla into a large jug and stir to combine. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix the flour and salt and stir on low to combine. Add the yeast sponge (or 1¼ tsp dried yeast) and the milk mixture and mix on low to combine. Continue to mix for another 10 minutes to develop the gluten. With the mixer on low, add the butter, one piece at a time. When all the butter has been incorporated (another 5 minutes), increase the speed to medium and beat the butter into the dough, until all the little butter pieces are incorporated, and the dough comes away from the side of the bowl. 

Transfer the dough to the prepared container. Cover the container with a lid or with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes. Place your fingers or a spatula underneath the dough and gently pull the dough up and fold it back over itself. Turn the container and repeat this folding again. Continue 6 to 8 more times, until all the dough has been folded over on itself. Re-cover the container and let rise for 30 minutes. Repeat this series of folding 3 more times, for a rise time of 2 hours and a total of 4 foldings. Replace the lid or tightly cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or up to 72 hours. Take the dough from the fridge and leave it at room temperature for about 30 minutes.  

Pecan filling 

Make the filling by mixing the softened butter with the brown sugar, spices, the syrup and almond meal to form a spreadable paste. Set to one side.

Assembly

Grease a 23 by 10 cm (9 by 4 in) loaf tin and line the bottom and sides of the tin with baking paper. Allow some overhang on each side to act as a sling. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle measuring 38 by 28 cm (15 by 11 in). Trim the sides to make them even, then position the dough so that a long side is closest to you. Use an offset spatula to spread the spice mixture over the rectangle, leaving a 2 cm/¾ inch border all around. Sprinkle the chopped pecans over the spice paste. 

Brush a little bit of water along the long end farthest away from you. Use both hands to roll up the rectangle like a roulade, starting from the long side that is closest to you and ending at the other long end. Press to seal the dampened end onto the roulade and then use both hands to even out the roll into a perfect thick cigar. Rest the cigar on its seam. You can refrigerate the dough at this stage for 30 minutes to firm up the filling before braiding.

Trim about 2 cm/¾ in off both ends of the roulade with a serrated knife. Now use the knife to gently cut the roll into half lengthwise, starting at the top and finishing at the seam. You are essentially dividing the log into two long even halves, with the layers of dough and filling visible along the length of both halves. With the cut sides facing up, gently press together one end of each half, and then lift the right half over the left half. Repeat this process, but this time lift the left half over the right, to create a simple, two-pronged plait. Gently squeeze together the other ends so that you are left with the two halves, intertwined, showing the filling on top. Carefully lift the cake into the loaf pan. Cover the pan with a wet tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 1½-2 hours. The cake will rise by about 50 percent. 

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F, conventional. Remove the tea towel, place the cake on the middle rack of the oven, and bake for about 40 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean or registers 95⁰C on an instant read thermometer. If not, return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes. My babka took 45 minutes to cook through. While the babka is in the oven, make the syrup. 

Syrup 

Combine the water, sugar and cinnamon stick in a saucepan. Place the pan over a medium heat and bring to a boil. As soon as the sugar dissolves, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes then remove the pan from the heat and leave the syrup to cool down. As soon as the babka comes out of the oven, pour all the syrup over the top of the babka reserving the cinnamon stick. Leave the babka in the tin for about 1 hour before removing it otherwise it will fall apart. Whilst lovely to eat while still warm from the oven it’s a little hard to cut. Note my terribly uneven slice!

The babka will keep for up to two days at room temperature, wrapped in foil, and a few weeks if frozen. 

The babka came out soft, squishy and delicious.

See you all next week with some more baking from my kitchen and in the mean time, watch out for some travel posts.

Bye for now,

Jillian