How to Make Yeast Pudding Babka

• Crumble the yeast into a bowl or a tall glass, add sugar and lukewarm milk to them - mix thoroughly until dissolved.
  25 g fresh yeast, 1 teaspoon sugar, 50 ml milk
  
• Cover the bowl or glass with the yeast starter with a cloth and set aside in a warm place for about 20 minutes - until it rises and thickens significantly. It's good if this place is draft-free. Tip - I like to put the yeast starter in the microwave or oven (I don't turn them on) - the enclosed space provides stable conditions and constant temperature and speeds up the reaction and rising of the yeast.
• While the yeast starter is rising, prepare the remaining ingredients for the yeast dough. In the mixer bowl, place the wheat flour and add the remaining sugar. Pour in the pudding powder, crack in the eggs, and pour in the melted and cooled butter.
  150 g wheat flour - all-purpose, 1 packet pudding mix, 50 g sugar, 2 eggs, 50 g butter
  
• Pour the risen yeast starter into the bowl.
  
• Using a mixer with a dough hook (or by hand), knead the dough. I knead it for several minutes - until the ingredients combine into a uniform dough, which in this case will be quite loose. If you knead the dough longer, it will be more delicate and rise better.
  
• Cover the bowl with the yeast dough for the babka and set aside in a warm, draft-free place for about an hour to rise. I very often place the bowl with the dough in the oven and set the temperature to 30 degrees Celsius. Under these conditions, the dough rises very quickly and nicely. This method is particularly useful when it's cooler at home or there are drafts.
• Stir the risen dough again with a spatula and transfer it to the babka pan (greased with butter and floured - below the recipe you will also find a short video where I show how to make an easy and quick pan release, thanks to which removing the babka from the bundt pan is extremely simple and fast - I highly recommend it! ).
  
• Cover the pan with the babka with a cloth and set aside for about 30 minutes, so that the babka rises and becomes nicely fluffy.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (in baking mode - top-bottom).
• Place the pudding babka in the preheated oven and bake for about 30-35 minutes - until it is nicely golden brown - you can also check with a skewer at the end of baking to see if the babka is well baked. If the skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out dry, the babka is well baked. If it's covered with wet dough, you need to extend the baking time a bit.
• Let the baked babka cool for about 15 minutes, then cut around the edges with a knife, turn it upside down, and carefully remove it from the baking pan.
• Cool the pudding babka on a wire rack or a wooden board.
  
• To prepare the glaze for pouring over the pudding babka, sift the powdered sugar into a bowl and add milk one tablespoon at a time - after each tablespoon of milk, mix it together and only then add the next tablespoon. The glaze should be slightly pourable, but not too thin, otherwise it will all run off the babka. You can also substitute milk with boiled water. To flavor the glaze, instead of milk, you can use lemon juice or orange juice.
  100 g powdered sugar, 2-3 tablespoons milk
• Pour the glaze over the cooled babka.
• You can additionally sprinkle it on top with, for example, chopped chocolate, or candied orange peel.