chocolate babka
This is one of those things that I always looked at and assumed it was super tough to make, so never attempted it. The lockdown afforded me a lot more time and energy to try new things, so I couldn’t help myself but attempt a babka.
To my surprise, it is actually a fairly simple process. The key to getting a good babka is patience. As with all baking, there are a few stages where you’ll need to let the dough rest, however, as this dough is enriched, this becomes even more necessary.
Make sure your yeast is still alive, and take the time to get some good chocolate, good butter and good eggs. It will make all the difference.
for the dough
370g plain flour
100ml whole milk
100g softened butter
2 eggs
50g light brown sugar
1.25 tsp salt
2 tsp active yeast
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
0.5 tsp nutmeg
for the filling
80g dark chocolate (70%+)
40g butter
20g light brown sugar
method
Start by warming the milk to slightly above room temperature. Add a teaspoon of sugar and the yeast. Mix this all together and leave for 10 minutes until bubbles start to form.
Mix the flour, sugar, eggs and yeasty milk together and form into a dough.
Add half the butter to this, and fold it in. Add the other half and fully incorporate.
Continue to knead this dough until it becomes stretchy and strong. This may take 15 minutes by hand, or 5 minutes with a stand mixer.
Add the salt and knead it in until fully incorporated.
Put the dough into a fresh, greased bowl and let it rise for 2-3 hours at room temperature. You want it to double in size before you trouble it.
At this point, put it in the fridge for at least an hour, but preferably overnight. This will slow down the fermentation and allow the butter to firm up.
When you are ready to get back to work, melt the chocolate, butter and sugar in a bowl over a pan of boiling water.
Take the dough out of the fridge and and roll it to around 0.5cm thick. You may want to lightly flour the surface, depending on how warm your house is and how sticky the dough feels.
Once rolled, pour the chocolate on top and spread evenly, leaving a little gap around the edge.
Roll the dough up as tightly as you can, wrap it in cling film and put it back in the fridge for 20 minutes in order for it to firm up.
Take it out of the fridge, remove the cling film, and slice it down the middle, leaving a small piece unsliced at one end. Roll each of the halves over slightly, so that the chocolate layers are pointing upwards rather than inwards.
Twist the two sections together. Fold it in half at the end and place it into a baking tin lined with baking paper. At this point, you can add some more chocolate shavings on top, if you so wish.
Let it rise for 2-3 hours in a warm room, until it doubles in size.
Towards the end, preheat your oven to 180c and bake for around 45 minutes, until a knife comes out clean.
Let it cool, remove from the tin and slice or tear.
