Chocolate Babka

Photo by Craftsy.com from my online class on Challah

 Ingredients 3¼ to 3½ cups of all-purpose flour, divided

¼ cup of granulated sugar

1½ teaspoons of salt

1 pkg. instant yeast

¾ cup warm water

2 eggs, room temp

1 egg yolk (save egg white for the glaze)

¼ cup neutrally flavored oil (canola or a very light olive oil) 

Directions

Place 3 cups of flour, sugar, salt and yeast into a medium size bowl and whisk them together. Place water, eggs and egg yolk into the bowl of a stand mixer. Blend with a paddle attachment, then add flour mixture a small scoop at a time, with the mixer on medium speed. Once all the dry ingredients are incorporated thoroughly, beat in oil at a slightly higher speed into smooth.

Switch to a dough hook attachment. The remaining flour is added gradually until you have a mass of dough that pulls away from the side of the bowl. Knead with hook for 5 minutes. The dough should be smooth, elastic and a little bit sticky. Remove dough hook and cover bowl with a clean dry towel. Allow to rise for 60 to 90 minutes---a richer dough usually means a slower rise.

Lightly grease a 10-cup Bundt cake pan. Roll dough out to 20” x 24”. Spread filling (recipe below) evenly over the surface, leaving the top wide edge 1” uncovered. Brush top edge lightly with water. Roll up from bottom wide edge and pinch to seal. Place the roll on a cutting board seam side up and cut down the middle with a large sharp knife or large pizza cutter. Turn halves with the filling side facing upwards. Starting from the middle, twist the two sides together towards one end. Repeat with other side. Carefully lift the twist into the prepared pan and arrange so it’s even. Cover and let rise for 30 to 45 minutes or until nearly doubled.

The filling helps keep the layers together as you twist--this one features almond pastry filling.

Bake in a preheated 350 F. oven for 40 to 45 minutes. Interior temp of the bread should 190 F. on an instant read thermometer. Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before inverting on a cooling rack and removing the pan.  

Filling

¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips

⅓ cup unsalted butter

¼ cup powdered sugar

⅓ cup cocoa powder

In a small saucepan, melt butter over low heat and whisk in chocolate chips. Sift powdered sugar and cocoa powder together into the pan and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat.

Notes

---Among most Christians in central and eastern Europe, babka is an iced cake, usually served at Easter. But its origins are Jewish, as Jews of Poland and the Ukraine used leftover dough from challah to make a sweet bread, filled with jam or cinnamon and sometimes topped with streusel.

Cinnamon Babka with a streusel topping

--Many people only know about babka because of the episode on Seinfeld in which Jerry and Elaine miss out on the last chocolate babka and have to settle for cinnamon version, which Elaine thinks of as “the lesser babka.” Both are excellent.

With a cinnamon babka, the butter and sugar can leak out in the pan to form a glorious glaze.

--If you don’t have the time or the inclination to make the chocolate filling from scratch, you can use chocolate hazelnut spread, slightly warmed in the microwave to increase spreadability (is that a word?).  

--The word babka means “grandmother” in several eastern European languages, and may have been applied to the pastry because it was often made in a tall, fluted cylindrical pan that produced a cake shaped like a pleated skirt.  Some people make it in a loaf pan or as a wreath on a sheet tray. As you can see, I like to use a Bundt pan so the resulting loaf has a decorative shape and some height. But a loaf pan can make a pretty slice as well.

Some people use babka slices like this to make a luxurious French toast!