Chocolate Babka

First time hearing this name when I got this monthly bake along with friends from IG baking group called homemadelovers. This was my second bake together with them

Babka, a traditional Eastern European yeasted sweet bread with chocolate, nuts and cinnamon filling, usually twisted to shape and sprinkled with streusel
Never tried this bread before, but knowing the description, I have no doubt that my family and I will love it

So, here is my version. I omitted the nuts as my kids do not really fancy eating nuts

 

 

 

Recipe is from King Arthur Flour

 

What you need:

(half recipe below)

 

Bread dough:

114 to 142g lukewarm water

1 large egg

375g bread flour (original recipe used all purpose flour)

16g full fat milk powder

1 tbsp instant yeast

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

50g sugar

1 1/4 tsp salt (or 1 tsp if using salted butter)

71g unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

 

Filling: (I made full recipe)

100g sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

28g cocoa powder

1/2 tsp espresso powder

57g melted butter

170g mini chocolate chips

113g toasted pecans or walnuts, chopped (I skipped)

 

Glaze: 1 egg with a pinch of salt, lightly beaten

 

Topping: (full recipe)

57g melted butter

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

74g icing sugar

57g all purpose flour

  

 

 

 

Method:

 

1. I used bread machine to do kneading and first proofing, it's about 30mins. Pour wet ingredients first, followed by dry ingredients. Mix with spatula until just combined and let it rest for 20mins. After that start the kneading process. After 5mins of kneading, add in butter
2. After first proofing done, deflate and take the dough out of the pan. Place on a lightly floured table, cover with a damp cloth and let it rest for awhile
3. To make the filling, combine sugar, cocoa powder, espresso powder and cinnamon. Stir in melted butter. The mixture will be a little grainy
4. Flatten the dough with rolling pin to a rectangle shape of about 18" x 9" with about 1/4" thickness (if dough still 'fights back' please let it rest for another 10mins or so to relax the gluten)
5. Smear with filling, come to about an inch of the edges. Scatter chocolate chips and nuts (if using) over
6. Starting from the short end, roll it gently to form a log, sealing the ends. Cut the log into half lengthwise to make 2 pieces of dough of 10" length. Cut carefully to avoid the filling from spilling out too much
7. With the exposed filling side up, twist the 2 pieces into a braid, tuck the ends underneath
8. Place braided log into a 9" x 5" loaf pan
9. Brush the top with glaze. Mix the ingredients for topping and sprinkle over the dough
10. Cover loosely with cling wrap and let it rise for another 1hour or until it's very puffy and crowned a good inch over the rim of the pan
11. Preheat oven to 150degC and bake the bread for about 35mins. Tent lightly with foil and bake for additional of 15 to 25mins until the loaf is golden brown
12. Remove from oven and let it cool in the pan for 10mins. Transfer on the cooling rack to cool completely
13. Slice the keep babka at room temperature wrapped or in the airtight container

Very delicious, sweet, chocolaty and soft bread. It turned a little hard the next day but with a slight warming up in the microwave it turned out back to perfection. Definitely bread I will bake again :)