Chocolate Babka

With all the rainfalls and the damp weather, I had been craving for something sweet, something baked, which would fill the entire house with it’s lovely aroma. And weekend was a perfect time to spend, baking this lovely piece of yeasted, lightly sweet, chocolate swirled, cinnamon flavored bread called chocolate babka or chocolate krantz cake. While I first saw this recipe in Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem, I just knew that I would give it a try someday. But every time, I just kept forgetting, while I continued to try other recipes from this amazing book. But, nonetheless, it always remained on my to do list. And I got reminded of this bread recently, while I was supposed to bake a bread for a food styling learner’s group, which I have started following lately on Facebook. It couldn’t have been a better timing and I gave it a shot. To let you know, this is one amazing buttery brioche kind of bread which is quite rich because of the amount of butter that goes into making this. But I guess, a little binging onto such marvelous festive looking desserts, once in a while doesn’t harm you. And you’ve got friends and family to please too with this lovely treat. Even better! Another thing which I learnt baking this bread is that, it is not an easy or a quick one. You need to let the dough rise overnight and then fill it and shape, which is quite an elaborate process. But, I don’t have any intentions to intimidate you by saying this. Rather, it is well worth it and I go all praise for this lovely sweet bread. This recipe yields two big size loaves, so in case you want to halve it, go for it. Also, the original recipe called for a lot of sugar syrup to be prepared, which I found way too much. So, I have adapted the recipe as per my liking, with a little cut down on both butter and sugar. And the bread was still amazing.

Chocolate Babka

2015-08-23 10:10:11

Chocolate Babka

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For the bread dough

1. 500 gm plain flour, plus extra for dusting
2. 100 gm superfine sugar
3. 2 tsp fast action dried yeast
4. grated zest of lemon
5. 3 eggs
6. 150 ml water
7. 100 gm salted butter, at room temperature
8. oil for greasing pans

For the filling

1. 50 gm icing sugar
2. 50 gm cocoa powder
3. 100 gm butter, melted
4. 100 gm dark chocolate, melted
5. 100 gm finely chopped mix of walnuts and almonds
6. 3 tsp cinnamon powder

For the sugar syrup

1. 120 gm superfine sugar
2. 80 ml water

For the dough

1. Place the flour, sugar, yeast and zest in a food processor or a mixer bowl with dough attachment to stir everything together. Add the eggs, water and mix for 5 minutes, until dough comes together.
2. Start adding butter, a few cubes at a time, while continue mixing, until dough is smooth, shiny and elastic.
3. Place the dough in a large bowl, which is oiled. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge to rise overnight, or for half a day.

For the filling

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, together to make a smooth spreadable paste. If it looks a little runny, place the bowl in fridge for a couple of minutes.

For shaping the bread

1. Grease two loaf pans and line the bottom with parchment paper and keep aside.
2. Take half of the dough from the bowl in fridge, leaving other half in the fridge covered. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface, into a 38 x 28 cm rectangle. Trim the sides to get rid of any unevenness.
3. Use a palette knife to spread half of the filling over the rectangle, leaving a 2 cm border all around. Sprinkle half of the chopped nuts over chocolate. Brush a little water over the long end further away from you. Use both hands to roll up the rectangle like a swill roll cake, starting from the long side that is closest to you and ending at the other long end. Press to seal the wet end onto the roll.
4. Trim about 2 cm of both ends of the roll. Place the rolled dough onto a lightly floured baking tray and place it in freezer for 10 minutes. This will help the filling to set and will be easy to cut the roll.
5. Now use the knife to gently cut the roll into two, lengthways (to cut the log into two even long halves with the layers of dough and filling perfectly showing all along.)
6. With the cut side facing up, gently press together one end of the each half and then light right half over the left half. Repeat this process, lifting left half over the right half, to create a simple two-pronged plait, intertwined, showing the filling on top. Carefully, lift the shaped loaf and gently place it in prepared pan. Cover with wet towel and place in a warm place, to let rise for 2 hours. Repeat the whole process of shaping with other half of the dough.

For the baking and making sugar syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degree C. Remove the towel and place the pans in oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until skewer inserted comes out clean of dough.
2. While the cakes are baking, make the syrup by mixing the sugar and water in a saucepan. Let the syrup come to a boil so that sugar gets dissolved. Take off the heat and leave to cool down.
3. Once the loaves are baked, brush syrup over hot loaves and leave them to cool in pan. Enjoy warm!

By Himanshu Taneja

Adapted from Jerusalem by Ottolenghi

Adapted from Jerusalem by Ottolenghi

The White Ramekins http://thewhiteramekins.com/