Chocolate Babka

This time, we would like to share a recipe for a delicious chocolate babka with you.

You may wonder what Babka means. It is not an english word of course but has its origins in the polish and belarusian language where babka means grandmother. How come a cake is called grandmother? Well, its original shape reminds of a skirt with pleats which you may also know from your grandmother. And you probably also know chocolate cakes from your grandmother 😉

Is there anyone who doesn’t like chocolate? No? Exactly! Whether it is for a birthday party, coffee with the family or just because you felt like it. Chocolate babka is always a good idea.

Things to know before you start

Time Schedule

You will be able to enjoy your beautiful chocolate babkas in about 16 hours.

Total ingredients

All these ingredients will yield you 2 chocolate babkas.

We recommend getting some milk chocolate chips for even more chocolate in the babkas, but they will also come out great without them. The choice is up to you.

Difficulty

Relatively simple recipe that will even teach you how to create your own chocolate filling.

Baking tools

You will need at least one loaf pan of 23 x 10 cm. Two loaf pans are recommended so you can bake both chocolate babkas at once. Besides that you can have a look at our should have baking tools for more helpers in your kitchen.

Steps

1. Mix – Dough

• Mix salt and crumbled yeast with water in a separate bowl to dissolve

• Rinse the lemon under hot water and dry it off, then grate the zest
• Mix all-purpose flour, sugar, lemon zest, eggs and dissolved salt, yeast and water mixture together in a stand mixer for 3 minutes on speed one
• If there is still some dry flour at the bottom of the bowl, add one tablespoon of water and mix for another 30 to 60 seconds until combined
• Now add butter one spoon at a time and mix for about 10 minutes on speed level 2 until you get a completely smooth dough

2. Bulk Fermentation

• Take a big bowl and grease it with oil until all sides are covered
• Put the dough inside and roll it a bit around until it is coated with oil everywhere
• Cover the bowl and let it rest for a total of 12 hours in the fridge at 5-8°C (41-46,4°F)

3. Create Chocolate Filling

• Take a pot, fill it with water and heat it up
• When it starts boiling, lower the heat to low / medium and place a big stainless steel bowl on top
• The bottom of the bowl should touch the water
• Add the dark couverture chocolate, butter and stir constantly until fully melted and creamy
• Afterwards add the powdered sugar, cocoa powder and cinnamon
• Stir until fully combined
• Turn off the heat and stir from time to time while working with the dough in the next step
• Tip: It is recommended to let the couverture chocolate melt slowly on low heat or otherwise it could burn to the bowl

4. Shape

• Before you begin with the shaping, prepare 2 loaf pans (23 x 10 cm) by coating them with butter
• Divide dough in half and place one half back to the fridge
• Short guide on how to get the perfect shape for the chocolate babkas:

1. Flour your surface
2. Roll out dough into a rectangle of about 38 x 28 cm
3. Spread half of the chocolate filling on the dough leaving a 2 cm border all around
4. Optionally sprinkle with milk chocolate chips we mentioned at the beginning of the recipe
5. Roll the dough up into a long, tight cigar
6. Seal the dampened end onto the log
7. Trim about 2 cm off both ends of the log
8. Gently cut the log in half lengthwise and lay them next to each other on the counter, cut sides up
9. Pinch the top ends gently together
10. Lift one side over the next, forming a twist and trying to keep the cut sides facing
11. Transfer the twist as best as you can into the prepared loaf pan
12. Nest the trimmed ends of the log in the openings

• Repeat these steps for the second chocolate babka

5. Proof

• Cover the loaf pans with a kitchen towel
• Let the dough proof for 1,5 hours

6. Bake

• Preheat oven to 190°C (374°F) for ~20 minutes with the upper and lower heat function
• Put the loaf pans in the oven on the middle rack and bake for 30 minutes
• After baking take your finished chocolate babkas out immediately, but keep them in the loaf pans
• Tip: Check after 25 minutes if the babkas are ready by sticking a skewer in the middle until you reach the bottom and pull it out again. If it comes out clean, the babkas are done. If not, bake for 5 more minutes and check again.s

7. Make Syrup & Coat Babkas

• While the babkas are baking you can prepare the syrup
• In a pot, bring sugar and water to a simmer until sugar dissolves
• Remove from heat and set aside to let it cool down a bit
• As soon as the babkas leave the oven, brush the syrup all over each one
• It will seem like it is too much, but will taste just right so use all of it
• In the end they have to be all glossy and moist

8. Cool

• Let babkas cool in the loaf pans for about 30 minutes
• Afterwards transfer them to a cooling rack to cool the rest

Conclusion

Taste

This cake is extremely fluffy, soft and juicy. It is something for everyone who likes chocolate.
As the paste is made out of dark chocolate it is not unpleasantly sweet but as sweet as a cake should be.
The chocolate is made out of dark chocolate and is not part of the dough but a paste that will fill the dough out inside and outside.

Twisting the dough makes sure that you will have chocolate everywhere in your cake and not just on top of it.

We ate some of the cake when it was still warm. At this time, it is very sweet and the chocolate is still very smooth. When you wait until the next day, the cake will still be smooth and fluffy but a little less sweet.

Tips

As mentioned at the beginning we recommend using a loaf pan of 23 x 10 cm. We used one of that size and a bigger one. We liked the result of the smaller loaf pan more than of the bigger one, as the cake was higher.

You can freeze the chocolate babkas for up to 2 months in the freezer

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