2 slices of marbled chocolate babka with nuts and raisins nestled in between — I still remember this mouth watering image from when I was still working in Tokyo. Enjoying that sweetie with a cup of coffee sparks joy in ordinary daily life.
To satisfy my lust, making babka by myself seems to be the only way, as there is no quality bakery close to where I live. I’m glad making babka is not difficult.
Think of babka as a half-cake, half-bread. What makes it different from bread is the enriched dough, which has a relatively high amount of butter, egg, and whole milk. A rich dough tends to take a longer time for proofing in my experience.
Compared to most babka recipes online, my version is about 20% less sugar and butter, as I don’t want it to be too heavy and sugary. I think it’s still moist, sweet, and GREAT!
Babka Cooking Notes
- Sugar in the dough: sugar is crucial here. Besides acting as a flavour enhancer, it also performs several roles:
- Feeding the Yeast: to encourage yeast to produce carbon dioxide and contribute to the dough’s rise.
- Tenderness: sugar slows down protein bonding, hence creating a softer and more tender crumb.
- Moisture Retention: sugar attracts and retains moisture, helping the babka stay soft and fresh for longer.
- Balance in Dough Structure: it balances the richness of the eggs and butter, preventing the dough from being too heavy and allowing for a light, airy crumb.
- Sugar in the chocolate spread: many recipes call for powdered sugar, but I used caster sugar. Powdered sugar allows dissolving completely in the chocolate to achieve a smooth consistency, while caster sugar will leave traces of bites, which I kind of like. Besides, I don’t bake often, so I don’t buy powdered sugar too.
- Add peanut butter into chocolate spread: I had some struggle-to-spread peanut butter on hand, so I stirred it in as well. It’s about 25 g. They worked well together! I think smooth or crunchy types are both okay. Replace it with chocolate if you like.
Basic Babka Recipe
I admit that making babka can get a little messy when shaping, but your effort will pay off! Enjoy it with a cup of coffee or tea — heaven! I even eat it as breakfast!
Ingredients
Fits in 195 × 95 × H95 (mm) bread mould
For the Dough
- 180 g bread flour
- 80 g plain flour
- 5 g salt
- 40 g sugar
- 125 g warm full-fat milk
- 4 g instant yeast
- 40 g unsalted butter (softened)
- 1 egg (approx. 60 g)
For the Chocolate Spread
- 55 g dark chocolate
- 25 g smooth peanut butter
- 40 g unsalted butter
- 35 g caster sugar
- 8 g cocoa powder
- a few drops vanilla extract
- 2 tsp cinnamon powder (optional)
- handful of mixed nuts, roughly chopped (optional)
- small handful of raisins (optional)
For the Syrup
- 10 g granulated sugar
- 15 g hot water
How to Make
- Make the dough: Place the yeast into the warm milk and stir to activate. Mix all the flour, salt, and egg in a large bowl, then pour in the milk mixture to form a dough. Knead until smooth and stretchy, or use a stand mixer to perform this job. Chill the dough in the fridge for an hour.
- Prepare the chocolate spread: Break the chocolate and butter into smaller pieces. Place them in a bowl over hot water and melt. Whisk in the sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla extract, then mix well. Remove from the heat and let cool. It will thicken gradually and set aside until assembly.
- Roll out the dough: Take out the chilled dough and roll it into an approx. 25cm x 35cm rectangle.
- Spread atop the chocolate paste, and sprinkle over the cinnamon powder, nuts, and raisins, if using.
- Shape: Roll up the dough from the shorter side, then cut in half lengthwise. Keep the cut sides facing up, and position each half parallel to each other like a cross. Twist the halves together and tuck the ends under.
- Proof: Oil a loaf pan with butter; gently squeeze and place in the dough. Cover and wait until the dough noticeably puffed. It takes around 1 to 1 ½ hours if it’s in a warm environment, like 24-27ºC.
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC while the dough is about to finish proofing.
- Bake: Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. If the top is getting burnt, cover it with foil.
- Make sugar syrup: While waiting, dissolve the sugar into hot water to make syrup. Once the babka is ready and taken out from the oven, immediately brush the syrup on top to achieve a shiny finish. Let it completely cool down on a rack before being stored.
