Lola’s Kitchen: Babka with Chocolate Filling Recipe

Lola’s Kitchen is a feature on Lola’s Reviews where I talk about all things related to food, cooking and baking. These posts can be recipe posts, tens list posts about food or recipes or more discussion type posts about food. I love cooking and spend some time in the kitchen almost every day, so I wanted to give it a place on my blog as well. The banner for this feature is designed by Michelle from Limabean Designs.

Babka is one of those recipes that’s frankly a pain to make, but then I say that about most bread like recipes as I dislike the waiting when it rises. Then again this Babka is totally worth the effort. It’s a sweet bread with a rich chocolatey filling and it’s delicious. While it certainly takes some time to make, I still would recommend this recipe. And make to use a stand mixer if possible as mixing this one with a hand mixer is tiring.

This recipe is based on Goldfinch and Scout their Better Chocolate Babka recipe

Ingredients

Babk dough

• Flour – 2 cups/ 265 gram
• Sugar – 1/4 cup/ 50 gram
• Active Dry yeast – 1 teaspoon (you can also use instant yeast instead)
• Orange – 1
• Eggs – 1-2
• Water – 1/4 cup
• Butter – 1/3 cup/ 75 gram
• Salt – 1/4 teaspoon
• Olive Oil

Babka chocolate filling

• Chocolate – 2 1/4 ounces/ 65 gram
• Butter – 1/4 cup/ 60 gram
• Powdered Sugar – 1/4 cup/ 25 gram
• Cocoa Powder – 1/6 cup/ 15 gram
• Cinnamon – 1/4 teaspoon

Syrup topping

• Water – 1/6 cup
• Sugar – 3 tablespoons

This recipe makes one Babka, double it if you want to make two at the same time. The original recipe states that these freeze well, but I haven’t tried that myself.

Method

1. This dough has to rest overnight so a day before you want to serve it, start with preparing the dough. Put the 1/4 cup water in the microwave for about 30 seconds, it should be just a bit too hot to touch it with your finger, but not boiling. Add a pinch of sugar and the active dry yeast to the water and let sit for 10 minutes till there is some foam on top. If no foam happens, your yeast is dead and you have to start over. In the meantime grate the zest of the orange.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the flour, sugar and zest of the orange, mix for a little while till combined using the dough hook. Then add the eggs and the water with yeast and mix for a few minute,s about 2 minutes or so should be enough.
3. Now add the salt to the bowl and then slowly add the butter. Now let this all mix for about 10 minutes on a low till medium setting of your stand mixer. You can mix this with a hand mixer with a dough hook/ attachment, but it is tiring and I find using a stand mixer much handier. After 10 minutes the dough should’ve detached form the bowl and stick mostly to the dough hook, if this is not the case you can add some extra flour.
4. Lightly oil another medium sized bowl with olive oil and put the dough inside. Cover with plastic wrap and set in the fridge to cool overnight.
5. The next day start prepping the chocolate filling. In a small or medium sauce pan add the butter and chocolate. Melt this over a low fire and then remove from the heat. Then add the powdered sugar, cocoa powder and cinnamon. Set aside.
6. Flour your work surface, then remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out on the surface. Now spread the chocolate filling on top, spreading it out with a knife or icing knife. Leave a bit of space on the edges.
7. Put some water on the top side of the dough above the chocolate filling, then roll the dough up starting with the side closest to you and working to the top size. Now place on a plate or cutting board and set in the freezer for 15 minute,s so the dough is easier to cut.
8. After those 15 minutes, remove the dough from the freezer and cut the roll through the middle. Then twist the two lengths around each other, try to get most of the chocolate inside to face the outside. Place it in a bread pan covered with baking paper and cover with a wet tea towel and let it rest for another 1 or 1,5 hours.
9. When that time is almost over preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit/ 190 degrees Celsius. When the oven is warm put the Babka inside and let it bake for 25 minutes. After that place a tester inside to see if it’s dry, if it’s still a bit sticky let it sit for another 5 minutes (mine usually needs 30 minutes in total). After that time try again till the Babka is dry. Then remove it from the oven and let cool for a bit in the form.
10. In the meantime prepare the syrup topping. Add the water and sugar to a small saucepan and let it boil for a bit till the sugar is dissolved and it’s a thicker syrupy consistency. Then smear this one the top of the Babka while still in the form.
11. After half an hour or so move to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store in a airtight container and it stays good for a few days.

Would you give this a try? What’s a recipe that takes longer that you like to make??