Delicious Chocolate Babka

So, my chocolate and bread cravings have been on a high lately and what better way to fix then then by combining the two. In this blog post I will be sharing a deliciously, buttery and mouth-watering chocolate babka that can be enjoyed with friends, family or by yourself! I cannot wait to have this delicious bake with my teas, coffees and heck whatever other beverage I am in the mood for.

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Ingredients

The dough baby

• 10g yeast
• 1/2 cup of warm milk (I usually put it in the microwave for 30 seconds)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 cups of flour
• 85g unsalted softened cubed butter
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp salt

Chocolate filling

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 100g butter
• 80g semi-sweet chocolate (one that I used that worked well way the 70% Lindt chocolate)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 5 tablespoons of cocoa
• 1/2 cup of pistachios (optional – and you can choose to use any other nut you like)

Simple Syrup

• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup sugar

Method

• In large bowl, stir yeast, milk, sugar and 1/3 cup of the flour. Leave that to the side whilst the yeast blooms (10 minutes)
• Use wooden spoon to stir in butter (a few cubes at a time), egg and salt. Stir in the rest of the flour until dough forms.
• Transfer dough to well-floured surface and knead 10 minutes.
• Return dough to bowl and cover with towel or lightly greased plastic wrap.
• Refrigerate dough 6 hours.

ONCE YOURE DONE CLEANING AND WATCHING YOUR FAVOURITE SERIES

• Grease a loaf pan with butter. The size all depends if you want a flat or nice and tall bread loaf.
• In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.
• Stir in sugar and once hot remove the saucepan from the heat.
• Add chopped chocolate to saucepan. Let it stand 1 minute, then add cocoa and cinnamon; whisk until smooth.
• In a pan, toast and stir pistachios 3 to 5 minutes over medium heat until just toasted.
• On lightly floured surface, roll out chilled dough to 50×30-cm rectangle (ish shape). Spread filling evenly over dough and sprinkle pistachios evenly on top. Roll dough up, starting at one length side.
• Using sharp knife, slice dough lengthwise in half leaving at 10cm on the top. Keeping cut sides up, bring ends together, twisting dough together – lifting the bottom piece and placing it over the other over and over again.
• Cover and let rise about 2 hours or until doubled in size.

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IN THE LAST 10 MINUTES OF YOUR CHOCOLATE BABKA RISING

• Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
• Bake loaf 30 to 35 minutes or until deep golden brown. Drizzle syrup evenly over top of warm loaf.
• Cool loaf completely in pan on cooling rack. Once cool, take it out of the loaf pan – admire your work and then cut yourself a few slices.

This was probably the prettiest thing I have seen in raw dough form. Once its in the oven it fills your kitchen with a delicious cinnamon chocolatey doughy flavour. Enjoy with a good cup of vanilla chai tea, subtle flavours of rooibos or a rich hot chocolate.