Chocolate & Almond Babka

Happy first day of Women’s History Month!! It’s great to celebrate for a whole month badass women throughout history - and I think a great way to start such a celebration is by baking something indulgent and delicious. Today I am venturing by doing a Babka. These days most of my inspiration (and cravings) come from TikTok, and I’ve seen plenty of Babkas being made so I want to see if I can rise to the occasion. I feel like I am still very much an apprentice when it comes to baking, so I suggest you wait and see the results of this recipe - might be really good, good or just meh haha. 

For those of you who are not very familiar with the Babka, it is essentially a sweet bread that’s braided and filled with different ingredients such as chocolate, apples or cinnamon, although nowadays you can pretty much add anything you’d like. This time around I will be filling it with a hazelnut spread and some raw pecans (cause I like a bit of crunch). To finalize it, you glaze it or soak it in a syrup so it's nice and moist inside. Did I make you drool yet? because I am.

The good thing about the dough is that you can make it three days in advance to when you actually need it, so you can break the process a little bit. 

Since I am still in the learning part of baking, I am going to follow the recipe on Once upon a Chefs, just did a few tweaks here and there. I hope eventually in the future I will have enough knowledge to experiment with my own recipes and share them with you! 

So without further ado, let’s get into the recipe.

DIRECTIONS

Dough:

1. In a large bowl you’re going to mix together the butter, sugar, warm water, salt and yeast, until combined
2. Add the two eggs and the egg yolk and mix again until it all comes together
3. Add the flour all at once and mix it with a wooden spoon until combined, the dough will look lumpy, a bit wet and elastic. 
4. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, but not airtight and let the dough rest for two hours at room temperature. 
5. Place in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. If not, feel free to use it right away. 

Braiding and Baking:

1. Butter your 9x5 baking pan, in this case I’m using my Romertopf Ceramic Baking Pan. 
2. Dust a clean working surface with flour, and place your doubt on top. Dust the dough a bit more flour so it helps with the stickiness. Knead the dough for about 30 seconds. 
3. Add some flour to your roller and roll your dough into a 14” square, the thickness should be about ⅛ of an inch. 
4. Grab your Hazelnut spread (I use the Bonne Maman one) and a knife or silicone spatula and spread it on the dough, leaving a ½ inch margin.
5. Sprinkle the chopped pecans all around on top of the spread. 
6. Then you’re going to roll the dough into a log. Starting with the border closer to you. Once rolled place the seam down and place it vertically in front - then with a serrated knife or a dough cutter, cut right down the middle 
7. Turn the cut sides up so you can see all the layers, and start braiding it, one on top of the other. Once done, tuck the ends at the bottom and place the Babka in your baking pan. (This process is messy, so don’t worry if it looks a bit loopy).
8. Cover it with plastic wrap, and let it proof for around 1 hour and 30 minutes. After the babka has rested, it should have grown a little less than double the size.
9. Preheat your oven to 350F and place the pan in the middle rack for 35-50 minutes.
10. In the meantime prepare the syrup, by mixing the water and sugar in a pot. Bring it to a boil until all the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and set aside.
11. Once the Babka is done, it looks golden brown on top, or has an internal temperature of 190-200F (you can also use a toothpick to check it), take it out of the oven and immediately pour over or brush the syrup.
12. Let it rest for 15 mins after the syrup, then remove from the pan and let it rest for another 15 mins. Now it's ready to eat!

CONCLUSION

Sometimes I wonder if I am too ambitious, my baby has been sick this week and has been very off with his naps - so of course the inevitable happened and I let it prove an extra 45 mins. Let me tell you, the proofing time matters - and it was just the recipe for me to learn that. Another issue I encountered is that it was not layered as I have known Babkas to be, so I would definitely recommend doing a very tight roll. 

As far as flavor and consistency is concerned, it was pretty good - it needed a bit more of the hazelnut spread, but the bread was soft and bouncy and it had a great taste. So I wouldn’t consider this a huge fail, but I clearly have to work on it. I hope that you can learn from my experience. What do you think I should’ve done differently? Let me know in the comments :).

TIPS & TRICKS

• If using the Romertopf Baking Pan, make sure you scrub it with soap and wash it before using. 
• If your house is too cold to let your dough rise, you can put it inside your (turned off) oven. 
• Try to roll the dough log as tightly as you can, this will create a tighter bread and more layers.