Chocolate Babka

For my March baking bucket list, I tackled Chocolate Babka, a sweet brioche bread with a chocolate twist and fudgy chocolate filling.

Although I’m posting this in April, I actually tackled my March Baking Bucket List Challenge in March.  Life was pretty busy in March so I pushed this off until the very last day and spent Sunday, March 31st in the kitchen tending to this Chocolate Babka.

To be honest, I’m not sure I’ve ever had Chocolate Babka until I made it myself.  In fact, it only ended up on my Baking Bucket List because I was intrigued by the beauty of the twisted bread and knew it would truly challenge me since it required me to work with yeast, something I’m slowly becoming comfortable baking with.

For my chocolate babka, I chose to follow the New York Times Cooking recipe and made it almost to spec.  This recipe intrigued me because it strayed slightly from traditional babka recipes by adding a chocolate crumble to the top of the bread prior to baking.  The chocolate twist was also sandwiched with a fudgy, frosting-like spread (which, as a twist, you could always replace with Nutella!).

I consider myself an experience baker and even for me, at first glance, this recipe seemed intimidating.

However, after breaking it down a bit, it’s really quite straight forward.  Chocolate babka requires a few ‘mini recipes’ which come together to great the delicious, chocolate bread.  If you’re able to break each of the recipes up and tackle them one by one, this chocolate babka is really quite manageable.

However, I suggest you dedicate a full afternoon to the process due to the the multiple recipes, double proofing, and time it takes to twist & bake the bread.

The only major hurdle I faced during the chocolate babka recipe was working with the dough.  As mentioned earlier, because I’m not quite comfortable with yeast and have never made brioche bread before (a bread that requires you to beat room temperature butter into the dough resulting in a unique, squishy texture) I doubted my dough.  Since I wasn’t confident with the texture of the brioche bread dough after my first rise, I believed I had done something wrong — like having killed the yeast.

This led me to trashing the entire dough and starting from scratch. 

After the first proof on the second dough, I had the same results as the first.  I quickly Googled brioche bread and learned that the ‘puckered’ texture of the dough was quite common so with a bit more confidence, I pushed forward, crossed my fingers, and hoped it would all turn out.

Note: At this time, I also strayed slightly from the New York Times Cooking recipe.  The author suggests letting the dough sit in the fridge for a day or overnight for maximum flavor. However, since I was determined to finish my chocolate babka before the end of March, I skipped this process. I believed skipping the overnight rest was completely fine since other chocolate babka recipes I had researched did not call for this step.  If you have the time to let the dough rest overnight, I’m sure you’ll have an even tastier result that I did.

After the first rise is when the fun truly begins!

At this time, you split the dough in half, roll it out into a huge rectangle and spread it with the decadent, fudgy chocolate filling.  After rolling it into a tight little log, much like cinnamon rolls, you place it in the fridge for 10 minutes to chill and repeat the process with the other half of the dough (since this recipe results in two loaves of babka)

After chilling, using a pastry cutter, you split the rolled log straight down the center, revealing the beautiful chocolate center and twist the two strips together creating a dark and light braided masterpiece. (I could stare at the twisted dough all day long, so pretty!).  Once twisted, you fold the log in half and place it into a loaf pan for a second rise.  Right before baking, the proofed dough it topped with the chocolate crumble and baked to perfection.

After baking, the New York Times Cooking author suggests brushing the bread with a sugar syrup.  I made the sugar syrup but after looking at my baked bread, I chose not to brush it with the sugar syrup. I felt the bread may get soggy or become too sweet and chose to skip the syrup out of personal preference.

I loved the chocolate babka. It was addictingly delicious and one of my favorite bakes ever. And I don’t even like sweet breakfast breads!

The babka was soft with a slight chew. The chocolate swirl added a hint of sweetness and the chocolate crumble on top added texture with a touch of saltiness. It hit all my favorite flavor notes!  I savored this bread, wanting it all to myself but ultimately, with a bit of remorse, ended up sharing it with coworkers.

I will definitely be making chocolate babka again in the future and came out of this experience with more confidence in yeast breads, proud of my diligence to complete the challenge in March, and damn proud of the end result when never having tasted chocolate babka before.

How ’bout you, have you ever made chocolate babka before? What was your experience?