Darkest Chocolate Babka
Prep time: 50 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Yields: 2 loaves
Author: Ireland Lindsay
Ingredients:
For the enriched dough:
3/4 cup warm milk, room temperature
3 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, more as needed
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, cubed
For the chocolate filling:
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
FOR THE ENRICHED DOUGH:
INTO a small bowl combine the milk and yeast. Set aside for about 5 minutes, or until the yeast blooms. It should react and be foamy and bubbly along the top.
WHILE you wait for the yeast to bloom, into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment combine the flour, sugar, and salt and mix to combine. Form a well in the center of your dry ingredients and add in the yeast mixture, and the eggs + yolk. Mix until combined.
Note: the nature of this dough is to be very sticky, but you don’t want it to be runny, add flour as needed.
ONCE the ingredients form a homogenous dough begin to add the butter, one cube at a time, making sure to fully incorporate before adding another. Once all the butter has been added, knead your dough for 10 minutes or until no butter portions remain, it is sticky but not runny and begins to show a few signs of gluten development (elastic, pulls slightly from the edge, etc).
TRANSFER to greased bowl and cover to let rise for 2 hours or until doubled in size. Once doubled in size place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
FOR THE FILLING:
ONCE your dough has fully risen and has been in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, feel free to make the filling. Into a heavy-bottomed saucepan melt the butter over medium-low heat, once melted add in chocolate chips, and stir until fully combined. Add in the dry ingredients and mix.
TO ASSEMBLE:
Pro tip: Read this part ahead and even practice with 2 long strips of paper to ensure an effortless bread braid.
PREHEAT oven to 350°F and prepare 2 loaf pans with any non-stick agent.
SEPARATE the fully risen dough into 2 even portions. Flour a workspace and roll out 1 of the 2 portions to a 13x9 rectangle, next evenly distribute half the chocolate mixture, using an offset spatula.
STARTING with the short side, roll the dough into a spiral and slice longways down the center. At this point you have 2 long portions of dough, working quickly connect the 2 at one end and carefully cross over each other, the result should be 2 twisted portions of bread. Transfer to prepared loaf pan and repeat the above step 1 more time.
LET proof for 15 minutes, covered. Then, bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden on top and a digital thermometer inserted into the deepest point reads 190°F. Allow to cool slightly in the pan before slicing into to. Store covered at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Recipe by @IreBakes
