Chocolate Babka bread is such a delicious, rich, buttery dough with chocolate filling, that the end result is more like a cake. Seriously.
After comparing a couple of recipes and trying to bake different versions, I found one that is by far the BEST. So, I have based my chocolate babka recipe on this version from prettysimplesweet but I made some minor changes as to my flavor preferences. I used whole milk instead of water, I used wet yeast as I always prefer it to the dry one and instead of syrup I just brushed my chocolate babka with some honey.
This chocolate babka bread makes two loaves, so you can reduce the recipe in two or freeze one of the loaves in order to keep it fresh.
INGREDIENTS
For the dough:
- 500g plain flour
- 50 g sugar
- 10g dry yeast (or 50g wet yeast)
- 2 tsp salt
- 200 ml whole milk
- 3 large eggs
- 75g unsalted butter
- Zest of 1 lemon
For the filling:
- 50g brown sugar
- 30g cocoa powder
- 120g dark chocolate
- 120g unsalted butter
- pinch of salt
STEPS
If you’re going to use wet yeast for your dough, dissolve 1 tsp sugar in ½ cup of warm water and stir in the yeast. Wait for 10 min until it gets bubbly. Place all ingredients (except butter) in the bowl of a standing mixer and add the yeast mixture. Start mixing everything with a dough hook, on a low speed and continue for about 3 minutes or until the dough comes together. Add softened butter, a little at a time, and continue mixing for about 10 minutes on medium speed. The dough is sticky, but should pull away from the sides of the bowl. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight.
To make the filling, mix all ingredients together until you have a spreadable paste. According to your preferences, you can add some chocolate chips, chopped pecans, raisins or some cinnamon powder.
Roll out the dough into a thin rectangle, spread the chocolate mixture over and roll the dough into a cylinder. Cut the roll in half and gently create a simple two-pronged plait.
Then, transfer to a greased loaf tin and allow to rise for 1-2 hours at room temperature.
Preheat oven to 180C and bake chocolate babka bread for about 30 minutes.
Brush with some honey,leave to cool in a tin for 10 min and then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving.
Chocolate Babka Bread freezes well for up to two months.
I like the idea of using Nutella instead of the chocolate filling, so I’ll definitely try it next time.
