Chocolate Babka

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Baking a chocolate babka is no casual undertaking. The Eastern European yeast-risen coffee cake has 14 steps and takes all day to make. But the results are worth every sugarcoated second – with a moist, deeply flavored brioche-like cake wrapped around a dark fudge filling, then topped with cocoa streusel crumbs.

Servings:

Calories: 457kcal

Author: Melissa Clark

Ingredients

For the Dough

½ cup whole milk (118 milliliters)
1/4 ounce active dry yeast (7 grams)
⅓ cup granulated sugar (67 grams), plus a pinch
4 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (531 grams), plus more as needed
1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest optional
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
4 large eggs at room temperature, lightly beaten
10 tablespoons unsalted butter (140 grams), at room temperature, plus more for greasing bowls and pans

For the Fudge Filling

½ cup granulated sugar (100 grams)
¾ cup heavy cream (177 milliliters), or half-and-half
Pinch kosher salt
6 ounces extra bittersweet chocolate (170 grams), preferably between 66 and 74 percent cocoa, coarsely chopped
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (112 grams/1 stick), diced, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (10 milliliters)

For the Chocolate Streusel

½ cup all-purpose flour (60 grams)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar (45 grams)
1 ½ tablespoons cocoa powder (11 grams)
½ teaspoon kosher salt
4 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter (64 grams), melted
⅓ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips (60 grams)

For the Syrup

⅔ cup granulated sugar (135 grams)

Instructions

Prepare the dough

In a small saucepan or a bowl in the microwave, warm the milk until it’s lukewarm but not hot (about 110 degrees).
Add yeast and a pinch of sugar and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes, until slightly foamy.
In an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook, or in a food processor, mix together flour, 1/3 cup sugar, the salt, the vanilla, the lemon zest (if using), and the nutmeg.
Beat or process in the yeast mixture and eggs until the dough comes together in a soft mass, about 2 minutes. If the dough sticks to the side of the bowl and doesn’t come together, add a tablespoon more flour at a time until it does, beating very well in between additions.
Add half the butter and beat or pulse until the dough is smooth and elastic, 3 to 5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed.
Beat in the rest of the butter and continue to beat or pulse until the dough is smooth and stretchy, another 5 to 7 minutes. Again, if the dough sticks to the sides of the bowl, add additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time.
Butter a clean bowl, form the dough into a ball, and roll it around in the bowl so all sides are buttered.
Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let it rise in a warm, draft-free place (inside of a turned-off oven with the oven light on is good) until it puffs and rises, about 1 to 2 hours. It may not double in bulk but it should rise.
Press the dough down with your hands, re-cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight (or, in a pinch, for at least 4 hours, but the flavor won't be as developed).

Prepare the filling

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar, cream, and salt.
Simmer, stirring occasionally, until sugar completely dissolves, about 5 minutes.
Scrape mixture into a bowl. Stir in chocolate, butter, and vanilla until smooth. Let cool to room temperature.
The filling can be made up to a week ahead and stored, covered, in the fridge. Let come to room temperature before using.

Prepare the streusel

In a bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt.
Stir in melted butter until it is evenly distributed and forms large, moist crumbs.
Stir in the chocolate chips.
Streusel can be prepared up to 3 days ahead and stored, covered, in the fridge.

Prepare the syrup

In a small saucepan, combine sugar and 2/3 cup/158 milliliters water.
Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then simmer for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves.

Assemble

Butter two 9-inch loaf pans, then line with parchment paper, leaving 2 inches of paper hanging over on the sides to use as handles later.
Remove dough from the refrigerator and divide it in half.
On a floured surface, roll one piece into a 9-by-17-inch rectangle.
Spread with half the filling (there's no need to leave a border).
Starting with a long side, roll into a tight coil.
Transfer the coil onto a dish towel or piece of plastic wrap and stick it in the freezer for 10 minutes.
Repeat with the other piece of dough.
Slice one of the dough coils in half lengthwise to expose the filling.
Twist the halves together as if you were braiding them, then fold the braid in half so it’s about 9 inches long.
Place into a prepared pan, letting it curl around itself if it’s a little too long for the pan.
Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until puffy (it won’t quite double). Alternatively, you can cover the pans with plastic wrap and let them rise in the refrigerator overnight; bring them back to room temperature for an hour before baking.

Bake

When you're ready to bake, heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Use your fingers to clump streusel together and scatter all over the tops of the cakes.
Transfer to oven and bake until a tester goes into the cakes without any rubbery resistance and comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes. The cakes will also sound hollow if you unmold them and tap on the bottom. An instant-read thermometer will read between 185 and 210 degrees.
As soon as the cakes come out of the oven, use a skewer or paring knife to pierce them all over going all the way to the bottom of the cakes, and then pour the syrup on top of the cakes, making sure to use half the syrup for each cake.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before serving.

Notes

If you want to save yourself a little work and love Nutella, you can substitute 1 1/2 cup (420 grams) of it for the homemade fudge filling. Also, note that you can make this over a few days instead of all at once. Babka freezes well for up to 3 months, so if you need only one loaf now, freeze the other for later.

Useful user suggestions:

Decadent and good! A few suggestions . . . Do steps 1-4, then do 6, 7 and 8 during the first rising. Then put dough in fridge (Step 5) and finish everything the next day. Also, much easier to add the butter earlier in the mixing process -- I found that the dough didn't want to "accept" the butter when I added it at the end. Tried it again, alternating it with some of the flour, and that was perfect.
The chocolate mixture IS runny if you just let it cool to room temp. But after that, if you put it in the fridge for a while (or freezer briefly) while you are preparing the streusel and syrup and rolling out the dough, it will firm up to paste consistency.

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