This delicious sweet morning bread native to Eastern Europe is the perfect accomplice to your morning cup of coffee. Baking babka is a therapeutic process, it requires thought and patience but it’s an extremely rewarding recipe for taking the next step in your bread baking. 

What is babka?

Babka is a sweet braided bread that originated in the Jewish communities of Poland and Ukraine. It is made with a yeast-leavened dough that is rolled out, spread with a filling such as chocolate, cinnamon, fruit, or cheese, then rolled up, braided and baked. It’s very popular in Israel where it is known simply as ‘yeast bread’ and has lots of variations. It is often topped with streusel for an extra crunch. 

How to make babka:

Prepare the dough:

To make a perfectly fluffy babka dough, you’ll need sugar, milk, active dry yeast, eggs, flour and butter. You’ll mix all the dry ingredients together while the you slowly melt the milk and butter together. You’ll then add the milk mixture and eggs to the flour mixture and mix to form the dough. Then, you’ll need to knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. Put the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with some clingfilm and then allow to rise for about an hour. 

Make the filling:

Melt the butter, sugar and chocolate until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in the cocoa powder. Pour into a bowl and let cool and thicken. 

Shape the dough:

Punch down the dough then roll it out into a rectangle 30 x 40cm. Gently spread the chocolate filling all over the dough, then sprinkle with the toasted hazelnuts. Tightly roll the dough to form a log and slice the rolled dough down the center to expose the filling inside and twist the two pieces together.

Allow the dough to rise again:

Place the babka into a greased-lined loaf pan, cover with a towel and let it rise in a warm place for 45 minutes.

Time to bake! 

Bake for 15 minutes at 355F, then reduce the oven temperature to 320F and bake for another 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool fully before serving. 

Chocolate Hazelnut Babka

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Category

Breakfast

Servings

1 loaf

Cook Time

1.5 minutes

Author:

Gillian Brady

This chocolate hazelnut babka is the teatime slice you never knew you needed. Brioche dough is rolled out and spread with a delicious homemade chocolate spread sprinkled with some freshly roasted chopped hazelnuts sand rolled into a whirly, swirly chocolate loaf. 

Ingredients

For the filling:

• 65 roasted blanch hazelnuts, chopped 

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• 100g unsalted butter 

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar

• 80g 60% dark chocolate, chopped 

• 40g cocoa powder

For the dough:

• 275g all-purpose flour 

• 5g active dry yeast

• 25g granulated sugar 

• 1/2 teaspoon salt 

  
  

• 2 eggs, beaten

• 50ml low-fat milk

• 80g unsalted butter

• 1 orange, zested

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Directions

For the dough:

1. Put flour, sugar, salt, yeast and orange zest into a large bowl and mix together.

2. Put the milk and butter into a small saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted , then set size to cool to lukewarm.

3. Gradually add the milk mixture and eggs to the flour mixture and mix to form a shaggy dough. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic (10-15 minutes).

4. Put the dough into an oiled bowl, cover with  clingfilm and allow to rise for about an hour, or until doubled in size.

For the filling:

1. Melt the butter, sugar and chocolate until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in the cocoa powder. Pour into a bowl and let cool and thicken.

To assemble the loaf:

1. Put the dough on a lightly floured work surface and roll out into a rectangle, roughly 30 x 40cm.

2. Spread the filling over the dough, leaving a 2cm border all around. Sprinkle the chopped hazelnuts over the top. 

3. Starting from the long side, roll the dough. 

4. Use a sharp knife to cut the roll lengthwise into two pieces. Twist the two pieces together. 

5. Place the babka into a greased-lined loaf pan. Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes.

6. Preheat the oven to 355F and bake the load for 15 minutes.

7. Reduce the oven temperature to 320F and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

8. Remove the babka from the pan and allow it to cool fully before serving.