Yeasted Baked Goods

Chocolate Babkas

Chocolate Babka! Made famous by Seinfeld…well to me at least.

Never really knew what a Babka was, and when I saw it in the book, it looked intimidating so why not try it.

There are a lot of steps in this one, it seems to be really involved: Dough! Filling! Twisting! Streusel topping! Proofing! Baking! And all the butter you can muster!

Here it goes…

Yeast and milk in one bowl foaming.

Sugar and eggs – but not all the sugar and eggs, in another bowl

Flour and salt in the mixer bowl

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I have looked back at the book 83 times so far and I am still on the first paragraph of directions!

The yeast and milk are foaming – sort of – I am always nervous at this part, has it foamed enough?  Should it foam some more? What if I have left it too long and it has over foamed?

Whisking the eggs is much easier and I complete that step right before I add the flour to the bowl of the mixer

Now it is time to put these together

The yeast mixture to the eggs whisks in fine, and that gets poured into the flour mixture.

Martha tells you to start with the paddle attachment and then switch to the dough hook before you add the butter…so I do that…I don’t like what I see.

This is weird and the butter is clumpy…we now are to knead with the dough hook for 10 minutes…I am still uneasy at this step, it doesn’t look wrong, but it doesn’t look right either

It has been kneaded by the machine, now I have to knead some more by hand and it is really sticky, yet also greasy…I don’t know if I have ever encountered a dough texture like this before.

OK, so Martha has never been shy about butter – but this is unreal… the bowl that the dough is to proof in needs to be buttered and the dough is to be turned so it is coated…you hear that?  My arteries are starting to close

Alright, dough is proofing and I am working on chopping the chocolate chips and by me, I mean I delegated to hubby.

This part really sucks!  

“It’s not fun” was the response I got from him

I told him all the chopping is making his arms look good and he continued to chop with gusto!

Side note: There is no easy way to chop chocolate chips..I use semi-sweet chocolate chips because I always have them on hand. Next time I will buy bars to make it easier to chop and get the consistency we are looking for

After the tremendous job hubby did on chopping the chocolate we made the filling made of the chocolate, sugar cinnamon and butter

Hubby also rolled out the dough and I filled it and rolled it

The filling looked like ground beef if I am being honest

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I did an ok job of rolling them

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This recipe makes three cakes – I don’t know why that is just how Martha does it

I said to hubby as I am working on the third one 

These are just like our kids – 

The first you are not really sure what you are doing and are kind of nervous

The second one you are like “I got this, I remember how it goes, no problem”

The third one you just shrug your shoulders…it is what it is 

I placed them in the pans and let them proof

Side note: there is way to much streusel topping you only need like half of what she suggests

I actually wrote it in the book so I know for next time (if there is a next time)

Proofing is a bonus – you get to clean up and get yourself all sorted out and have a drink!

We have proofed and now we bake!

After an hour and a half it is done and it smells fantastic

It is so pretty when it is cut open.

The wow factor is totally worth the effort!

It is amazing!  The bread is flaky but not too delicate and the chocolate is perfect.

The reviews on this were amazing!

Everyone loved it

I know I said there was too much streusel, but I once baked it didn’t seem like enough.

Next time (and there will be a next time), after is rises before baking i will add some more topping

Without a doubt Bakeable!