Babka

It's hard to say why a babka is as good as it is. It's simply a sweet brioche bread with filling, but the sheer amount of diversity in fillings that can occupy it allows for someone to make a babka exactly how they like, and allows for an easy way to customize a slightly complicated recipe. While more complicated than some other dough recipe's the final product is much more impressive than the complexity of the technique. 

This recipe works for one 9" x 3.5" loaf pan, so adjusting it for your size pan might be necessary, but you can tell by the area, as my pan's area is 31.5 square inches, so a 4 x 8 pan would work fine, as it is 32 square inches, and a 10 x 3 inch pan would work too, as long as it is around 30 square inches or 75-80cm.

As usual for dough recipes this will all be in grams, so it might be hard if you don't have a kitchen scale, but I highly recommend them, as they are about $15 and are great for doughs and making your own recipes.

-Night Before-

Dough Directions:

 

1. Heat 86g milk until warm to the touch (about 105F or 40C). If you are pouring into a metal bowl, making it a little hotter before is fine because some of the heat will be absorbed by the bowl. Add 7g active dry yeast into the bowl and stir with your finger. If you use a spoon, whisk or fork, all will have yeast stuck to them, so your finger works the best.

2. After the yeast and milk are blooming pour 164g of bread flour, 139g cake flour, and 25g of all purpose flour ( it is 164g of pastry flour which has slightly higher protein content than cake flour, so adding some AP flour will equal it out).  

3. Crack and egg on top of the flour, then 55g of granulated sugar, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, a pinch (1/8 tsp) of salt, and 30g of softened butter. Mix on low for about 2 min, and then increase the speed until it comes together. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl if there are ingredients stuck there.

4. Lower the speed down again and slowly add another 30g of butter a little cube at a time. When smooth, knead for about a minute until smooth and turned into a ball. Place in an oiled bowl for 4-12 hours. Overnight works the best and is the easiest. 

-Day of-

1. The first thing that you need to do when you take it out of the fridge is to not panic. Yes, it is going to be much harder than normal dough out of the fridge, and it is because of all the butter in the dough which is going to melt and soften when baked and do its job. So place the dough on a metal baking sheet to absorb the heat and within an hour it will be pliable and ready to be rolled.

2. Very lightly flour your work surface, and start rolling out your dough. This is not super hard, but you need it to be thinner than you think, at least under a cm, and a little under a 1/4 inch is what you want, or about half a centimeter. Roll out into a rectangle ( where the left to right is about twice the length of the front and back), and if it looks more like a wide rectangle with two round sides, that is ok, just cut some of the dough from the part that is the furthest out, and patch the dough so it looks like a rectangle. Remember that it is going to be rolled, cut, proofed, and baked, so any small problems or imperfections aren't going to be even noticeable. 

7. When it is at your desired thickness and looks like a wide rectangle, you can start adding your filling. There will be more listed below, but you need to go edge to edge on the filling, but you can control the amount so if you want more or less, determine that now, but if you over fill it, it will leave at the end of rolling which is fine, but you just can't add any more than that.

8. After your filling is spread edge to edge, start rolling it towards you, so fold over the part furthest from you, and pinch it down, and then start rolling it towards you. If you can see the filling flow towards you, then it is a little over filled, and all that means is you just need to remove the excess at the end. 

9. When it is fully rolled and resembles a log you can either cut it in half now or in 10 mins. If it is starting to unroll, then roll it tight and place seam side down on a baking sheet and place in the freezer for 10 mins to firm up.

10. When you are ready to cut, take a knife and cut down the middle, and you can see your layers that are there due to your roll. Admire it for a second, and then start twisting the dough as many times as you can. Now you might be thinking that it wont fit into your loaf pan, and you are right, it should be took wide. Take about a 1/4 of the roll on each side and tuck under the middle of the roll so it will fit in your loaf pan. This is why I was stressing edge to edge because if not, then the heels will not have much filling. 

 

11. Let the dough proof (rise before baking at room temperature) for about 2-3 hours, or until a nice risen size. It helps a lot if they are proofed in a humid environment, and all you have to do is place a pot of lightly boiling water in an off oven or microwave with the loaf. A more humid environment promotes yeast activity which helps them rise quicker and more evenly.

12A. About 5-10 mins before the babka is out of the oven, make a simple syrup by stirring 80g sugar and 60g water, or a little more sugar than a 50/50 ratio.

12B. Preheat the oven to 350F or 180C oven but if your babka is in the oven proofing, you have to take them out first! Let them bake for 25-30 mins or until it registers 190F or 88C. If they look done (browned, but not super brown) and it has been 30 mins, but it is at 170-15F or 75-80C, then take it out because it is done, and you don't want to over bake them. It is not as bad as regular bread, because the filling stops them from drying out as quickly, but you still don't want them overbaked.

13. When they are out of the oven, brush with simple syrup all over, because the syrup hardens and creates a "shell" around the babka to keep its moisture. Let cool before cutting, and enjoy!

 

 

Raspberry Cheese Filling:

1. Combine 120g each of cream cheese and ricotta and mix with 55g (1/4 cup) of white sugar.

2. Spread the cheese mix on the dough, and then spoon globs of raspberry jam on top. 

Cinnamon Peach Filling: 

1. Purée the peaches from one can of peach pie filling (the can will have macerated [soaked in a sugar mix] peaches suspended in a thick syrup) and mix in 2 tbs cinnamon, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 1/2 tsp nutmeg.

You could sprinkle the dry ingredients on top after a speeded peach puree, it yields the same result.

Cinnamon Filling:

1. Combine 2/3 cup of brown sugar, 2 heaping tbs of cinnamon into 6tbs of melted butter and mix. This is probably the easiest to make and easiest to spread, meaning it does not slide out if rolled.

Chocolate Filling:

1. Combine 2/3 cup each icing/powdered sugar with 6tbs of melted butter and 10oz of melted chocolate (whatever kind you like most, dark, milk, and semisweet are all fine). Just make sure that you have it spreadable, so if it is stick, put it in the microwave for 10 secs, and then stir to loosen, because if it is took thick it will be hard to spread and can rip the dough.