A while ago I bought a copy of Breaking Breads by Uri Scheft, the co-owner of Breads Bakery in New York City. My furlough was the perfect time to dive into the book because all of the bread recipes have directions for using either fresh yeast or active dry yeast, and I had a big block of fresh yeast to use up in a short amount of time. I decided to start with the recipe for "The Famous Chocolate Babka." I think the name is a bit misleading because the filling is mostly Nutella with a smaller amount of chocolate chips; I would call it "Nutella Babka."
The cookbook includes recipes for "Basic Babka Dough" and "Advanced Babka Dough." I tried both. For the basic dough, you whisk the yeast (fresh or instant) into a mixture of room temperature milk and vanilla; add all-purpose flour (the recipe specifies 11.7% protein, which means King Arthur), pastry or cake flour (the recipe specifies protein level 8.5%-9%, so I used White Lily all-purpose, which is 9%), eggs, sugar, salt, and room temperature unsalted butter; and mix until the dough is smooth and elastic. Then you tear and knead the dough by hand; let it sit at room temperature for half an hour; and chill it for at least an hour (and up to 24 hours) before shaping it.
I let my dough chill for an entire day before assembling the babka -- or I should say babkas, because the basic babka dough recipe produces enough dough to make two 9-inch by 5-inch babkas. The assembly is pretty straightforward. You roll out the dough into a long rectangle; spread over a generous layer of Nutella; sprinkle on some chocolate chips; roll up the dough tightly; stretch out the roll to make it tighter and longer; cut the cylinder of dough into half lengthwise; cut each of the two resulting strips in half crosswise to create four total strips of dough; and form each babka loaf by twisting two strips of dough together. You place each babka into a loaf pan, cover it with plastic, and let the dough rise for a few hours before baking. While the babkas are still hot from the oven, you brush them with a simple syrup made from sugar and water.
I thought this babka was delicious. The intact loaf and the individual slices were very attractive (see photos above), and the Nutella flavor overwhelming -- which is a good thing. It stayed moist and fresh under a pastry dome for several days. I gave one of the loaves to Tom to take to his office and he complained that it was a little tough and difficult to slice. I would agree that this babka is sturdy and it requires a sharp knife to slice it effectively -- a plastic knife isn't going to do the job properly. But while I thought the babka was perfectly good as it was, Tom's comment prompted me to try making the babka again with the advanced babka dough to see if it would yield a superior result.
The advanced babka dough is a laminated dough that is the basic dough + 200 grams of butter. To make it, you take the basic babka dough (chilled and rested for 24 hours); roll it out into a rectangle; encase a block of cool unsalted butter inside; make a letter fold and flatten the dough slightly; chill and rest the dough; repeat the letter fold and chilling/resting step two more times; and then refrigerate the dough for at least five hours or overnight. Then it's ready to shape.
The cookbook says that the advanced dough creates a version of the babka that is closer to what they sell at Breads Bakery. Also, the advanced dough yields three loaves of babka instead of the two you get with the basic babka dough. The catch is that with the advanced dough you have to use baking pans that measure 9 x 2.75 x 2 inches -- which is much narrower than a standard loaf pan. The cookbook says that if you use a regular-sized pan, the babka will not get enough lift and will sink in the middle. So I had to order some paper loaf pans that were the specified size (the closest I could get was pans that are 9 x 2-7/8 x 2.5 inches, which is pretty darn close).
Once my advanced babka dough was ready, the shaping process was similar -- except that I rolled out the dough into a larger rectangle (although the amount of Nutella and chocolate chips in the filling remained the same), and after I cut through the rolled up dough I divided it into six strips of dough, to end up with three loaves of babka that were each formed from two twisted strips.
I started to sense that there might be a problem when I was waiting for the babka loaves to rise in the paper pans before baking them. They didn't seem to rise much. The recipe says that they should rise an inch or two above the rim of the pan and mine didn't even reach the rim. In the photo above, you can see the baked loaf was shorter than my 2.5-inch tall pan. And when I sliced it, I didn't think it looked good at all -- you can see in the photo above how the babka slice made with the advanced babka dough looked squished and more compact than the basic babka dough slice. I think that I might have screwed up the dough somehow. It tasted fine (Nutella makes everything taste good), but it definitely was not better than the basic babka version, much less worth the extra time and butter required to make it.
Still, we ate one loaf (over a few days), I gave a loaf to a law school classmate (who was also on furlough, so we were able to meet for lunch on a weekday), and we still have a loaf in our freezer. I'm not in a hurry to eat it. But I would like to try the advanced babka dough recipe again sometime. I know the babka at Breads Bakery receives rave reviews -- it's been declared the best in the city by New York Magazine and Grub Street. People go insane for it. And if the advanced babka dough gives you something closer to what they sell in the bakery, I need to give it another shot.
Recipes: "Basic Babka Dough," "Advanced Babka Dough," and "The Famous Chocolate Babka," from Breaking Breads by Uri Scheft; the recipe for making the Famous Chocolate Babka with the Basic Babka Dough is available here at Food52.
Previous Posts:
The cookbook includes recipes for "Basic Babka Dough" and "Advanced Babka Dough." I tried both. For the basic dough, you whisk the yeast (fresh or instant) into a mixture of room temperature milk and vanilla; add all-purpose flour (the recipe specifies 11.7% protein, which means King Arthur), pastry or cake flour (the recipe specifies protein level 8.5%-9%, so I used White Lily all-purpose, which is 9%), eggs, sugar, salt, and room temperature unsalted butter; and mix until the dough is smooth and elastic. Then you tear and knead the dough by hand; let it sit at room temperature for half an hour; and chill it for at least an hour (and up to 24 hours) before shaping it.
I let my dough chill for an entire day before assembling the babka -- or I should say babkas, because the basic babka dough recipe produces enough dough to make two 9-inch by 5-inch babkas. The assembly is pretty straightforward. You roll out the dough into a long rectangle; spread over a generous layer of Nutella; sprinkle on some chocolate chips; roll up the dough tightly; stretch out the roll to make it tighter and longer; cut the cylinder of dough into half lengthwise; cut each of the two resulting strips in half crosswise to create four total strips of dough; and form each babka loaf by twisting two strips of dough together. You place each babka into a loaf pan, cover it with plastic, and let the dough rise for a few hours before baking. While the babkas are still hot from the oven, you brush them with a simple syrup made from sugar and water.
The advanced babka dough is a laminated dough that is the basic dough + 200 grams of butter. To make it, you take the basic babka dough (chilled and rested for 24 hours); roll it out into a rectangle; encase a block of cool unsalted butter inside; make a letter fold and flatten the dough slightly; chill and rest the dough; repeat the letter fold and chilling/resting step two more times; and then refrigerate the dough for at least five hours or overnight. Then it's ready to shape.
The cookbook says that the advanced dough creates a version of the babka that is closer to what they sell at Breads Bakery. Also, the advanced dough yields three loaves of babka instead of the two you get with the basic babka dough. The catch is that with the advanced dough you have to use baking pans that measure 9 x 2.75 x 2 inches -- which is much narrower than a standard loaf pan. The cookbook says that if you use a regular-sized pan, the babka will not get enough lift and will sink in the middle. So I had to order some paper loaf pans that were the specified size (the closest I could get was pans that are 9 x 2-7/8 x 2.5 inches, which is pretty darn close).
Once my advanced babka dough was ready, the shaping process was similar -- except that I rolled out the dough into a larger rectangle (although the amount of Nutella and chocolate chips in the filling remained the same), and after I cut through the rolled up dough I divided it into six strips of dough, to end up with three loaves of babka that were each formed from two twisted strips.
Still, we ate one loaf (over a few days), I gave a loaf to a law school classmate (who was also on furlough, so we were able to meet for lunch on a weekday), and we still have a loaf in our freezer. I'm not in a hurry to eat it. But I would like to try the advanced babka dough recipe again sometime. I know the babka at Breads Bakery receives rave reviews -- it's been declared the best in the city by New York Magazine and Grub Street. People go insane for it. And if the advanced babka dough gives you something closer to what they sell in the bakery, I need to give it another shot.
Recipes: "Basic Babka Dough," "Advanced Babka Dough," and "The Famous Chocolate Babka," from Breaking Breads by Uri Scheft; the recipe for making the Famous Chocolate Babka with the Basic Babka Dough is available here at Food52.
Previous Posts:
- "Bake a Better Babka: Cranberry-Orange Babka," December 21, 2016.
- "Too Much Spice In My Pumpkin Spice?: Pumpkin Spice Babka," October 2, 2016.
- "Happy Thangivukkah!: Thanksgiving Babka," December 11, 2013.
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