This decadent chocolate babka, swirled with cinnamon-spiced chocolate, is well worth the challenge. Follow pastry expert Ella Tarn’s step-by-step recipe to make it for yourself. Serve for brunch, afternoon tea or any time you need perking up.
“As the latest rediscovered tea time treat, babka is having a bit of a moment,” says Ella. “Its roots lie in Eastern European and Jewish baking and it straddles the line between a yeasted bread and a cake, with beautiful swirly layers of cinnamon-laced chocolate. It’s not the quickest thing to make and the dough can be tricky to handle, but one’s thing’s for sure: no one will be able to stop at just one slice. For baking fans, this is one challenge that’s worth rising to.”
Team member Rebecca Woollard is a fan: “One slice of this buttery, slightly cakey bread turned into two, then two turned into about half the loaf. I’m not proud… but neither am I sorry.”
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Ingredients
- 150ml whole milk
- 80g unsalted butter at room temperature, plus extra to grease
- 145g plain flour, plus extra to dust
- 125g strong white bread flour
- ½ tsp fine salt
- 40g caster sugar
- 7g fast-action dried yeast
- 2 large free-range eggs in separate bowls, lightly beaten
For the filling
- 60g unsalted butter
- 80g soft light brown sugar
- 100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
You’ll also need…
- 2 litre loaf tin (about 25cm x 13cm), lightly buttered
Method
- Gently warm the milk and 40g of the butter in a small saucepan until the butter has melted – don’t let it boil. Put the flours, salt, sugar and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until just combined. Make a well in the centre, then pour the warmed milk and one of the beaten eggs into the bowl.
- Mix with a wooden spoon until just combined, then mix at medium speed with the dough hook for 15 minutes until smooth. The dough will seem very wet before mixing but will stiffen up when kneaded.
- Turn the speed up slightly and add the remaining butter, a tablespoon at a time, making sure each addition is incorporated into the dough before adding the next. Mix for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth, slightly sticky and very elastic.
- Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rise at room temperature for 45-60 minutes until nearly doubled in size. Chill in the fridge for another 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the filling. Put the butter and sugar in a small saucepan and gently heat until melted, then add the remaining ingredients and stir until well combined. Remove from the heat and allow to cool until barely warm. It may look a little grainy because of the sugar but that’s fine.
- Flour the work surface and tip the dough onto it. Sprinkle the dough with flour and roll out to 28cm x 60cm. Keep moving the dough to make sure it doesn’t stick, dusting with extra flour if necessary. Spread the filling over the dough.
- Roll it up like a Swiss roll along the longer side.
- Finishing with the seam underneath, cut the dough lengthways down the centre, leaving the halves attached at one end by about 4cm.
- Twist the two pieces around each other, then lay the dough into the loaf tin, lowering it from one side to the other and back up again in a zig-zag, until used up (roughly 4 turns). It doesn’t have to be neat.
- Cover loosely with cling film and leave in a warm place to prove for about 30 minutes. It has risen enough when your finger leaves a slight indentation when lightly prodded. Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas 4.
- Very gently brush the top of the loaf with the remaining beaten egg.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes, loosely covering with foil after 25 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 min, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
Nutrition
- 388kcals Calories
- 22.5g (13.5g saturated) Fat
- 6.8g Protein
- 38.3g (18.6g sugars) Carbs
- 2.5g Fibre
- 0.3g Salt
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Reviews
I am sure the liquid quantity is wrong. I have made this twice now but have had to add masses of flour to get a dough not a slurry. Paul Hollywood’s recipe is similar, but a third of the liquid! Will try his next!
Hi Peter, thanks for pointing this out – we’ll retest the recipe and get back to you!
This was my first foray into making ‘bread’ – but inspired by a friend’s pictures of Babka. I was a little anxious about the instructions, but they were actually really clear and helpful. The only thing I would say is that if you want the mixture to ‘prove’ in the given time, you really have to put it somewhere warm (and not just the worktop as suggested) – I ended up putting it in the oven, which I’d left open after it being on (but now switched off) and it did a super job! The end product was delicious and we have devoured it in less than 2 days! I think I might be making it again very soon!
Made this at the weekend. It was so good there was very little left to bring in to work, but my co-workers loved it. I’m planning on baking it again this weekend. And a stand mixer definitely helped!
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