Chocolate babka

Jeph (well, Joe as well - that man can cook! It seems so unfair that in his profile photo he looks rather cute as well!) has inspired me lately. I've not been exploring too many new recipes because I feel too pressed for time. The oldies are the goodies.

Nonetheless, a combination of Jeph's fun with bread and our recent visit to NYC got me to thinking: how hard would it be to make chocolate babka?

I haven't sliced into it yet (it's only out of the oven a very short time ago). In fact, I likely won't even taste it. Instead, I'll send it in with Conrad to his office tomorrow. It does look decent, though. I hope it is.

The process wasn't difficult. It merely required some time to allow for rising. I proofed the yeast with milk (skim, enriched with cream) and sugar. I then added the rest of the dough ingredients in the called-for stages using the mixer. The result was very soft, very sticky.

The first rise took a couple of hours, so it was a perfect opportunity to pull cookie dough out of the freezer and have more fun. Worse comes to worse, people will enjoy the white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies.


After the first rise I rolled out the dough, smeared it with butter, sprinkled on the bittersweet chocolate and sugar, rolled it, and shaped it into the loaves. Time for another rise



during which we escaped over to Lincoln Square and had a coffee at Cafe Selmarie.

Once home, it was about 40 minutes of baking. The result is here. It certainly smells good. I wonder if it should have risen more. Hmmmm. Ah well. I'll ask Conrad to gather criticism for me, and when next I make it (because I probably will), I'll think on what to do differently.