from Kris B.

There seems to be a theme to my posts lately and it is not good food, good recipes, or good eating, though there has been some of that; it is a lack of time.  I seem to be doing everything at the last minute.  That is not my intention, but it is the way life is working out at the moment.  My making of this week’s recipe was no exception!

The free time that I had to make the Chocolate Babka, which is this month’s King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge, was last night, beginning at 8pm.  That was the end of my work week so I could give my total, albeit tired, attention to trying this recipe.  I was a bit concerned about starting so late in the evening because Tracey, who is not quite the procrastinator that I am, had told me that her experience with this recipe required longer rise times than were indicated.  Worst case scenario, I would stay up late and knit while my dough was rising and then I would sleep in this morning.

I was fortunate that the dough came together easily and rose quickly.  I admit that I did use the bread proofing setting on my oven.  I suspect the 80 degree temperatures here in Texas versus Tracey’s thirty something temperatures in Michigan may have had something to do with our greatly varying rise times!  Mine took only an hour and a half for the first rise.  At this point, the dough is divided into two equal pieces, as the recipe makes two loaves, and the filling is made.  The filling consists of cocoa powder, espresso powder, cinnamon, sugar, butter, mini chocolate chips, and nuts, which I omitted because I wanted to share my bread with a friend who cannot eat nuts.  Half of the dough is rolled into a 9×18 rectangle.  The first five ingredients above are mixed together and spread on the rectangle.  Half of the chocolate chips and nuts are then sprinkled on top as well.  Beginning with the short end, the dough is the rolled “cinnamon roll” style.  This process is repeated with the second piece of dough.

Once rolled, the dough is split in half Lengthwise, revealing all of the layers of dough and filling.  The two halves are twisted together to form an “S” and placed in a lightly oiled 9×5 loaf pan.  The loaves are brushed with an egg wash and then topped with a crumbled mixture consisting of butter, cinnamon, powdered sugar, and flour.  At this point, the pans are loosely covered and allowed to rise again for about two hours.  They then bake for 50-60 minutes in a 300 degree oven.

I was quite fortunate that my rise times were at the shorter limit both times and that all the parts of the recipe – dough, filling, shaping, glaze, and topping – all came together easily.  I began making the dough at 8 pm, and I pulled the finished loaves out of the oven at 1am.  Yes, it was a five-hour process, but 3 1/2 hours of that was rise time and another fifty minutes was bake time.

When the loaves come out of the oven, it is necessary to run a table knife around the edges to prevent sticking.  The Chocolate Babka then cools completely in the pans.  I loosened the sides of mine and then went to bed hoping that when I got up this morning and tried to turn it out, nothing had stuck.  The baking gods were with me!  Both of my loaves came right out of the pans and looked really pretty!  So far so good!  The fact that I had started the process of making the babka when I was pretty much exhausted and everything had gone smoothly was a big plus for this recipe!

As is always the case with our Food Friday baked items, I had to photograph the babka  before I could eat it.  My creative juices for food photography were lacking at 8am this morning, but that is a different problem.  Lol!  I opted for a simple shot of exactly how the loaf was sitting on the kitchen counter.  Often for me, the more I try to “make” a photo happen, the less satisfied I am with it.  I am learning to go with the natural appearance of things – crumbs, drips, and all. 🙂

I got the photos taken.  Finally it was time to eat some of this chocolate goodness.  Chocolate and coffee for breakfast.  My Friday morning was looking pretty good!  Then came a bit of disappointment.

The first bite of the Chocolate Babka that I tried was an end piece.  It lacked filling, which is no surprise since the filling was not spread completely to the edge, and the whole thing seemed dry.  OK, the end piece of anything is not always the best tasting, so I went for an inner slice.  The chocolate filling situation improved, but the bread itself was still a little too dry for my taste.  I used the minimum amounts of flour and bake times and the maximum amount of water in the dough, so I’m not sure if the dough is supposed to be a lighter drier dough, or if I did something wrong.  I have only made chocolate babka one other time; I used a recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Though the ingredients are more or less the same, the process varies greatly. The dough rests in the refrigerator at least half a day and preferably overnight.  This recipe calls for the babka to be baked at a higher temperature for about half the time.  And, the baked babka is brushed with a generous amount of sugar syrup immediately upon being removed from the oven.  This recipe definitely resulted in a more dense and more moist bread.

Bread and chocolate are two of my favorite things so, despite being dry, my attempt at chocolate babka using this month’s King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge recipe will not go to waste; but, I think I will consider some variations in the recipe next time I make it.

If you try this month’s bakealong challenge, please share your results with us!

 

from Tracey G.

This month’s King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge for Chocolate Babka, was my first ever experience with making it. I was a bit hesitant in making this recipe to be totally honest, even after reading the Walk Through. It seemed like an awful lot things to do and to have them all go right. But like most times I am apprehensive about a recipe, it too turned out to be not so frightening/taxing as I thought it would be. Kris pretty much outlined how the steps go, so I won’t go into that, but I’ll relate my experiences with this recipe!

I will also admit in the spirit of full-disclosure, that I had issues right out of the gate – and it was totally my own fault, lol. After I got the dough mixing up in my mixer I realized it looked off, and then I figured out that it was most likely due to the fact I forgot to add the butter into the mixer when I was supposed to! Oops. So, I added it and it did take a bit of time to get it incorporated, but it eventually got there!

I had about a 1 3/4 – 2 hour first rise time, but it was about 35 degrees here that day, so that can slow it down for me, so I guess I went pretty much to the far end of the 1 1/2 to 2 hour rise time they state in the recipe, as in closer to the 2 hours. The rolling out and filling went really easily, and even the splitting the of the rolled loaves and braiding went well – that’s really the part that gave me the most anxiety, and was actually fairly easy and fun! I used the nuts that it called for, and now I wish I would have done one loaf with and one without, as Harry’s not a big fan of nuts in his baked goods. But anyway, the second rise took about 2 hours, so this time around I hit the middle of the stated potential rise times.

After it was baked, I ended up with some “gaping” in my loaves, as if filling had melted away – but it was still there. I also had issues with the pieces after they were cut, falling a bit apart. To be fair though, I did have to bake mine longer to reach the internal temperature of 190°, and even that really didn’t happen, I think I hit 170° or a bit above and called it quits. I did cool them in the pan 10 minutes before turning them out on the rack to cool as the recipe mentioned, and I also loosened the edges right after it came out of the oven as directed. I had some sticking issues due to the bit of crowning over the edges of the pan and my egg wash running in places on one that it shouldn’t have, lol. But overall, they came out alright.

Like Kris, I wait to taste until I’ve gotten my photos, and I too taste tested the end first and had the same “hmmm, it’s a bit dry” thought, but also thought “well, it IS the end piece”.

After my photos, it was time to have a real piece with a cup of coffee, and yep it’s super yummy, but still a bit on the dry side. I also am not sure where the fault lies, if it’s in my handling and techniques or if that’s just how it is, I’m not certain. I weighed my ingredients, and used the higher end of the water amount. Plus it was raining here, so there was even humidity in the air, lol. So, I’m really not sure. I would like to attempt it again to see if I have the same results!

No matter what, I enjoyed it because it tasted delicious and was something I’ve never made before. It was another totally new experience for me and I was able to sail through the parts I was nervous about – the shaping! Yay! I am already looking forward to next month’s challenge! Bring it on!