Chocolate and Poppy Seed Babka

by Kate Young, featured in Dinner At Mine?

Published by Head Of Zeus

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Introduction

Babka has its roots in the Central European Ashkenazi Jewish community, where enriched dough was spread with jam, cheese, or spices before being rolled up and baked. It is commonly made with chocolate, thought to have been an American addition that originated when Jewish communities began baking it in the States. It was there that I ate my first slice of babka: in New York, on the Lower East Side. It was the platonic ideal — the dough soft, the crust as crisp and sweet as that of a glazed doughnut, rich chocolate ribboned all the way through.

This recipe is the result of a happy year spent playing around with a number of famous babka recipes in the hope of creating something that lived up to that first slice. I leaned on the famous Breads Bakery, as well as Russ & Daughters in New York, and on Yotam Ottolenghi too. There is butter in the dough and in the filling, and though it’s a bread that really relies on all its various components for tender perfection, it’s the quantity of butter that makes it really special. The poppy seeds here are a nod to the Central European roots of the babka — they lend the bread a gorgeous sour and fruity nuttiness that balances out the chocolate and all that sweet syrup.

It’s a project bake, a recipe for a weekend, and for sharing. It’s never quite as good the next day, that soft, rich dough already starting to dry out. At my September birthday friends’ shared celebration in Whitstable a couple of years ago, I made a loaf for seven of us grown-ups (plus our newest, smallest pal), which disappeared in an afternoon. Plan on it being similarly shared.

As featured in

Dinner At Mine?

Image of Kate Young's Chocolate and Poppy Seed Babka — Photo by Yuki Sugiura

Ingredients

Makes: 8 slices

For the dough

280 grams plain flour
50 grams caster sugar
7 grams sachet easy-action yeast
finely grated zest of 1 orange
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk, beaten
75 millilitres milk
1 pinch of salt
90 grams butter (plus extra for greasing)

For the filling

60 grams dark chocolate
80 grams butter
30 grams cocoa powder
50 grams icing sugar
60 grams poppy seeds (cracked in a mortar and pestle, but not ground to a paste)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the syrup

juice of 1 orange
100 grams caster sugar

Method

Chocolate and Poppy Seed Babka is a guest recipe by Kate Young so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe

You will need a 900g loaf tin.

Mix together the flour, sugar, yeast, and orange zest in the bowl of a stand mixer (or a mixing bowl if you’re making it by hand). Make a well in the centre and add the beaten egg and egg yolk, milk, and salt. Knead with a dough hook for 5 minutes (10 or so minutes by hand), until it comes together in a ball. It will be a tight, dry dough at this point (don’t panic). If it really isn’t coming together, add a tiny splash more milk.
Knead in the butter, a dot at a time, until the dough is very soft and smooth. It will slowly yield to the butter as you work it in — be patient, especially if you are making it by hand. Clean and grease the bowl with butter, then return the dough to it, cover the bowl with cling film or a damp tea towel, and leave the dough to rise for 30 minutes in your kitchen and then overnight in the fridge. This rest is necessary for the dough. Don’t expect it to puff up like a normal bread dough; it’s too cold and heavy with butter to do that.
The next morning, prepare the filling. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, ensuring the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water, then take off the heat and mix in the cocoa, icing sugar, poppy seeds, and cinnamon.
Once the filling is ready, grease your work surface with a little butter and roll the cold dough out into a large rectangle, about 40cm long and 30cm wide. Try to roll in only one direction (length), gently stretching the dough out with your hands in the other direction (width). The dough shouldn’t spring back and fight the stretch too much — if it does, leave it to rest for 5 minutes.
Spread the filling over the dough, right to the edges across the width, but leaving a 2.5-cm wide gap along one of the short edges, so you can pinch the dough closed.
Roll the dough up like a Swiss roll, starting with the opposite short edge and working towards the exposed dough. Pinch the roll closed, then wrap in cling film and (particularly if it’s a warm day) transfer to the freezer for 10 minutes, or the fridge for 30 minutes, so it’s not too sloppy when you slice into it. Cut it lengthways down the centre, carefully allowing each half to open until they are laying side by side. Twist the two halves over one another two or three times, then lower carefully into the greased loaf tin. Cover with a damp tea towel and allow to rise for at least 2 hours. The colder your kitchen, the longer this will take, so be patient.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4 and, once the dough is swelled and soft, bake it for 40 minutes, or until it is browned on top.
When it has 10 minutes left in the oven, simmer a couple of tablespoons of water, the orange juice, and the sugar together in a saucepan for a couple of minutes until slightly thickened and syrupy, then paint this over the babka as soon as it comes out of the oven. Leave the loaf to cool a little (the twists are liable to come apart a bit if you cut into it while it is still hot), then serve warm slices with coffee.