Hello everyone! Today I have a special recipe right in time with the Easter Holidays
for those of you who are celebrating them tomorrow! 🍞
I know it's not Sunday as I promised in my previous post that I'll keep this kind of articles for Sundays, but considering that tomorrow we celebrate Easter here, I thought it's the best moment to make this post which I'm sure will come handy for some of you.
It's also the first time in over 4 years since I write my travel articles here when a week is going to pass without posting about a place we explored, and everything counts a little bit heavier knowing that lately I kept Saturdays for this type of posts but I prefer to dedicate both today and tomorrow for some Easter recipes and I'll come with a travel video next week to take my revenge. Sounds like a deal? 😃
And as another short bracket, this is actually a recipe that I first tried out on the Christmas Holidays from 2021 that I mentioned about HERE but which it took me a little longer than expected to write about it. However, the sweet bread was so delicious that I ended up cooking two more for the New Year Eve, and doing them again now, for the Easter Holidays.
- 380ml warm milk (3.5% fat)
- 14g dry yeast
- 2 eggs and 2 yolks
- 150g granulated sugar
- 850g flour
- 1tsp of salt
- grated lemon peel
- 240g soft butter (80% fat)
This is only the list of ingredients for the dough because it's also the one that I'm going to get ready first and then I'll have two more lists of ingredients for the composition and syrup. However, keep in mind that the whole recipe is for 2x Babka Sweet Breads and not only one. So if you are interested in following my recipe, just split the whole ingredients in two and have 190ml of milk, 75g of granulated sugar, 425g of flour and so on.
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I started by boiling the milk for a few seconds just to make it a little bit more warm since I was only getting it from the fridge, where I added 1Tsp of granulated sugar and the dry yeast (14g) and then I mixed everything together until both the sugar and dry yeast dissolved.
When these dissolved, I left the composition to rest for around 5 minutes until there was formed some sort of foam on the surface and then added the rest of the granulated sugar, grated lemon peel, 2 eggs and 2 yolks and mixed everything together.
The next step was adding half of the flour (425g) in a bowl, then add 1tsp of salt over it and mix everything, and then incorporate slowly the composition of milk and eggs prepared before.
Since I don't have a mixing machine this took me a little bit longer than it would take using one where you will need just 5 minutes on medium speed.
As soon as you finish incorporating the liquid composition you can add gradually the rest of the flour (425g).
Personally, I was adding 2-3Tsp of flour, mixing everything for 5 minutes and then adding 3 more Tsp until everything was mixed together.
Even if the dough will be a little bit sticky that's totally fine, because the more you knead the dough, the more elastic it will become.
Personally, I knead the dough for around 1h by hand but if you are using a mixing machine then everything should be ready in maximum 15 minutes.
When the dough assimilated the whole composition from the bowl's walls and it's not sticky anymore, you'll know that you are ready for the next step which is adding 240g of soft butter which should be kept at room's temperature to melt faster.
If you are using a mixing machine, you should incorporate the butter on a low speed so the dough it becomes a lot more elastic after the butter is mixed well.
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The next thing you should do is to get a bigger bowl that you will have to grease with oil so the dough won't stick again, and then let the composition inside to rest at least 1 hour.
I also covered the bowl with food foil to keep it warm and placed it next to a radiator.
Usually, 1 hour is enough for the dough to double its volume but if you are cooking in a colder kitchen then consider letting it rest for one hour and a half.
- 100g milk chocolate
- 100g white chocolate
- 150g butter (80% fat)
- 70g granulated sugar
- 40g cocoa powder
- 250g chopped nuts
-- - 3Tsp granulated sugar
- 50ml water
- the juice from a lemon
The first 6 ingredients represent the cream/filling for the Babka Sweet Breads while the other 3 will be used to create the syrup that will be added at the end.
While the dough was left to rest, I decided to begin cooking the cream by first cutting the chocolate cubes in smaller pieces.
It's important to use cooking chocolate and not the usual chocolate we normally eat because the chocolate used for cooking has more cocoa and contains little or no sugar which is exactly what we need considering that we already have a lot of granulated sugar added in the sweet bread.
Depending on how thick and big the chocolate cubes are, you can skip the step of cutting them in smaller pieces because you will melt everything anyway. For me, it was easier to cut them so they will melt faster.
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I got the chocolate cubes along with 150g of butter, 70g of granulated sugar and 40g of cocoa powder and added everything in a pot that I kept on low heat until everything melted. You can consider sifting the cocoa so there won't be formed lumps in the composition. However, be aware that chocolate can burn so mix the composition from time to time.
While the composition was melting, I started chopping the nuts which you can keep either big or small depending on how you prefer them in the sweet bread.
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As soon as everything melted and there was formed a soft cream, I stopped the fire and left the pot on side while getting the dough out of the bowl and start preparing it for the next step.
As you can see, its volume is a lot bigger than it was when I first left it to rest, so it's a good sign that everything works great so far. 😊
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I added some flour on the table where I put the dough and split the composition in two because it's enough to cook two Babka Sweet Breads.
There is no need to knead the dough anymore but only stretch it with a rolling pin and add from time to time some flour to avoid getting it sticked on either the cooking tool or table.
As soon as everything was stretched enough to have a thin layer of dough, I added half of the cream melted before and half of the nuts chopped which then everything was rolled making sure to have the extremities closed so if the cream is a little bit more liquid, it won't flow outside.
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You can skip this step if you want but having the composition cut in two and then braided is specific to the Babka Sweet Bread which is originally from the Jewish communities of Poland, Russia and Ukraine but it's also popular in Israel.
Anyway, as soon as we have the proper shape used for Babka Sweet Bread, you have to grease the forms that you are going to bake these in with some butter and then let the composition rest for another 30 minutes.
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My cream was a little bit lighter than recommended so the specific swirls of the cake weren't as visible as I wanted. However, if you think there is too much chocolate, you can add cinnamon instead which is another popular flavour for this dessert.
Oh, and don't be afraid of the composition which seems a little bit low for the shapes because they will grow a lot while being in the oven and the results will impress you. 😀
As soon as the last period of waiting passes, you can add the two Babka Sweet Breads in the oven for 45-50 minutes at 170°C with no ventilation, and when they are ready, still while being hot, add the syrup created by mixing 50 ml of water with the juice from a lemon and 3Tsp of granulated sugar, over them.
As you can see, the two sweet breads almost doubled their volume again while being in the oven and they were extremely tasty and delicious.
Preparing + cooking time: 5 hrs
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Don't forget to check out the rest of my posts too, from travelling to gaming, from photography to film reviews and more! ❤️
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