It’s lovely, she said, quickly noting it was kind of fussy to make, so much work for what it was. The dough was denser than she had hoped, and she wondered if she could use her challah dough recipe as a base, spread it with a chocolate filling or Nutella, and shape it like babka. Tucking into my slice, happy as ever, it sounded like a plan to me. For the next few days, Holly and I texted back and forth, sharing photos and thoughts on our various experiments. In the end, we settled on adding orange zest and vanilla to her challah recipe otherwise making no other changes. And we used the chocolate filling from Jerusalem’s chocolate krantz cake recipe, which Smitten Kitchen made last fall. Finally, in place of water in the sugar syrup that the babkas get soaked in upon emerging from the oven, we used fresh-squeezed orange juice. I had never made babka before last week. I have never made krantz cakes either. But I love this hybrid — can’t stop eating it 🍞🍞 🍫🍫🍊🍊 Hope you love it as much as I!
How to Make Babka
The dough for this babka recipe is Holly’s Challah with the addition of orange zest and vanilla:
After you mix the dough, let it rise till it doubles in volume:
Once doubled, divide the dough into two equal portions; then roll each portion out into a 12X15-inch rectangle.
Meanwhile, make the chocolate filling by melting butter with chocolate; then adding cocoa and confectioners’ sugar:
Spread half of the filling over each rectangle half; then…
… roll up into a coil. Note: As you can see here, the light is dramatically different from the above and below photos. Know this: at any point of the process, you can stick the dough in the fridge and pick up where you left off in the morning.
When ready to shape, cut each coil in half; then cut off an inch or so of each end.
Coil the two halves into a spiral and transfer to prepared loaf pans (see video for better guidance at this step.) Let rise at room temperature until the dough fills the pan and feels soft and spring to the touch.
Bake at 375ºF until golden, about 25 minutes.
While the babka bakes, make a glaze with sugar and freshly squeezed orange juice. This gets brushed over the freshly baked babka loaves.
Day old babka, toasted… heaven!
Mini loaf made with dough ends:
4.9 from 33 reviews
A few notes:
If you want more guidance making the dough, check out the Holly’s Challah post first. You can use at least one cup of whole wheat flour or white whole wheat flour in the dough. (Holly always does.) To create lukewarm water: use ¼ cup boiling water and ¾ cup cold water, which will give you perfect lukewarm water. To create a warm place for your bread to rise: Heat your oven for 1 minute, then shut it off. It doesn’t matter what temperature you set it to when you heat it; the key is to only allow it to heat for 1 minute. This brief blast of heat will create a cozy, draft-free spot for your bread to rise. To break up the process a bit, you can stop after you roll the dough into coils or when you place the shaped loaves into the loaf pans, cover the pans with plastic wrap, and place in fridge. The following morning, if your dough is in coils, simply proceed with the recipe; if your dough is in the pans, bring it to room temperature — make sure dough feels soft to the touch and is filling the pan — before proceeding with the recipe.
