2016 was the year of the babka!
Surfing around the blogosphere you can find lots of blogs and magazines writing about this traditional jewish… bread? brioche?
A babka it’s a buttery rich brioche, marbled with chocolate or nuts and topped with streusel.
It’s a traditional easter Polish dessert, nowdays produced in lots of New York bakeries, with many variations.
I never found and tasted a babka in Italy and I was so curious about it… so I tried this recipe. I can’t tell you how much this Babka is close to the real one… but it’s really delicious.
Here the recipe for two For 2 babkas
Ingredients:
500 gr. (17.6 oz) strong flour (in Italy I use W330) – 2 teaspoons instant dried yeast – 150 gr. (5.2 oz) soft unsalted butter – 80 gr. (2.8 oz) sugar – 250 ml (8.8 oz) full fat milk – 2 eggs – 1 teaspoon salt
Streusel topping: 30 gr. (1 oz) sugar – 40 gr. (1.4 oz) all purpose flour – 40 gr. (1.4 oz) unsalted butter
Put the milk and the yeast in the bottom of the bowl of the stand mix. Dissolve the yeast and let it rest for 10 minutes. Add flour, sugar and the eggs and mix at medium speed until it’s incorpored into a dough. Turn to the lower speed and add the butter a little bit at time.
Mix for about 10 minutes. medium – low speed, until all the butter is well incorpored, scraping the bowl down a couple of times.
Put the dough in and oiled bowl, cover with cling film and refrigerate overnight.
Divide the dough into 2 parts and rolling out into a rectangle 30×50 cm (11 x 19 inch)
Spread with you favourite cream ( chocolate chips and nutella, dulce del leche etc)
Roll the dough up with the filling into a long, tight cigar. Cut it in half lenghtwise and leave them them next to each other.
Pinch the tops together and form a twist. Make the same with the rest of the dough and transfer the babka in two loaf pans, buttered and floured.
Cover and leave to rise for about 2 hours, room temperature.
During this time prepare the topping mixing together all the ingredients, working with the tips of your fingers until you will have some crumbs.
Heat oven to 375°F (190°C). Spread the topping all over the babka and bake for 30 minutes.
**the filling of the bakba tin the picture is made mixing unsalted butter, brown sugar, chopped nuts and maple syrup
My first babka
