Busy Hands, Calm Mind: Chocolate Babka as Therapy

Doing something out of the ordinary may help right now.

It’s February 2021, and while the world is busy dealing with political pantomime and soaring infection rates globally, things in my home have been pretty low-key, with the same things happening every day.

Perhaps you feel the same?

Chocolate babka. source: The Woodbine Online

With lockdown firmly in place here in Ireland and no end in sight, it’s difficult to keep bright and cheery. Hospitalizations have never been higher, and it will be a long time before enough people have been vaccinated to consider a return to mingling crowds and bustling coffee shops.

The days pass easily around here.

I’m a creature of habit, so I end up doing similar things each day. Wake up around the same time, exercise around the same time, walk my dog, work, cook, watch tv, go to sleep to do it all again tomorrow.

Routine is keeping me sane, but we creatures of habit need to be careful not to let structure become another cage in a world in which so many of us are feeling boxed-in, cooped up.

source: Giphy

So I broke with routine and made babka.

Melissa Clark’s recipe on the New York Times Cooking website is very informative; it even has a helpful video! I’m not sure where Melissa lives or what time of year her recipe was written, but it assumes you have a warm kitchen. A really warm kitchen.

Probably not a kitchen in a 200-year-old house with foot-thick granite walls. In February.

It directs you to allow the fudge to settle at room temperature — I could hardly stick a spoon in it. The direction to freeze the dough logs for 10 minutes also assumes that the dough needs to cool after being handled — freezing mine resulted in a stubbornly solid fudge and difficulty forming braids from the inflexible dough.

I should have listened to my dough. She always tells you what she needs.

Chocolate babka ingredients. source: The Woodbine Online

Room-temperature mishaps aside, the babka turned out amazing. We ate the entire first loaf, still warm with some runny homemade custard.

The second one has been sliced and eaten with cups of tea at all times of day (mainly by me. I spent two days making it. You best believe I’m going to enjoy every buttery bit of it).

The swirls of chocolatey fudge and clusters of intense cocoa streusel on top are enveloped by the warm, buttery, aromatic brioche dough. Slices fall apart into obliging bitesize chunks. A stale loaf practically begs to be smothered in custard and baked up into a bread-and-butter pudding.

Making babka is definitely a project, but it’s certainly not a chore.

Chocolate babka loaf. source: The Woodbine Online

Each step is quite straightforward; there just happens to be a lot of steps. You can certainly streamline the process — I plan to play around with simpler fillings and toppings, for example.

But if you’re stuck at home or just looking to break from the ordinary, this recipe will not disappoint.

*This recipe was originally published on The Woodbine Online.

Adapted for a colder house from Melissa Clark’s recipe on NYT Cooking. The fudge filling, streusel topping, and syrup can all be made a couple of days in advance and stored in a cool place. This recipe makes two loaves — freeze one for a gratifying treat at a later date.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• ½ cup/118 milliliters whole milk
• 1 package (1/4 ounce/7 grams) active dry yeast
• ⅓ cup/67 grams granulated sugar, plus a pinch
• 4 ¼ cups/531 grams all-purpose flour, more as needed
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (optional)
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
• 10 tablespoons/140 grams unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing bowls and pans

For the fudge filling:

• ½ cup/100 grams granulated sugar
• ¾ cup/177 milliliters cream
• Pinch salt
• 6 ounces/170 grams extra bittersweet chocolate, preferably between 66 and 74 percent cocoa, coarsely chopped
• 8 tablespoons/112 grams/1 stick unsalted butter, diced, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons/10 milliliters vanilla extract

For the chocolate streusel:

• ½ cup/60 grams all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons/45 grams granulated sugar
• 1 ½ tablespoons/11 grams cocoa powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 4 ½ tablespoons/64 grams unsalted butter, melted
• ⅓ cup/60 grams mini semisweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

For the syrup:

• ⅔ cup/135 grams granulated sugar

Method:

1. Prepare the dough: In a small saucepan or a bowl in the microwave, warm the milk until it’s lukewarm but not hot. Add yeast and a pinch of sugar and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes, until slightly foamy.
2. In an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook or in a food processor, mix flour, 1/3 cup sugar, salt, vanilla, lemon zest (if using), and the nutmeg. (If you don’t have a mixer or processor, use a large bowl and a wooden spoon.) Beat or process in the yeast mixture and eggs until the dough comes together in a soft mass, about 2 minutes. If the dough sticks to the side of the bowl and doesn’t come together, add a tablespoon more flour at a time until it does, beating very well in between additions.
3. Add half the butter and beat or pulse until the dough is smooth and elastic, 3 to 5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed. Beat in the rest of the butter and continue to beat or pulse until the dough is smooth and stretchy, another 5 to 7 minutes. Again, if the dough sticks to the sides of the bowl, add additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time.
4. Butter a clean bowl, form the dough into a ball and roll it around in the bowl, so all sides are buttered. Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let it rise in a warm, draft-free place (inside of a turned-off oven with the oven light on is good) until it puffs and rises, about 1 to 2 hours. It may not double in bulk, but it should rise.
5. Press the dough down with your hands, re-cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight.
6. Prepare the filling: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar, cream, and salt. Simmer, occasionally stirring, until sugar completely dissolves, about 5 minutes. Place chocolate, butter, and vanilla in a large bowl, then pour the sugary cream on top and stir until smooth. Let cool to room temperature. The filling can be made up to a week ahead and stored, covered in the fridge.
7. Prepare the streusel: In a bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Stir in melted butter until it is evenly distributed and forms large, moist crumbs. Stir in the chocolate chips. Streusel can be prepared up to 3 days ahead and stored, covered in the fridge.
8. Prepare the syrup: In a small saucepan, combine sugar and 2/3 cup/158 milliliters water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then simmer for 2 minutes, occasionally stirring until the sugar dissolves.
9. Butter two 9-inch loaf pans, then line with parchment paper, leaving 2 inches of paper hanging over on the sides to use as handles later.
10. Remove dough from refrigerator and divide in half. On a floured surface, roll one piece into a 9-by-17-inch rectangle. Spread with half the filling (there’s no need to leave a border). If your fudge is cold and difficult to spread, soften it in 5-second spurts in the microwave, stirring between each time until the consistency is shiny and easy to stir but not too melty.
11. Starting with a long side, roll into a tight coil. Transfer the coil onto a dish towel or piece of plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge while you repeat with the other piece of dough.
12. Slice one of the dough coils in half lengthwise to expose the filling. Twist the halves together as if you were braiding them, then fold the braid in half, so it’s about 9 inches long. Place into a prepared pan, letting it curl around itself if it’s a little too long for the pan. Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until puffy (it won’t be quite double). Alternatively, you can cover the pans with plastic wrap and let them rise in the refrigerator overnight; bring them back to room temperature for an hour before baking.
13. When you’re ready to bake, heat the oven to 350F / 180C / 160C fan. Use your fingers to clump streusel together and scatter all over the tops of the cakes. Transfer to oven and bake until a tester goes into the cakes without any rubbery resistance and comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes. The cakes will also sound hollow if you unmold them and tap on the bottom. An instant-read thermometer will read between 185 and 210 degrees F.
14. As soon as the cakes come out of the oven, use a skewer or paring knife to pierce them all over, going all the way to the bottom of the cakes, and then pour the syrup on top of the cakes, making sure to use half the syrup for each cake.
15. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before serving. Or, if you can’t wait, slice fall-apart warm slices and eat messily with custard or ice cream.