Enough With Meager Chocolate Swirls
I want an offensive amount of chocolate.
If my bread has any chocolate in it, that bread had better read as a thinly disguised chocolate dessert. “Smothered” should be the descriptive word floating through my head as I eat it. It’s a bizarre thing to be passionate about, but too often I’ve had enriched breads, lightly studded with chocolate chips or striped with a meager swirl that doesn’t satisfy my expectations. If you feel the same way, we’ve got your back on this one, because our Chocolate and Tahini Babka is bursting at the seams with rich chocolate filling.
Originally, babkas were oil-based, enriched breads, made to ensure the bread was kosher, but this recipe fits into the modernized babka category—a buttery, soft, milk- and egg-boosted bread. We fill ours with a deeply chocolatey mixture that's fortified with a healthy dose of tahini paste. While the tahini doesn’t dominate the flavor of the finished bread (like peanut butter might), the sesame oils adds incredible depth and richness. You’ll be seeking out the slices where the filling pooled and baked into a chocolatey hunk on the pan.
This one is a baking project for sure, but it’s worth it. If you plan accordingly, you’ll get two behemoth babkas out of this recipe from the effort it takes to make one. This recipe starts out predictably: Bloom the yeast in the liquid ingredients, combine that with the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl, add the butter and knead it all together with a dough hook until a sticky mass forms. Bulk proof the dough for about an hour, then cover it up and let it sleep overnight in the fridge.
Shaping right, even when it feels wrong
Now comes the tricky part of babka baking: shaping. You can tell just by looking at it that it’s not your average swirl. A well-made babka looks like a double helix of chocolate ribbons, and it’s not always an intuitive process. Split the chilled dough in half and make two rectangles, very much as if you’re making cinnamon rolls. Cover the surfaces with the sweet chocolate-tahini filling and a sprinkle of finely chopped, bittersweet chocolate. Roll the rectangles into two logs (again, just like you would with a cinnamon roll) and let them sit with the seam-side down. This is where you leave everything you know about filled breads behind. Put one log on a big cutting board. Slice the entire log in half lengthwise. Yes, long-ways. It’s not going to feel natural, but you have to go for it. Use a big knife, ideally one with a deep heel so you can press down and not have the handle smooshing into the dough. You’ll have two halves with the interior layers completely exposed.
Turn the halves so the exposed side is facing the ceiling. Pull one rope end over the other to make an X.
If you put the left-side of rope over the right, now you’ll lift and place the “new” left-side end over the right again. Do this until you run out of material, about two or three times on one end. Rotate the cutting board and do the same to the other end to complete the twist.
This part gets messy. You'll need it to fit into a loaf pan, and right now it’s way too long. Pinch the two ends loosely with your fingers and compress the swirl inward. Don’t be shy, you won’t ruin it. Hold it the same way—pressing inward with both hands gripping the ends—and lift it up and into the loaf pan. Try to do it all in one quick movement.
Now repeat this shaping method with the other rope of dough. It’s a built-in second chance, if things didn’t go well the first time. One thing that babka gives you back (besides a wonderful snack) is that no matter how lopsided or weird it looks when it gets in the pan, that thing’ll be a stunner when it comes out of the oven. This loaf does not get an egg wash, partly because it would be a mess trying to brush it on with the chocolate filling, and partly because extra browning and shine are unnecessary (read on for why). Instead, we finish the bread with simple syrup flavored with instant espresso. Do this when the bread is fresh out of the oven—this helps the syrup cool into a thin shiny lacquer without being overly sticky to the touch. She is tall. She is impressive.But the important thing is that this babka is actually chocolatey. Each slice has a thick ripple of dark, rich chocolate filling so you’re never biting into plain bread. With all that in mind, don’t ever cut this recipe in half. Not because it won’t work, but because you’ll be grateful you have two in the end.
For more on the sweeter side of bread, try these:
Baking Tip of the Week: Call in the foil sheet
Browning is one of the five signals we use to test for doneness in a recipe, but you can’t rely on color alone. Pies often brown on the top crust quickly while the bottom crust is still raw. A babka like this browns early on in the bake time as well. It’s not only baked in a deep loaf pan, it’s filled with a gooey syrup that delays baking in the center. If you took this bread out of the oven based on color, you’d slice into a raw center. Enriched breads, like our babka here, are filled with eggs, butter, and sugar—all things that brown or caramelize readily at 350°F, that’s why we don’t need an egg wash too.
About 15 minutes into the 30-minute initial bake time, I saw the top was well-puffed and golden brown. This worried me. I knew 15 to 25 minutes remained—was I on the way to burning my loaves? Call in the foil sheet. After the first 30 minutes, our recipe indicates lightly draping a piece of foil over each loaf. This metallic sheet will protect the well-browned top and reflect some of the energy so it doesn’t burn in the last 10 minutes.
Why not put it on earlier? Well, you don’t want to interrupt the growth of the loaf and you certainly don’t want the beautiful swirl to bake into the foil. Plus, browning is important so you want to get all that first—a well-risen loaf, and even cooking with some nice color—and then protect it at the very end. Babkas are only the beginning. You can use the foil sheet trick whenever you see your baked goods are far enough along on their color but still need time to bake through in the center. Just be sure to add it quickly so you don’t let too much heat out of the oven, as this could interfere with the rise.
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Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
Allie Chantorn Reinmann is a Digital Staff Writer for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street. She’s a Thai-American chef who earned her diploma for Pastry and Baking Arts at The Institute of Culinary Education and worked professionally for over a decade honing her craft in New York City at places like Balthazar, Bien Cuit, The Chocolate Room, Billy’s Bakery and Whole Foods. Allie took her know-how from the kitchen to the internet, writing about food full-time at Lifehacker for three years and starting her own YouTube channel, ThaiNYbites. You can find her whipping up baked goods for cafés around Brooklyn, building wedding cakes and trying her hand (feet?) at marathon running. She’s working on her debut cookbook and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
