It's the second Tuesday of the month and it is time to post for Bread Bakers. Our host for the month Stacy of Food Lust People Love asked us to bake a sweetened yeast bread perfect for Christmas or for the other holidays celebrated during this time of the year. So I baked this chocolate swirl babka. Don't forget to check out what the other bread bakers have baked -- scroll down to the post for the entire list. 
Babka is a broiche like yeast bread from Central and Eastern Europe. It is usually made for Easter in many countries. Traditionally babka does not have any filling and is coated with a vanilla or chocolate flavored icing.
So of course, my chocolate swirl babka is not traditional but it is very very tasty. I used King Arthur flour's dough recipe and David Lebovitz's chocolate filling recipe. This bread needs only 1 rise and the bread can be made in approximately 2 hours. Rolling the dough out and twisting the bread is probably the most time consuming parts of the recipe, other than that this bread is easy as a pie.
KAF's dough is almost like play doh, very smooth and easy to work with. If the dough resists rolling out, then set it aside for 5 minutes so it'll relax and can be rolled easily. Filling has melted chocolate, chopped pecans and some crumbled chocolate wafer cookies (I used Famous brand cookies).
This bread is very decadent, chocolaty and delicious. It is great as a snack with a cup of coffee. It keeps good at room temperature for up to 4 days, freeze it for longer storage.
Check out what other Sweetened Yeast Breads the Bread Bakers made this month:
- American-Style Panettone from Passion Kneaded
- Beehive Bread from Sara's Tasty Buds
- Candied Fruit Sweet Rolls from Cindy's Recipes and Writings
- Chestnut Roll Wreath from Food Above Gold
- Chocolate Cherry Brioche Buns from Baking Sense
- Chocolate Swirl Babka from Cook's Hideout
- Cranberry Sweet Rolls from Food Lust People Love
- Estonian Kringle from I Camp in my Kitchen
- Finnish Nissua Bread from Gayathri's Cook Spot
- Fruit & Nut Sourdough from What Smells So Good?
- Ginger Orange Stollen from SpiceRoots
- Holiday Wreath with Sweet Nut Filling from Hostess At Heart
- Kugelhopf from Ambrosia
- Marzipan Stollen from Palatable Pastime
- St. Lucia Buns from Karen's Kitchen Stories
- Stollen Bread from Sneha's Recipe
- Sweet Milk Dinner Rolls from A Day in the Life on the Farm/
#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page.
We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.
If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to [email protected].
Chocolate swirl babka
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup Wholewheat flour
- 21/2 tsp Instant Yeast
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 11/2 tsp salt
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup Almond milk (or any other dairy or non-dairy milk)
- 2 tbsp Unsalted Butter, soften Use vegan butter for vegan babka
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 11/2 tbsp Egg replacer whisked in 11/2 cups of water (or use 1 large egg yolk)
For the Filling:
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup Dark Chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa powder
- ½ tsp Ground Cinnamon
- ¼ cup Pecans, toasted and chopped
- 3~4 Chocolate wafer cookies, crushed
For the topping
- 3 tbsp Almond Milk
Instructions
Make the Dough:
- Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of the stand mixer. Mix and knead until a smooth dough forms.
- Cover and set the dough aside while you make the filling.
Make the Filling
- Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the sugar and stil until it dissolves completely. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate -- let stand for 1 minute, then stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Stir in the cocoa powder and cinnamon. Set aside.
Shape the Babka:
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to a roughly 20"x12" rectangle.
- Spread the chocolate filling over the dough all the way to the edges. Sprinkle in the chopped nuts and crushed chocolate cookies.
- Starting at one of of the long ends, roll up the dough tightly to make a 20" log.
- Using a sharp knife, cut the dough completely in half lengthwise. Turn the cut sides facing up, take one cut half and fold it over the other. Continue the rope like formation, overlapping and twisting the 2 dough halves, with the rest of the log, always making sure that the cuts sides face up.
- Lightly grease a 9"x5" loaf pan and line it with parchment with a little overhang on two sides.
- Gently lift the twisted loaf and nestle it into the loaf pan. It is bigger than the pan and will take a bit of adjusting to get everything in.
- Cover with a greased plastic wrap and let rise for 45minutes~1hour or until slightly crested over the rim of the pan.
- Preheat the oevn to 350F. Uncover the loaf and brush the top of the bread with the milk.
- Bake for 30~40 minutes or until the sides start to pull away from the pan. Remove the loaf from the oven and after 5 minutes, remove the bread from the pan. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Cindy's Recipes and Writings
Pavani I love how you added nuts and crushed cookies to the filling what a delicious treat to swirl into a chocolate bread!
Priya Srinivasan
Looks super delicious pavani, love your step-by-step pictures!!! 🙂
Eileen
What a great "twist" on babka. A beautiful looking bread.
Karen
That is one stunning loaf of bread! Beautiful job of twisting it! I'm inspired!
Julie
You did a beautiful job Pavani. This bread is just beautiful and who could resist chocolate?
Wendy
Great looking bread Pavani....Don't you just love the recipes you find at the KAF website?
Sarah Reid, CNP (@jo_jo_ba)
YUM. Haven't made babka in years, it is SO good
Namita
Hello Pavani, I liked your babka and fell in love with the filling that seems heavenly. The slices with the filling look tempting!
sharanya
Babka was in to do list for a long time. But I was hesitant to try. Well explained with step by step pictures .
Harri
Wow, that looks amazing. Can't wait to try it.
sneha datar
This is on my to do list from long, now you've inspired me to try it. Love the chocolate in babka.
Karly
Hello, beautiful. This is seriously one of the pretties and most drool-worthy breads I've ever seen- perfection!!!
Fran @ G'day Souffle'
Hello! I just spent almost two days making Uri Scheft's 'Famous Chocolate Babka', which uses laminated dough (time consuming rolling out and rotating the dough, etc). Your babka sounds a lot easier- I'll have to try yours and see if the result is the same (or better)! BTW, I might try to join your blogging group since I am having a great time going through Uri's new cookbook, 'Breaking Breads.'