Check the page of our friend Alessandra from Odobodo for more inspiration.
Ingredients:
For the dough
- 200 g flour Risciola 1
- 250 g strong white flour
- 7 g dried yeast
- 80 g brown sugar
- 130 g milk
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 90 g room temperature butter
- 2 g salt
For the chocolate cream
- 150 gr dark chocolate
- 100 gr butter
- 10 gr cocoa powder
- 10 gr brown sugar
In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients: flours, sugar, yeast. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, add the milk, the vanilla extract and the salt. Mix together and slowly add to the dry ingredients while starting kneading. When the dough is smooth and consistent add the butter a cube at the time and keep kneading. It will take about 10/15 minutes to incorporate all the butter and get a final homogeneous and elastic dough. You can of course use a stand mixer, in that case the time will be shorter. Once the dough is ready, make a ball out of it and put in a clean bowl with some flour sprinkled at the bottom. Let it rise for about 3 hours (or until doubled in volume).
In the meantime, prepare the chocolate cream. Melt the butter together with the chocolate. Out of the fire, stir in the sugar and the cocoa powder. Keep aside and let it cool down.
When the dough has risen properly, transfer it on a counter and roll it out using a rolling pin. Make a rectangle out of it. Spread the cream on it (the cream has to be quite solid otherwise it will make it very difficult to continue - if too liquid, put it for 10 minutes in the fridge) leaving 1 cm at the edge all around. Brush the empty edges with some water and start rolling the dough from the long side. Once you get a nice and tight roll, use a sharp knife and cut it right to the middle through its length in order to obtain two parts. Braid the two parts keeping always the chocolatey inside facing up. Transfer the babka into a tin loaf and put in a plastic bag, closed, to rise for 40 minutes more (or until it has reached the edge of the tin). Once ready, brush the surface with some egg yolk mixed with a tbsp of milk, sprinkle some brown sugar (optional) and bake it at 175 °C for about 35 minutes in a preheated and not ventilated oven. Remove it from the tin as soon as possible and let it cool down on a grid.
