Chocolate Babka

A staple among Jewish desserts, babka is a sweet, braided bread. While you can make babka with a variety of fillings, including cinnamon, fruit, and cheese, the most popular type is chocolate, of course! It takes a little extra time to make this recipe, but the result is so worth it! The soft, sweet bread is only made more delicious by our premium cacao, included in this recipe not once, but twice! This extra chocolatey bread has both our our Milk Chocolate Chips and Organic Cacao Powder. This delicious dessert will leave your house smelling extra sweet and is the perfect treat to share with family and friends. This recipe can make two large loaves of babka so if you’re not planning on sharing, we recommend you halve the recipe!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 cup of granulated sugar
• 3 teaspoons of yeast
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 3 eggs
• ½ cup of water
• 18 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 10 oz of KakaoZon Milk Chocolate Chips (or your favorite KakaoZon Chocolate Chips, dark chocolate also works wonderfully!)
• 1/3 cup of KakaoZon Cacao Powder

Steps:

1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, ½ cup of sugar, yeast, and salt until evenly distributed
2. Add the eggs and water and continue mixing
3. Gradually add 10 tablespoons of butter kneading the dough as it is added, once all the butter is added and the dough is an elastic consistency. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 6 hours (we recommend leaving it in there overnight!)
4. In a pot over medium heat, add the chocolate chips, cacao powder, ½ cup of sugar, and 8 tablespoons of butter
5. Allow this mixture to melt together, occasionally stirring to prevent it from sticking
6. Allow the dough to sit out of the fridge for at least 40 minutes before shaping into loaves. To begin, flatten the dough into a long rectangle (or 2 smaller rectangles)
7. Spread the chocolate mixture evenly on top of the dough
8. Roll the dough lengthwise, pitching the ends of the roll to seal
9. Cut the dough in half lengthwise so that you end up with 2 long stretches of dough
10. Prepare your bread pan(s) with butter and/or parchment paper
11. Twist the 2 pieces of dough and cut/shape to the appropriate size for your bread pan. Once the dough is in the pan(s), cover with a towel and allow the bread to rise in a warm place for 45 minutes
12. Preheat the oven to 375 F
13. Bake about half an hour or until the bread begins to turn golden brown! This recipe can make two 9-inch loaves of babka! That’s plenty to enjoy and share!

By Rebeca Gonzalez. Video by Sophia Malcoyannis. Based on Recipe by Momsdish