“You can’t show up at someone’s house with Ring Dings and Pepsi”

As I write, trips are being cancelled, sporting events scaled down and anti-bacterial lotion and toilet paper are nearly impossible to find on store shelves.  The threat of Coronavirus (COVID-19) is bringing large chunks of the world’s society to a grinding halt.  But not Sunday dinner.

Sunday dinner doesn’t get cancelled.  Occasionally re-located, but NEVER cancelled.  The constancy is part of the essence of Sunday Dinner.  Two friends had a change of schedules about 6 months ago and haven’t been able to attend since.  Recently, I texted to ask if they would rather not get the invites anymore.  “It’s comforting to know that even though we aren’t there, Sunday Dinner is going on.”

In the current Corona Virus fears and world of cancellations and isolation, we carry on.

So this Sunday, we gathered as usual.  Seized by the desire to try new recipes, my menu contained a heavy Jewish influence.  I would never insult that culture by claiming that the food was authentic, but I sought out a recipe for “Jewish Granny’s Beef Brisket”, a 300 year old recipe for potato latkes deemed to be “the real Megillah”, and a recipe for Chocolate Babka.

Chocolate WHAT?!?

Any Seinfeld fan will remember the episode “The Dinner Party” where Jerry & Elaine have to fight for their right to a Babka they want to take to a dinner party.  Elaine loses out and has to settle for a Cinnamon Babka. “The lesser Babka” in her opinion.  

At our Sunday Dinner, the brisket was blah, the latkes — lackluster, but the Babka….oh, the Babka!  It was chocolate and sweet without being cloy.  Delicate and soft, buttery and gooey, the Babka is more cake than bread.  It was a perfect treat to end our dinner.

So, the next time you are a guest at a dinner party, bring the Babka, not the “lesser Babka”, but the king/queen of Babka—Chocolate.  As Jerry very aptly said, “You can’t beat a Babka.”

And even in these troubled times, Keep Calm….and Wash Your Hands.

Print Recipe

Chocolate Babka

A melt in your mouth dessert bread

Prep Time1 hour hr

Cook Time40 minutes mins

Raising & cooling time4 hours hrs 50 minutes mins

Total Time6 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Keyword: dessert, chocolate, bread

Servings: 2 Loaves

Author: Epicurious December 2006

Cost: $5

Equipment

• Stand mixer with paddle attachment
• 2 (8 3/4 x 4 1/2 by 2 3/4-inch) loaf pans—glass or metal
• Parchment paper

Ingredients

For the Dough

• ¾ cup warm milk (105° – 115°F) whole or reduced fat milk is fine
• ½ cup plus 2 teaspoons sugar
• 3 tsp active dry yeast (2 ¼-oz packages)
• 3¼ Cups flour (all purpose) plus more for dusting
• 2 whole large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tsp pure vanilla exract
• ¾ tsp salt
• 1 ¼ sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter cut into pieces and softened

For Egg Wash

• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp heavy cream

For chocolate filling

• 5 tbsp unsalted butter well softened
• 2 bars (3 ½ to 4-oz) fine-quality bittersweet chocolate no more than 60% cacao, finely chopped
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2 8 ¾ by 4 ½ by 2 ¾-inch loaf pans
• 4 pieces parchment paper

Instructions

Make dough

• Stir together warm milk and 2 teaspoons sugar in bowl of mixer. Sprinkle yeast over mixture and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If the yeast doesn’t foam, discard and start over with new yeast.)
  
• Add 1/2 cup flour to yeast mixture and beat at medium speed until combined. Add whole eggs, yolk, vanilla, salt, and remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low, then mix in remaining 2 3/4 cups flour, about 1/2 cup at a time. Increase speed to medium, then beat in butter, a few pieces at a time, and continue to beat until dough is shiny and forms strands from paddle to bowl, about 4 minutes. (Dough will be very soft and sticky.)
• Scrape dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
  

Assemble Babka with the filling

• Line each loaf pan with 2 pieces of parchment paper (1 lengthwise and 1 crosswise)
• Punch down dough with a lightly oiled rubber spatula, then halve dough. Roll out 1 piece of dough on a well floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into an 18 by 10-inch rectangle and arrange with a long side nearest you.
• Beat together yolk and cream. Spread 2 1/2 tablespoons softened butter on dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border all around. Brush some of egg wash on long boarder nearest you.
• Sprinkle half of the chocolate evenly over buttered dough, then sprinkle with half of sugar (2 tablespoons). Starting with long side farthest from you, roll dough into a snug log, pinching firmly along egg-washed seam to seal. Bring ends of log together to form a ring, pinching to seal. Twist entire ring twice to form a double figure 8 and fit into one of the lined loaf pans.
  
• Make another babka with remaining dough, some of egg wash, and remaining butter and chocolate in same manner. Chill remaining egg wash, covered, to use later. Loosely cover pans with buttered plastic wrap (buttered side down) and let Babka rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until dough reaches top of pans, 1 to 2 hours. (Alternatively, let dough rise in pans in refrigerator 8 to 12 hours; bring to room temperature, 3 to 4 hours, before baking.)
  
• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.
• Brush tops of dough with remaining egg wash. Bake until tops are deep golden brown and bottoms sound hollow when tapped (when loaves are removed from pans), about 40 minutes.
  
• Transfer loaves to a rack and cool to room temperature.
  
• Slice, serve and enjoy!
  

Notes

Babkas keep, wrapped in plastic wrap and then foil, frozen 3 weeks.