Is there any bake more striking than a chocolate babka? The dramatic swirls make for the most eye-catching centrepiece and I’ve really wanted to make a beautiful dairy-free, egg-free and nut-free babka for quite a while. This vegan chocolate bread is definitely one to make people gasp with delight when it arrives at the table!
Traditionally a babka used a brioche style enriched dough but here i’ve used my cinnamon bun dough which actually gives a wonderful result. The fact that I use less fat in my dough means the swirls shine out and the whole loaf is less overwhelming!
Despite the dramatic and intricate look of a babka they’re pretty easy to make. You make the dough as you would for cinnamon buns, roll it out, spread on the filling and then roll up into a cylinder. The cylinder is then sliced lengthwise so the layers are exposed and then the two pieces are placed in a cross, with each end folded over each other so you end up this a twisted loaf.
This is then placed in a loaf tin to rise, before baking and then glazing with a sugar syrup to produce a lovely shiny finish.
This babka is best eaten fresh or in a couple of days as it will go stale, but that shouldn’t be a problem when it’s this delicious and tempting!
Chocolate Babka
Equipment
- 2lb loaf tin
Ingredients
- 150 ml dairy-free milk
- 50 g dairy-free margarine
- 260 g strong bread flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 g or 1 tsp dried yeast
- 50 g caster sugar
- for the filling:
- 50 g dairy-free butter
- 75 g caster sugar
- 50 g dairy-free chocolate
- 20 g cocoa powder
- 1 tsp cornflour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Melt the margarine into the milk (don’t make it more than tepid though)
- Place the flour, salt, yeast and caster sugar in a bowl and pour in the warmed milk and margarine mixture.
- Bring to a dough and knead until smooth and bounces back when you press a finger onto the surface.
- Place in an oiled bowl, cover, and leave to double in size in a warm place.
- Meanwhile make the filling: Gently melt together the butter, caster sugar and chocolate. Mix together the vanilla and cornflour. Add the cornflour mix and the cocoa powder to the melted chocolate mixture and stir over the heat until he mixture has thickened a little. Transfer to a bowl, cover and leave to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees fan
- Roll out the dough to a rectangle 20cm wide by 30 cm tall
- Spread the filling over the entire rolled out dough, then roll up from the bottom edge until you have a nice tight cylinder. Using a sharp knife or a pizza roller, cut down the length of the cylinder and turn the sides so the cut seam is facing up. Place in a cross formation and then twist each end so you have a twisted rope effect.
- Place in a lined loaf tin, cover and leave to rise again for at least an hour.
- Bake for 15 minutes at 180 and then lower the temp to 160 for a further 15 minutes.
- It will be well risen and golden when done. Then remove from the tin
- Make the glaze and brush over the warm loaf
