Food & Wine

The best chocolate babka recipe

sliced chocolate babka on wooden cutting board next to knife

Lou Sanz and Shannon Thirumal

Posted July 20, 2021

Move over sourdough. An Eastern European favourite, babka is this winter's must-master recipe. 

Recognisable by its distinct swirl, babka is a sweet and delectable pull-apart bread filled with fudgy chocolate (sometimes cinnamon, fruit and cheese) layers. With its origins stemming from family traditions, babka is the perfect food to tempt you during cold days at home. Head Pastry Chef Shannon Thirumal from RACV Cape Schanck shares the Resort's recipe for the best chocolate babka for you to master. 

plate of chocolate babka with bowl of chocolate sauce on a wooden table

Pastry and chocolate - who could ask for more?

How to make chocolate babka

Serves

6 to 8

Time to make

1.5 hours

Difficulty

Intermediate

Ingredients

Dough

  • 625 g baker’s flour
  • 70 g caster sugar
  • 12  g salt
  • 5 g mixed spice
  • 22 g dried yeast
  • 1 egg
  • 315 g milk
  • 100 g soft butter (unsalted)

 

Filling

  • 25 g icing sugar
  • 15 g cocoa powder
  • 65 g dark chocolate (melted)
  • 60 g butter (unsalted)
  • 60 g chocolate chips

Sugar Syrup

  • 60 g water
  • 50 g sugar

Method

For the dough

  1. Preheat oven to 180c
  2. Grease loaf tin with butter
  3. Place all the dry ingredients and butter into a mixer using a hook attachment
  4. Next, mix the milk and eggs and add to the mix. Mix until the dough is developed (around 10 to 12 mins on medium speed)
  5. Let the dough rest for 10 mins
  6. Roll dough out to a 5 mm thickness and in a rectangle shape
  7. Make the chocolate filling (see instructions) and spread it on the dough
  8. Roll out lengthways like a pinwheel, cut lengthways, and pleat the 2 sides and squish it into a loaf pan
  9. Bake at 180c for 25 min, or until golden brown
  10. Pour the sugar syrup (see instructions) over the babka and bake for another 5 min
  11. Spread the remaining chocolate sauce on top while the babka is still hot

For the chocolate filling

  1. Melt the butter and mix with the chocolate chips
  2. Heat until melted, then add in the sugar and cocoa powder
  3. Set aside to let cool until it becomes a spreadable consistency

Sugar Syrup

  1. Combine and heat the water and sugar over a medium flame
  2. When the babka is still in the oven, pour the syrup over and bake for a further 5 minutes (refer to dough instructions)

To serve

Serve as is, warm

Alternate versions

To make it that little fancier, you can fill the insides with the following before rolling:

  • Toasted nuts
  • Chocolate chips
  • Toasted coconut