Chocolate Babka and Jalapeno Garlic Cheese Babka

Chocolate Babka

Jalapeno Garlic Cheese Babka - its like the best spicy garlic cheese bread!

This is a tale of two Babkas, one sweet and one savoury. You can  easily swap out filling to make it your own version. Add chopped nuts and cinnamon sugar, pesto and Parmesan or what about adding olive tapenade to create your delicious speciality. With this one receipt you can divide the dough in half to create 2 small babkas or one large.


You will need:

Dough

• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 pkg yeast (instant or regular)
• 1 egg and 1 egg yolk
• 1 stick butter room temperature =soft
• 2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil

Chocolate filling

• 2 tbsp best extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste
• 1-2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 3 oz semi sweet chocolate chips or milk if you prefer
• 4 oz of best quality dark chocolate chopped finely
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup butter room temperature =soft 

If you want to make a savoury version

leave out the vanilla and sugar in the dough

Jalapeno Garlic Cheese Bread

• 1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella
• 1 finely chopped fresh jalapenos
• 1/2 can sliced canned jalapenos
• 3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 2 green onions

Step 1: in the bowl of a stand mixer add warm milk, 1 tbsp of the sugar (I heat in the microwave for 20 seconds)and vanilla paste. (this is an exceptional product and worth the effort to find in any gourmet speciality shop) Sprinkle the yeast on top and mix for 5 seconds. Let yeast bloom to make sure it's active -wait 5 minutes.

Step 2: add the rest of the sugar, flour, eggs, butter, olive oil and lastly the salt. Mix with the dough hook attachment for 5 minutes until the dough pulls away from the bowl and is a smooth dough. If you find it is too wet you can always a 1/4 cup more flour at a time. Humidity can affect how much flour is necessary so you may need a bit more. The perfect dough should be smooth and not sticky to the touch once it has absorbed as much flour as necessary.

Step 3: remove the paddle and I for some reason always knead the dough a few turns on the counter to feel it in my hands and know that it has enough flour or not. Place the ball back into the bowl and cover to let rise at least 2 hours or overnight in the fridge if you prefer.

Step 4: once the dough has risen, remove from bowl and on a lightly floured surface roll out a large rectangle roughly 10 inches wide facing you (this doesn't have to be exact) 

Step 5: the butter should be very soft and I just spread it evenly over the dough leaving a half inch border around the edges. Sprinkle a few tsps of cinnamon over the butter, then add the brown sugar and two types of chocolate. 

Step 6: then roll up the dough into a long log.

Step 7: with a sharp knife slice the dough lengthwise. Join the two ends together and create a criss cross pattern with the exposed layers on top. 

Step 8: carefully place into a parchment lined loaf pan. If you are making 2 loaves you can slice the long log in half. If you are making one loaf I suggest baking on a cookie to ensure the bread cooks properly in the middle. 

Step 9: let bread rise for a further 30 minutes in the pan as the oven heats up to 350 degrees

Bake approximately 35- 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Let cool....that's the hard part!

Savoury Cheese Babka filling: I take all ingredients (except cheese) and mince finely in a food processor, add cheese and mix all ingredients together then spread onto dough the same as above roll up the dough the same way.

Slice lenghtwise

Criss Cross

Let rise

Devour!