The interesting thing about babka is you can use any fillings and toppings you like- almost anything can work as a flavor swirl and your tummy and mouth will thank you for all your hard work! Custom babkas are always available in the Ashland Oregon area for pick up or delivery! At-a- distance friends, share any great ideas for babkas in the comments, and maybe a future blog might feature the flavor you dreamt up named after *you*! Fame and immortality never were easier. Exciting! Delicious! Fun! Below are the how-tos for a flavor that we love around here, chocolate chip cookie dough, or in honor of my grandma who was the cookie dough master, the Geri. Each part is like too much of a good thing being just the right thing together. For pictures of the twisting process, please see the greater babka blog post, here. If you would rather just have some right now (my kind of person!) please order from the bakery (Ashland, Oregon delivery only, or pick up available).
cookie dough babka filling
Ingredients
- 6 tbs butter
- 3/4 c light brown sugar
- 1.5 tbs vanilla
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 c golden syrup or corn syrup
- 3/4 c flour
- 1/4 c mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- beat butter in stand mixer
- beat in sugar until fluffy
- beat in remaining ingredients up until chocolate chips, just stir those in
- spread over babka
simple syrup
Ingredients
- 1/2 c sugar
- 1/2 c water
Instructions
- simmer equal parts sugar and water on the stove until sugar is completely dissolved.
Notes
cookie dough streudel topping
Ingredients
- 1/2 c flour
- 1/2 c brown sugar
- 1 pinch kosher salt
- 1/4 c butter (room temperature)
- 1/2 c mini chips
Instructions
- mix all ingredients roughly with a fork in a bowl, it should be clumpy and kind of sandy
babka base
Ingredients
- 1/2 c whole milk
- 1 pack dry active yeast
- 1/2 c sugar
- 4 1/2 c all purpose flour
- 1.5 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 4 eggs
- 10 tbs butter
Instructions
- warm the milk to 110 degrees (even 30 seconds in the microwave sends it up to 130 for me, so make sure to let it cool a bit and use a thermometer so you don't burn your yeast in the following steps!)
- add yeast and a pinch of sugar and set aside for 5 minutes, it should get foamy
- using a dough hook, mix flour, sugar, salt, vanilla, zest, nutmag. add in the milk-yeast mixture and eggs
- add half the butter and mix for 5 minutes
- add the rest of the butter, mix for 5-7 minutes
- the dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl and be able to hold a ball shape
- slip the ball of dough in a greased bowl and let it rest in a warm place for 2 hours, covered with a towel
- punch dough down and place in fridge for 24 hours
- seperate the dough into 2 halves, roll each out to a 9x17'' rectangle and smear with any filling you choose
- place each filled roll in the freezer for 10 minutes
- take them out, slice them up the middle and wrap each slice around like a braid, when you reach the end fold the loaf in half and slip into a loaf pan that has been lined with a parchment paper hammock.
- coat with streusel topping of your choice
- let the loaves proof (if you don't have a proofing drawer, just slip the loaves in an oven with the light on and a pan of hot water on the rack below and the door closed) for about an hour and half
- bake for 50 minutes at 350, the bottom should shound hollow when you take it out
- immediately pierce with a poking thing and drizzle with simple syrup, pull out of parchment hammock and set on cooling rack
