Babkallah

If there’s chocolate involved in a recipe, you already have my attention. The Babkallah took me by surprise, but in the best way possible.

I highly recommend making the Honey Tahini Challah before this recipe if possible. If you know how to master that recipe, this one will come with ease, as it involves similar ingredients and techniques.

I started by warming the milk for a very short amount of time so it became lukewarm. I highly recommend checking the temperature when you have to make sure something is around 105˚ in Dessert Person; I later learned with the Honey Tahini Challah that this played in a role in things taking a turn for the worse. I then poured the milk into a bowl and whisked in active dry yeast, letting it get foamy for about five minutes.

Once the yeast was ready, I whisked in the sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla. Then I added four, salt and butter with a wooden spoon until I had a dough. I placed the dough on a floured surface, kneading for about ten minutes until it was bouncy and smooth. I buttered the inside of a clean bowl, placed the dough inside, covered it with plastic wrap and let it sit for about two hours. It definitely doubled in size after this rise.

Before I took the dough out of the bowl, I combined the chocolate, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl. I used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of chopping a bar of chocolate. I tried to chop the chips up a bit, but had little luck.

I divided the dough into three equal pieces. I rolled each piece to about 12 inches, then flattened each into wide rectangles. After brushing them with melted butter, I sprinkled on the chocolate cinnamon mixture, leaving a little edge on each piece. This is where I quickly realized I’d need to be extra careful with the next steps since the chocolate chips were notably bigger than the rest of the filling mixture.

I slowly but confidently rolled up the rectangles so they were long rolls. Then I transferred them to a parchment lined baking sheet and carefully braided them starting from the top. About midway through, some of the filling came out a little, but I just cinched it as best as possible and tucked those parts underneath. I folded the ends under the braid.

I always get excited at this part when I have a successful, pretty dough braid, but then I have to let it rise again before baking it. The braid rose more for another hour, then I brushed it with egg and sprinkled the crap out of it with demerara sugar. After about 37 minutes in the oven, I had a gorgeous, golden brown braid with hints of chocolate in the seams.

Even though I love chocolate, I don’t usually eat chocolate in a bread dough. I anticipated it would taste similar to Nutella, but it was so much better (no offense, Nutella lovers). It’ s a cross between a great bakery bread and a cinnamon roll. The best part is it’s easy to break pieces off and enjoy it for a few days. I made it for my parents’ visit, and it was a great dessert to have on hand whenever someone needed something sweet to eat.

Claire has not yet made this recipe on her YouTube Channel, however I would recommend watching her video on the Honey Tahini Challah if you need assistance in making the Babkallah. The process of forming the dough is very similar and may be helpful to understand kneading techniques. If she posts about the Babkallah, I will share it here!