I was going to save this recipe for some cooler weather, but it was just nagging at me to make it already, so I decided that I'd make use of the fridge and freezer's ability to slow down the activity of the lively yeast that provides the leavening, and give it a crack over a few days. First, I had to come to terms with the sheer AMOUNT of chocolate, butter, and sugar in the recipe. It didn't really hit me until I converted the measurements to metric, and then I was all, 1 kilo of chocolate?! I hit Sweet As to see what kind of chocolate I could pick up in quantity, and ran with the idea of using dark chocolate Toblerone. X was a little bit up and down fevery all day, but he let me wheel him around the shops to gather the rest of the ingredients, and when he was down for his afternoon nap, the dough was made, the chocolate was chopped (yay for the food processor!), and the crumble topping also came together.
My comprehension skills were kind of a bit frazzled, because I ended up chucking in three whole eggs, instead of just two with the two extra yolks, which explained why my dough was so ridiculously sticky and impossible to handle, until I added some extra flour to compensate. Not having had real babka before, I couldn't say whether this drastically altered the desired texture/taste, but it seemed to work out OK, with an appropriately sweet-buttery-eggy bread and insane amounts of chocolate filling! I also have no idea why I've decided to learn about baking with yeast as leavening agent by picking these crazy recipes involving lots of extra stuff (maybe not as much extra work as such, just extra variables to potentially wreak havoc), instead of trying with something nice and easy (and potentially less wasteful if it turns out to be a mess!), but it didn't turn out to be a disaster despite my efforts, and I've still got 8 mini-loaves waiting to be baked! At least, the reviews of many babkas over at Serious Easts at least reassures me that what I baked at least bears a passing resemblance to the real deal - I might well try again when the weather's more appropriate! (AND I'll halve the recipe so I don't end up with babkas everywhere!). Hmmm, better stop rambling and get on with the recipe before I fall asleep on the keyboard!
Continue reading Chocolate Babka.

