Chocolate Babka: The Superior Babka
If you’ve ever seen the popular Seinfeld episode featuring chocolate babka, you know that nothing (not even cinnamon babka!) tops this coveted, chocolate rippled treat. Sweet, tender and perfectly enriched with eggs, sugar, and butter, this bread is worth all the hype–it’s completely irresistible! Unlike Jerry and Elaine though, you don’t have to stand in a long bakery line for your chocolate babka. You can make it right in your own kitchen 🎉 Babka is like a beautiful hybrid between cake and bread. It’s quite different from most yeast breads, with a tender, dense, and cakey texture rather than a light and airy, open crumb. On the other hand, it’s also more dense than a traditional cake. So it’s really a nice mix between the two.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Impressive, bakery-style look and taste that anyone can achieve at home. No fancy ingredients; we’re keeping things simple, you don’t even need bread flour for this recipe. Includes step-by-step photos and instructions, plus a how-to video. Even if you’re a beginner, you’ve got this! You can make it by hand or with a stand mixer and a dough hook. I personally prefer using a stand mixer though, as this allows for a sticker dough and more tender chocolate babka.
Ingredients
As with most enriched breads (like my sweet bread and cinnamon rolls), there are quite a few ingredients needed to make this chocolate babka.
Flour. Similar to many of my yeast recipes, this recipe lists a range of flour instead of a set amount. This is because your kitchen, the weather, and so many other factors will affect how much flour you will ultimately need to add. You’ll know your dough has enough flour when it is still sticky, but starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Watch my video below for visual cues on this. Instant yeast. I tried this chocolate babka recipe with both instant and active dry yeast, and I preferred instant. Note that 1 ¼ teaspoon is less than a full packet, so don’t just dump in the whole packet! Egg + egg yolk. Two whole eggs and an extra egg yolk enrich our dough and make it tender and moist. If you don’t want to waste your extra egg white, use it for candied pecans. Milk. I prefer whole milk and recommend you use the same if you can, though any milk technically will work here. Make sure your milk is between 100-105F–if it’s too hot, it will kill your yeast! Chocolate. Some people like to use Nutella for their chocolate babka filling (reminds me of my Nutella stuffed cookies!), but I am using a more traditional homemade chocolate filling. You’ll need a chopped chocolate bar for this; I prefer 60% cacao, but you could also use semisweet chocolate.
SAM’S TIP: A teaspoon of cinnamon in the filling would be delicious, if you like chocolate and cinnamon together (if you like that combo, check out my chocolate rolls!). This is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Chocolate Babka
Prep the Dough
SAM’S TIP: The dough can be made by hand as shown, but this is actually one recipe where it’s really nice to use a stand mixer if you have one (with the dough hook attachment). The babka simply turns out best when the dough is still a bit sticky/tacky and just slightly too difficult to work by hand, and a stand mixer makes it possible/easier to achieve this.
Filling
Twisting/Baking
SAM’S TIP: Don’t transfer the chocolate babka out of the pan right away or it could fall apart. Give it about 30 minutes, then remove. You don’t want to cut into it right away either; it’s best to let it cool completely if you can. I will admit, it tastes best when it’s still just a little warm from the oven though 😉 Leave me a comment below if you’d like to see a cinnamon babka recipe 😄 Enjoy! Let’s bake together! Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified of all the newest recipes, and find my free recipe tutorials on YouTube 💜
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