Babka yeast cake
This is a special cake that is traditionally eaten on Saturdays (Shabbat ) in my home.
There is absolutely nothing better than to wake up on Saturday morning for a warm glass of mint-tea and a warm slice of yeast cake, oozing with chocolate... Then another slice and another cup of tea and so on until it’s time for lunch.
Babka comes in many variations. My favourite one is filled with chocolate with a hint of citrus in the dough. Some prefer it with a cinnamon and nut filling, almond cream filling (recipe included), or even cheese and berries.
The dough is extremely versatile and easy to work with and will happily take on any filling of your choice. When making a batch, I like to bake one cake and keep one well wrapped in the freezer. It will stay good for a couple of months and you can defrost and bake when needed. Slow rise is best for this dough so if you can, let it rise in the fridge overnight, you’ll get so much more flavour from the yeast fermentation.
Now, let's delve into the microbial magic happening within that dough – the fermentation.
So, what's the science? The yeast (often our friend Saccharomyces cerevisiae in baking) actively consumes the available sugars from the flour and any you've added. As they metabolise the sugars, they produce ethanol and carbon dioxide (CO2).
While the ethanol contributes to the aroma and largely evaporates during baking, the CO2 gas is trapped by the dough's gluten structure.
This is what creates those lovely air pockets, causing the dough to rise and giving your babka its characteristic light, airy texture.
That 'so much more flavour' you get from a slow, cold rise? It's because at cooler temperatures, the yeast work more slowly and produce a broader array of complex flavour compounds (like organic acids and esters) beyond just CO2 and ethanol, leading to a richer, more nuanced taste in your final bake.
Ingredients
Dough:
500g flour
8g instant dry yeast
50g sugar
½ tsp salt
1¼ cups orange juice or milk
100g butter, soft
1 egg
2 egg yolks
Chocolate filling:
200g butter
200g dark chocolate
50g cacao powder
100g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cornflour
¼ tsp salt
Sugar syrup:
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup water
1 tsp lemon juice
Assembly:
1 egg, beaten, for egg wash
Method
Dough
Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a mixer bowl
Using a dough hook, start kneading on low speed and add the rest of the ingredients
Slightly increase the mixer speed to medium low and keep kneading for approximately 10 minutes until the dough separates from the sides of the bowl and sticks to the bottom of the bowl
Grease a small bowl. Roll the dough into a ball and transfer to the bowl
Cover with a damp towel or cling wrap and leave to rise in the fridge overnight
If you are in a hurry, you can let it rise in a warm place for approximately 90 minutes or until it doubles in size
Chocolate filling
Make sure to prepare the filling about an hour before the assembly of the cake, as hot filling will melt the dough
Melt the butter and the dark chocolate together in a microwave or using a Bain Marie until a smooth consistency is obtained
Add the cacao powder, sugar, vanilla extract, cornflour and salt
Mix everything until a smooth consistency is obtained
Cover the bowl and let it cool on the counter
Sugar syrup
Place all ingredients in a small pot
Bring to the boil and cook on a low heat for 7-10 minutes
Let the syrup cool
Assembly and filling
Divide the dough into 2 (or 4) equal parts, each part will make one chocolate cake
Roll each dough portion into a rectangle ½ cm thick
Brush each part with a generous amount of chocolate filling
Starting at the long edge of the rectangle, tightly roll up each dough square into a tight log
Using a sharp knife or a metal scraper, cut in the middle (crossways) and roll into a roulade
Braid a screw-shaped braid and place in an elongated baking pan
Let it rise for about 30 min
Preheat the oven to 180°C
Brush with egg wash and bake for 25-30 minutes
Once the cakes are out of the oven, brush with sugar syrup and let cool down at room temperature