What do you do if you are craving chocolate babka but don’t have eight ounces of bittersweet chocolate in your pantry?
Make your own “chocolate” with coconut oil, cocoa powder, and sugar. Then add some traditional ingredients: cinnamon and chopped walnuts.
Why coconut oil and not butter? Like the cocoa butter it replaces, coconut oil is a plant-derived saturated fat that remains solid at room temperature. Cocoa butter and coconut oil are similar in texture and appearance.
My five year old twins, huge babka fans and possibly the world’s harshest food critics, not only approve of this filling, but claim it’s even better than the original!
What is babka? Babka is an Ashkenazi Jewish pastry with origins in Russia, Poland, or Ukraine. Babka dough is enriched with egg, butter, and milk, lending it a soft, cake-like texture. Its closest cousins are brioche and challah. Read more about babkas (and their many variations, including “pizza babka”) over at Food52.
Babka baked three ways: In The Modern Baker, one of my all-time favorites cookbooks, pastry chef Nick Malgieri, founder of the baking & pastry program at ICE culinary school, writes that home cooks historically baked babkas in bundt pans and professional bakers prepared them in loaf pans (I recommend this one.)
I experimented with a third method, slightly underbaking a roll of dough in a Pyrex pie pan. The result is a flatter-than-normal babka (the yeast-risen dough spreads out in the pan) with a tender crumb and gooey coconut-chocolate filling.
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Coconut Chocolate Babka
Recipe by
Servings
2 babka loaves
Prep time
20 min, plus 2.5-3.5 hours rise time
Cooking time
35-45 min
I was craving chocolate babka, an Eastern European Jewish pastry, but didn’t have any bittersweet chocolate on hand. So I prepared a version with a rich, gooey coconut oil filling that, according to my five-year-old twins, is tastier than the original. Enjoy these for breakfast, snack, or dessert.
I adapted this recipe from The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri.
Dough
- 1 1/4 cups whole milk
- 5 teaspoons active dry yeast (I’ve used instant yeast, with perfectly good results)
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 large egg yolks, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
Filling
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, softened at room temperature
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
Directions
- Prepare the milk and yeast mixture: Warm the milk in a saucepan or in the microwave until it’s lukewarm, about 110 degrees F. Pour the milk into the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk in the yeast (or pour into a mixing bowl and whisk by hand.)
- Add the remaining dough ingredients: Whisk in butter, sugar, vanilla, salt and egg yolks. Use a rubber spatula to stir in half the flour, then add the remaining half.
- Prepare for rising: Beat the dough with the electric mixer (or stir by hand) for 2 minutes. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Beat on low to medium speed (or mix with the spatula) for another 2 minutes. Transfer the dough to a buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in the refrigerator for at least 1.5 hours. I prefer to chill the dough overnight.
- Prepare the filling: In a food processor or blender (I used this one,) or with a rubber spatula or spoon in a mixing bowl, combine coconut oil with sugar, cocoa powder, and cinnamon. Pulse until finely ground. Set mixture aside until dough has finished rising.
- Assemble: Turn dough onto a floured surface, and roll into a 10 x 15 inch rectangle. Spread the coconut oil mixture evenly over the surface, leaving a slight border around the edges. Sprinkle on coarsely chopped walnuts. Roll up the long side of the dough, as if making cinnamon rolls. Cut the roll in half, horizontally, with a bench scraper or sharp knife. Pinch ends closed.
- Prepare the pans: Line a piece of parchment paper or buttered wax paper on the bottom of two loaf pans (I recommend this one by Rachel Rae) or 9-inch Pyrex pie pans.
- Proof: Transfer babkas to prepared pans, seam-side down. Cover and set aside in a warm place to rise (known as proofing) for 1-2 hours, until doubled in size.
- Bake: 20 minutes before the dough has finished proofing, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 37-45 minutes until babka loaves are a deep golden color, yet the filling is still a bit gooey. (Babkas baked in pyrex pans may require a shorter baking time, closer to 35 minutes.)
- Serve and store: Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Let the loaves cool on their sides to prevent collapsing. When ready to serve, cut into slices. To store, wrap in plastic wrap or place leftover slices in an airtight container at room temperature.
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