Chocolate Cinnamon Sourdough Babka

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This Sourdough Babka Recipe is a delicious and special treat. Swirly sourdough brioche is filled with a chocolate cinnamon filling and topped with a crumb topping.

Babka is a lovely sweet bread that is perfect for the holiday season, tea parties, or any time of year! Lovely brioche wrapped around swirly chocolate, this will be a favorite way to use your sourdough starter.

Other sourdough recipes:

• Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
• Danish Sourdough Pastries
• Sourdough Kolaches

What’s the difference between Povitica and Babka?

I had never actually heard about Babka until Oct 2011 when I hosted the Daring Bakers Challenge to make Povitica! I got a lot of comments on whether Povitica and Babka were similar. After some research I discovered that they were very similar – a holiday enriched bread made with swirly patterns with Easter European heritage. However, they have different fillings and the swirls are made with completely different techniques. Ever since then, I have been thinking of babka.

Babka, as it turns out, is not nearly as labor intensive as povitica to make, but it is just as fun to roll, twist, and flip your dough around. And it is filled with butter and an unbelievable amount of chocolate. Add a fantastic sourdough tang to it, and you have one heck of a bread.

No really, it is so very delicious. This might be one of my favorite loaves of bread to make ever!

How to make Recipe

This recipe isn’t overly complicated to make – if you can make homemade cinnamon rolls and bread, you can make babka!

To mix the dough:

1. Cut the butter into cubes and set them aside.
2. In the bowl of your electric mixer combine the flour, starter, sugar, salt, eggs, and milk and mix until you get a stiff batter.
3. Cover and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
4. Mix on medium speed for another 10-15 minutes, until the batter starts to resemble a soft dough, but without the same elasticity you would expect from bread dough.
5. Using a rubber spatula, smear/massage/fold the butter into the dough until no lumps remain.
6. Continue to mix the dough until you start to get some elasticity from the dough. It won’t quite pass the windowpane test but will be close. The dough should be smooth and shiny. 
7. Place the dough in a greased large glass bow, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to bulk proof in a warm place for 2 hours. The dough will expand but not quite double. Do a series of stretch and folds every 30 minutes ( so at 30 minutes, 60 minutes, and 90 minutes) to develop the elasticity of the dough. Note: You can do an overnight fermentation in the fridge at this point if you want. When you are ready to assemble the next day, allow the dough to sit on the counter for about 1 hour before you start. Using semi-cold dough will make it easier to roll, too.

Make the filling and topping

1. First, make the filling by combining the chocolate, cocoa powder, butter, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl and mixing with a fork until well combined. This recipe uses both chocolate and cocoa powder to really deepen the flavor. Make sure both are good quality to get the best flavor. Remove 2 Tablespoons of the filling to a second bowl. Set both aside.
2. In a second bowl, mix the ingredients for the crumble topping and set aside.

How to assemble the babka

1. Generously butter a 9×5 loaf pan.
2. Generously sprinkle your work surface with flour and turn the dough out on top of it. At this point the dough may still be very, very, very sticky. Its ok to work a little bit extra flour into the dough to make it workable, but don’t add too much – take the dough just a touch past extremely sticky. Keep your counter and rolling pin well floured.
3. Roll the dough out into a 16 inch square that is about ⅛ inch thick.
4. Brush the edges of the dough with the egg wash (keep the egg wash, you still need it!).
5. Evenly spread the chocolate filling over the dough (reserving the 2 Tablespoons for later). 
6. Roll the dough up tight like a jelly roll and pinch the edges to seal.
7. Carefully twist the log of dough 5 or 6 times along the length. 
8. Brush the top of the log with the egg wash (keep the egg wash, you still need it!)
9. Take the 2 Tablespoons of reserved chocolate filling and place it on the top of the left half of the roll, pressing it in slightly.
10. Fold the right half of the roll over the left half, sealing in the chocolate (think about a 1 slice of bread sandwich).
11. Pinch the edges together and fold them under.
12. Twist the entire roll twice and place it into the prepared pan.
13. Cover with a tea towel and allow to sit in a warm place for about 3-5 hours until fully proofed. This is an enriched sourdough dough, which tends to take longer, so pay attention to the dough, not the clock. When the bread has doubled, it’s time to bake.
14. Brush the remaining egg wash over the top of the loaf and sprinkle the topping on.

Baking the babka

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Bake the loaf for 40-50 minutes.
3. Lower the oven temperature to 325 F and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes, or until the bread is a deep golden brown. If the bread is browning too fast, cover it with a piece of foil and continue baking until the center reaches about 200 F.
4. Cool the bread in the pan, on a wire rack.
5. Carefully turn the dough out onto the wire rack, slice, and enjoy!

What kind of sourdough starter do I use for this recipe?

This babka recipe requires a 100% hydration sourdough starter. To learn more about what that means and how to maintain your starter, read Feeding Your Sourdough Starter. 

For this recipe, your starter needs to be fed and active, meaning that it is bubbly and has doubled, but has not yet begun to fall. Make sure it has had a few good feedings before you start this recipe.

Baker’s Schedule

This recipe takes about nine hours to make from start to finish. Make sure you make a note about when you want to be finished with baking and work backwards to decide when you need to start baking and when you should feed your starter. 

You will need about 1 hour for baking, 3-5 hours for proofing, about 30 minutes of assembly, 2 hours for bulk fermentation, 30 minutes to mix the dough, and however long it takes for your starter to become active.

Note that the temperature and humidity level of your house can affect proofing times of this dough. If your house is warm and humid, it will take less time. If your house is colder (if your air conditioner is blasting or it is winter), it will take more time. Watch your dough, not the clock for these steps.

Should Babka be refrigerated?

No, babka should not be refrigerated. Babka will stay fresh for 2 or 3 days when stored in an air tight container.

Babka also freezes well for 3 months.

Try these other twisty bread recipes:

• Twisted Cinnamon Sweet Bread – This beautiful bread is easy to make and a real show-stopper!
• Braided Date Bread – This sweet stuffed bread is a lovely treat to serve to any time of the day.

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(slightly adapted from Double Helpings and Martha Stewart)