The Fresh Loaf

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B…..B….B…. Babka - the Yeast Water Way to Gugelhuph Land

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

B…..B….B…. Babka - the Yeast Water Way to Gugelhuph Land

This a was repeat of a similar recipe found here

 

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/27858/yeast-water-glazed-spiced-walnut-bourbon-fruit-chocolate-chip-almond-granola-streusel-pol

 But Lucy did make some changes.  We did a single stage levain build of 100g each of AP flour and yeast water. This was left on the counter until it rose 50% and then refrigerated for 2 days.  It was allowed to double on the counter after removal from the fridge before using.

 

She added 1.4 c of AP to the dough flour because it was too wet and didn’t pull away from the sides and bottom of the mixer like it should.  She added 1 T of cocoa powder and 1/4 C of chopped pecans to the streusel and substituted chocolate granola for the original.   She used 1/2 C of brown sugar instead of the 3/8th C in the original filling as well.

 

She rolled the babka up from both of the long sides, meeting in the middle and then twisted the two attached cylinders together.  This sounds weird but is a traditional babka process.  Lastly she put all the streusel in the bottom of the Bundt pan.  No matter what you do this recipe will handle it.  We even make cinnamon rolls out of it too.  YW is perfect for these kinds of sweet breads. 

 

One problem is that I didn’t make the coil long enough to coil around the pant twice. Mine only made it around one and half times making for some very uneven baking but if you have some hanging around who like a more well done babka, then this will be perfect for them.

 

Also, don’t forget to put the streusel in the bottom of the pan before loading the dough like Lucy did either,  She had  to dump it out and start over but the dough wasn’t at all going to cooperate at letting her fix my coiling mistake as it was all stuck together an beginning to tear.

 

Oh well, baking apprentices - even those imported for Germany, aren’t what they used to be.  She was going to convert this over to weights from volume but no go on that front either.  Still, the dough rose well enough in the fridge during its 16 hour retard and was ready to go in the 350 F oven at 9 AM after its 2 hour warm up on the counter.

 

This bundt pan would fit in the mini oven but others wanted to make toast in it.  Plus it was 60 F this morning and we had a multigrain SD to bake right after the Babka so Betsy - The Big Old GE would have to do the baking.

 

Except for the uneven baking the babka being 2 different thicknesses it came out well enough and was tasty once the lemon sugar glaze was drizzled on to top it off. We loved it  for a late breakfast after the girls had finished their run & walk.   Lucy was so impressed that she added ‘Meeting Mrs. Bundt” to her bucket list.  Being from Germany you would think that she would know better.

 

I told her that there was no Mrs. Bundt but that the Bundt pan did come from the Jewish community in Poland, Austria and Germany and was used to bake their famous fancy do bundt cakes called Gugelhuph.  Bundt pans imparted arty designs to the outside of Gugelhuph’a like no other pan could.

 

Lucy wanted to know if Gufelhuph is where the folks at Google got the idea for the name of their company and I said, “of course it was LuLu Belle!  She was so pleased with herself that she rolled over on her back and started peddling her bicycle built for two while making noises that sounded a little like….. gugelhuphs.   

 

LuLu Belle posing for pictures in a 70 F degree sun.  Have a salad with that babka too! 

Comments

Casey_Powers's picture
Casey_Powers

Hello,

This looks so wonderful!  I really enjoyed seeing your photos! This is so amazing.  This is inspirational.

Warm Regards,

Casey

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

around here.  Less sweet than cinnamon rolls and unlike cinnamon rolls, the more babka you eat, the more weight you lose - what could possibly be wrong with that!

Glad you liked the post Casey and

Happy baking

gmabaking's picture
gmabaking

You have outdone yourself with today's baking. That sweet, crumbly dough laced with cinnamon might just be the food of  heaven, a formula sought through the ages but never quite figured out until that golden haired apprentice put her paw, er mind, to figuring out what mere man(kind) could not fathom. You are indeed fortunate that she shares her secrets with you!

Lovely!

Barbra

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

this because she doesn't seem to understand even the simplest baking commands any first day apprentice would know.  So i took it upon myself to learn German baking commands in canine.  Some things get lost in translation from apprentice to master and I suspect Lucy has deep down secrets she wouldn't even share with Max.  Still, one has to be amazed what can come out of a brain the sized of a peanut.  Good thing she cleans up pretty good at beauty parlor too.

Glad you liked the babka.  It is shredibly good.  Will make French toast out of tomorrow.

Happy Baking Barbra

Foodzeit's picture
Foodzeit

Oh boy, I thought to myself a mixture between a Strudel and a Gugelhupf, how beautiful and how good it must taste :). Enjoy, the both of you, i got to make myself something to eat now, as hungry as I am from looking at your pictures...

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

with 4 pawed apprentices and even 2 footed ones.  Victor Borga would say '5 pawed apprentices and odd 3 footed twos.'  I use to die laughing when he did number routine where he added 1 to ever number in a sentence.  I would read twoderful bedtime stories three my daughter this way and she would correct me when I missed adding two.

I guess we could call this Strugelhuph :-)  Lucy is OK with that too.  Now I am hungry....

Happy baking

Isand66's picture
Isand66

That's some fantastic looking Baba-Lucy Bababka!  love the look of this one.

Enjoy the nice cool weather.

Regards

Ian

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

French toast this morning - jsut delicious.  After Lucy made the babka and took pictures I froze half for later. My wife came into the kitchen and said 'hey, I haven't even had a bite and you have already eaten half of it!'   Well.  It is pretty good but not that good:-)

Smoker is smoking.  It threw a hot Italian sausage in the smoker with the brisket to have a nice sandwich for lunch.  A friend in KC who has a doxie apprentice named Harry ho makes the best sausages in the smoker - so Lucy wants to catch up with Harry - tell Max not to worry too much about that though :-) 

carefreebaker's picture
carefreebaker

Am I the only one who wants the details of your delicious looking salad? I can only contemplate baking your babka if I can also have your salad recipe. ;)

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

rather than around Thanksgiving when we would have 10 different lettuces alone!  This salad is store bought romaine, red leaf lettuce, Kale and napa cabbage for the greens.  It has parmesan, pecorino and ricotta salata for the cheeses, crimini and button mushrooms, carrot, red bell and poblano peppers, cucumbers, celery, green and red onions and last but not least a pretty bowl to put it all in.

Tonight will be special because we will add home smoked salmon to the mix to go with our smoked brisket - The buns are in final proof right now!

We have some kind of salad like that one very night and I get to eat the left overs for lunch every day!

carefreebaker's picture
carefreebaker

I always look forward to your posts with your amazing accompanying photos. What did you dress the salad with?

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

1 T of home made Dijon mustard

1 T of fresh minced ginger

1 clove of garlic minced

1/2 tsp of dried Italian seasoning

1/2 green onion minced

1/2 C of various vinegar - in this case, balsamic, rice, sushi, red wine and apple cider vinegar

1 C of extra virgin olive oil

! tsp each of mushroom flavored thick, dark soy sauce, sesame oil and Worcestershire

1/2 tsp of garlic chili sauce.

Shake to combine and let sit on the counter for an hour to mellow and mingle