I found this recipe in Dan Lepard’s Exceptional Cake cookbook. Given that it was book about cake, I didn’t expect to see baked goods with yeast in there, especially not for the dish called Krantz Cake.

Apparently (quoting Dan Lepard) yeast cake is a feature of German baking. I was curious to find out how yeast leavened cake would be     different from baking powder or soda.

I expected the cake to have texture of soft bread, like brioche, something soft but still feel like bread. It actually turned out to be quite cakey soft, which I think resulted from the mixture of butter, egg yolks, cream cheese and sour cream in the dough. However, it wasn't as crumbly and fluffy as the typical cake. It still got some chewy texture in it which was rather nice. 

The recipe called for walnut, sugar and chocolate for bread filling. I replaced ground walnut and sugar with crushed peanut praline I made some weeks ago. The crushed peanut praline went well with the recipe. It gave caramelised crust and lovly flavour. The cake shape is similar to babka (cut-side-up plaited bread). 

Full post, more photos and recipe can be found here. 

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com

Happy Easter Everyone!/ Wesolego Alleluja!

Polish Babka (babka is not only cake but also 20-30 years old  woman or grandmother)

recipe:http://przytulankaneo.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/polish-babka-for-easter/

Babka's Companion- Sernik- Polish Cheesecake: 

I was still trying to use up the coconut that was approaching its use-by date. Apart from making Cherry Ripe macarson the other week, I was thinking about coconut bread.

Trying to replicate the coconut bread from an Asian bakery that we love (it's buttery bread with random moist coconut filling throughout), I was thinking about making the bread into babka-shape with the coconut butter filling. I also made half of the batch into coconut rolls baked in a muffin pan.

This might not sound like traditional babka with one layer twisted dough, coconut filling and no struesel, it probably looks like one. Babka style shaping does make the bread pleasing to the eyes.

My house were filled with the wonderful aroma of coconut when the bread was being baked. With its sweet, creamy and toasty aroma, coconut is one of the most aromatically appetising food item, in my opinion.

Full post and recipe can be found here.

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com

About me and bread making:  I'm at this for about 2 years.  Started with Cook's Illustrated Almost no Knead (beer yumm...), did a bit of Lahey, and a lot of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day  (Master, Peasant, Rye, Brioche and Challah both of which make amazing babka).  I've done some pretzels, bagels, and lots of pizza to please the kids and have done Pain ancienne a la Reinhart numerous times.  Love BBA and American Pie.  I've used a stand mixer, dough whisk, and bare hands with some  very good results.

Bagels.

Brioche, cinnamon Babka,  and cream cheese Babka made with the same dough from AB5

Chocolate Cinnamon Babka made with AB5 Challah dough.

I'm a bit of a gear head and have a pro sized gas oven.

Currently I am on a baguette kick. My wife bought a food processor for me this Christmas.  I often cook for a crowd and this thin is great.  It's the big WS Cuisinart model and it stays on the counter and I'm trying to use it for everything I possibly can.  I happened across the Van Over recipe in an old Cuisinart manual.  I looked at the recipe and thought the hydration seemed kind of low at 63% but made it anyway.  It was the easiest dough to handle - very tasty, but needed more crackle and more holes.   I added an ounce of water bringing the hydration to about 69%.  I then saw van Over's published recipe online  and noticed that he had made the same change.   I guess I learned from you all…  The bread was good but could be better.  

I just finished a batch of baguettes with this formula adjusted to 72% hydration and have a batch of dough in the fridge at 75%.  

I'm attempting to adapt other baguette techniques to the food processor and I'll put the details in another post (I suppose the artisan forum is appropriate) but my goal is to get a food processor dough with higher hydration and minimal active time and minimal kitchen mess.  And of course improve technique along the way.

This forum has been a constant resource and a fun read.

Thanks.

tordoc

Well, this is actually the Chocolate Cinnamon Babka recipe from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day. I followed the recipe to a T except I substituted the chocolate for dark brown sugar, as per the request from my girlfriend, who barely ate any after it was done, haha.

I really like how it came out and I love the look. A loaf doesn't get any cooler looking than this and you can't go wrong with a rich, sweet, cinnamony, streusel topped bread. I gave my parents half the loaf and I pretty much ate the rest by myself over two days, my girlfriend only had a taste and acknowledged it was fantastic, she considers herself a expert. She had to look good in a bikini the following week so she said "I should stop making bread!".

This is the first bread I made out of this book, I have made many from PR's other books. I have my eye on taking a whirl at the croissant recipe in this book but I don't know when I will get to that. This was easy, fast, and fun to make and I will definitely be making it again, next time with the chocolate. It is a cool bread to bring to a dinner party for desert, in my opinion.

Enjoy the pictures,

Nick

I started baking today and thought I would make a couple loaves of babka. Of course I started and didn't realize I did not have everything. I had no almond paste, no milk powder, or corn syrup. I ran to the store, actually 4 of them and not one had almond paste. Well, I decided (this recipe calls for almond paste, which I love!) I would substitue because I have a recipe that calls for pound cake crumbs. Made it home and then realized someone had eaten the rest of the poundcake. Anyway, I had no filling but my dough was rising. I made a filling out of Sugar Cookies crumbled, orange marmalade, oh yea, I was out of apricot preserves too, almonds, butter and cinnamon. It turned out pretty good as I don't like it too sweet anyway. I didn't put much in there to begin with. I made four but two are Orange marmalade and two are chocolate. I will freeze two and eat two.

I had some issues with rolling and even division of the dough so two are catywonkus in size and shape.

Babka roll

Finish

This recipe is based on Marcy Goldman's recipe. I made some changes and didn't use as much flour. I could have as this doug is tacky to sticky but once it bulk ferments it is workable. Great to refrigerate overnight.  This isn't a really sweet babka, I guess it could be depending on the filling.

edit:

Here is the Chocolate! It is one of my favorites too! This is the one that suffered from less dough.

Chocolate Babka

Eli

www.elisfoods.wordpress.com