bit of everything sourdough-ish babka
I had planned on making a yeast water bread with a YW I made using crab apples from my parents' yard. I ended up going away for the weekend, which meant my YW build of 100g YW and 160g bread flour got left on the counter for 26 hours. I didn't think I could use it to make bread at that point so I decided to make a hybrid babka recipe. I used 150g T85, 350g BF, 200g of my YW build, and about 40g of unfed sourdough starter along with 1/2 tsp of active yeast (also 95g sugar, 240g milk, and 2 eggs). I pretty much followed the usual recipe from SmittenKitchen otherwise. The recipe I used before my sourdough starter days uses 2 tsp of commercial yeast so this hybrid tried to reduce the commercial yeast by 75% and reduce the waste from my abandoned YW build.
I had no idea if it would work, but I think it looks good! Next time I want to try the full sourdough babka recipe from Artisan Bryan. For this bake I did an initial rise of 3 hours followed by shaping in the tin and an overnight rise in the fridge. I let the bread sit out at room temp before baking at 375 for about an hour. I put a simple syrup glaze on the top right out of the oven.
Comments
Your babkas look really good, very inviting. I keep saying someday I'll make a babka, but still haven't.
Benny
I've made babka a bunch of times and always with commercial yeast, but they still taste great. My biggest issue with them has been raw dough in the center. With all of the coils it can be really difficult for dough in the center to cook through, even when the dough temp reads 190 degrees +. The recipe I use says bake for 30 minutes, but for me it is easily twice that.
That looks soooo good. Really fine work.