Baby Babkas

*this is only a rough guesstimate for the dough!

For the chocolate filling, I made a butter ganache with dark chocolate:butter:powdered sugar:cocoa powder in a 4:3:2:1 ratio, with a heavy pinch of salt. The chocolate and butter were melted on the stove top, and both powders sifted and stirred in thoroughly off the heat.

I also made a 1:1 simple sugar with sugar and water, by volume. Mixed and heated on the stove top until clear.

1. All the ingredients for the dough, barring the butter, were mixed together in a stand mixer until ~75% gluten development. Softened butter was slowly added on low speed, and once incorporated, the speed was increased until 90% gluten development. 

2. It was proofed on the counter for 2 hours (18c), before it was split into 4, and it finished proving in the fridge overnight (~14 hours). The reason for splitting it was purely down to space needed to later roll it out.

3. Each round was rolled out into a 30 cm x 50cm square, with 25% of the butter ganache spread onto each. These were letter folded and cut, with a chef's knife, into 24 pieces per round.

4. 4 strands were used per bun, and I braided them in the same way a round challah is braided.

5. These were let to final proof for another hour, but I think I should've pushed them a little longer. They were cooked in a gas oven preheated to 200c, for 20-25 minutes with a swap/rotate of the trays.

6. Once removed from the oven, they were immediately brushed with the entirety of the sugar syrup.

If I had the right size muffin tins, or some other sort of moulds, they would have stayed taller. They spread out more than I thought they would during cooking. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but depends what you're going for :)