April 24, 2014 - 8:31pm
Babka!!!!
It's been too long. I use to make this religiously before I moved to the West Coast. Bread has overcome my desire to make pastry in the past 8 years. And crazy enough i was able to apply so much I've learned since this recipe was born. I switched a flying sponge for an overnight Biga and squeezed 16 % Whole Grain in there with no problem I'll keep increasing this every time til I notice it losing its luster.
Shaped
Baked
Cooled and Dressed
And finally sliced
Cheers
Josh
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Comments
David
So good. You'd like this one. if you do the pastry side you should try this.
josh
I've baked pastries occasionally. I'm perpetually struggling to keep my weight down, so I try to keep my distance. I love it too much.
My wife keeps the pressure on me generally, but then she suggests we have breakfast Saturday at Thorough Bread Bakery. (We'll be in San Francisco this weekend.) <sigh>
David
I wish San Fran wasn't 5 hours away. I would be going to a different eatery every other week if not more.
Well this Babka certainly makes it hard not to gain weight. Every time I pass it in the kitchen I have to take extreme measures to not have another slice. It fools you into thinking your hungry when it looks you in the eye. Dangerous indeed. Usually when i bake pastry I make sure there are others to help eat it.
Josh
Beautiful bake Josh. It doesn't get much better than this.....I could eat most of that in one sitting and like David I try to keep these evil bakes spaced out....my wife is the desert baker in our household most of the time.
Regards,
ian
I don't know if evil is the right word. Maybe dangerous. If you are feeling evil you should give this a go.
Josh
by far, or banana bread now that I think about it, and yours looks stellar, perfectly formed and drizzled. Has to be tasty - too tasty:-)
Well Done and Happy baking Josh.
Gotta have friends to help eat these or before you know it you've eaten the whole thing. As far as dessert breads this is the one for me. Banana bread is not yeasted so it can be your favorite quick bread. Leaving Babka as your favorite dessert bread. Stollen comes pretty close but is such a different beast.
Josh
I have another batch of pulla dough right now. It will be one loaf pull and one babka. Nice baking Josh! Brian
I'd love for you to try this one out since you've been on a babka kick. You will need chocolate cake crumbs though. i went to a local bakery and they sold me naked layers which was a nice time saver.
Josh
. . . but they are orange chiffon. I must bake a chocolate cake for the crumbs. Hmmm, still haven't tried the chocolate chiffon. Next project, both for the double chocolate cake and chocolate cake crumbs. Had someone told me a year ago I would have cake crumbs in my pantry, I would have looked at them strange. Now, this is the new normal. The dough is ready to bake and in the fridge and I must do both loaves in the morning, so no tome or egg for chocolate chiffon cake, I will use what I have and it should work. Cake crumbs will be a new addition to my babkas and should bring the filling content up a little higher. Well heck, perhaps I should visit my local baker who sells me flour and see if she can sell me chocolate cake! I have both enjoyed baking and eating these babkas, so thanks again for the inspiration! Best regards,, Brian
I learned this at my the job where I first learned to bake . Cake crumbs are ingredients not garbage. Not only did we make fillings for pastry but I vaguely remember making a Hungarian nut cake that was completely based off of cake crumbs. It's been so long I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure there was no flour added. it was cake crumbs,nuts, eggs for a batter that was layered with jam and baked. it was pretty darn good too. So every time they trimmed cakes for building there was a home for all the scrap pieces. Once it was enough they would make this. Turn your scraps into more "dough" so to speak.
Josh
I enjoyed your take on this Josh and decided to do two pulla braids with this bake and bake some chocolate chiffon cake tomorrow for the cake crumbs to fill my next babka. Your comments certainly re-inforce Norm and Stan's message in ITJB. Who Knew? Best Regards, Brian
Very impressive that you were able to incorporate 16% whole grain into your babka. Was most of the whole grain in the biga or final dough? And I totally understand how bread can totally overtake the desire to make pastry. That's why babka is the perfect happy medium between the two.
Mary
Every recipe I have I now try to incorporate whole grain in place of part/all of the white flour these days. I made some pretty good Chocolate Chip Cookies a couple weeks ago using 100% spelt. I had to tweak the formula a bit and should have reduced the sugar so they were a bit too sweet. But even so you could tell if the proportions were corrected they would have made an excellent chocolate chip cookie with zero white flour.
I made pastry for the first half of my "career" and went to school for pastry. Then moved to Cali and got a job at a bread bakery which hired me because they were opening a cafe/pastry shop and in the end I chose to remain at the bread bakery opposed to going over to the cafe which did eventually open. I fell in love with bread. Couldn't leave it. I used to bake cakes/pastries/cookies you name it as much as i bake bread at home but no longer. I think it also has to do with cost. When i used to make fancy french cakes/pastries at home to give and share it costs an arm and a leg. Bread on the other hand rings in at a much more affordable home hobby.
I'll always play with sweets but I'm sure glad I made the switch to bread. It's much more rewarding for me. And keeps me from eating all them goodies.
Cheers
Josh
PS I really liked that post on the SFBI and forgot to leave a post. Looks like fun and 30 loaves to go home with. Good deal. Did you make the Miche David shared from that course? It's so good.
Bread is definitely a much more affordable hobby than pastry. I still haven't gotten around to making the SFBI miche yet. But it's on my ever growing list of recipes to try.
This looks like the best babka I’ve ever seen! If you had to classify the dough you used, what would it be? Brioche? Challa? I’d sure love o try it!