Recipe: Chocolate Babka

Chocolate Babka
Recipe by: Richard A. Ifft

1 cup milk
5 tablespoons butter or margarine (+extra for greasing)
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1 pkg. active dry yeast
6 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
5 to 6 cups cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans

Place milk in a small saucepan and heat it just to the point where it is ready to boil. Remove from heat, and add the butter or margarine, and cool. (It can be cooled for 10 minutes in refrigerator.)

Generously grease the bottom, middle, and sides of a standard-sized tube or bundt pan.

Place water in a large bowl and sprinkle in the yeast.

Add the milk mixture to the yeast when the milk mixture is definitely cool to wrist temperature; then add sugar and salt.

Add flour, one cup at a time, mixing after each addition.

After all the flour is mixed in, knead for 5 to 10 minutes on a floured surface. Add small amounts of flour, if necessary to keep the dough from getting too sticky to handle.

Clean and grease the bowl. Add kneaded dough, and oil or butter the top surface. Place it in a warm place to rise until doubled; this will take approximately 2 hours.

Place chocolate chips in food processor with steel blade, or a blender, and grind them until they resemble coarse meal. Transfer to a small bowl and combine with the cocoa. Sprinkle 1/3 cup of this mixture into bottom of the greased pan and then sprinkle in the chopped nuts.

When the dough has doubled in bulk, punch it down and then knead it for 5 to 10 minutes on the floured surface.

Roll the dough into a large oval with a rolling pin: 9-10 inches wide at the middle, and 16-17 inches long.

Leaving a 1/2 inch rim around the outer edge, sprinkle the remaining chocolate filling as evenly as possible over the dough. Roll it tightly along the long edge, pinching the edges to seal them. Carefully lift the babka and ease it into the pan, making as even a circle as possible. Pat it firmly into place, and seal the two ends together with a bit of water and a good pinch.

You can either let it rise at room temperature 45 minutes and then bake it, or wrap airtight in a plastic bag and refrigerate (up to two days) until you are ready to bake.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake 45 to 50 minutes, or until it sounds hollow when thumped.

Remove chocolate babka from the pan and invert onto a plate, so the chocolate-nut coating ends up on top. Cool at least 30 minutes.