Recipe: Christopher Thé’s native babka

“A good babka is rich, dense and moist, which means leaving fluffy French brioche technique behind and looking towards the babka’s homely Eastern European roots,” says Thé. “Shaping babka is a lesson in less is more, as increasing the number of twists looks great before baking, but ruins the desired tiger-stripe effect of the finished product. Pepperberry and wattleseed pair beautifully with the chocolate here and give this babka a distinctively Australian flavour.”

Equipment

– 20 × 12 cm (8 × 4¾ in) loaf (bar) tin

Ingredients

– Egg wash

For the babka dough:

– 350g (121⁄2 oz/21⁄3 cups) bread flour
– 66g (21⁄4 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
– 33g (11⁄4 oz) fresh yeast
– 110g (4 oz/approx. 2) whole eggs
– 3.5g (1⁄10 oz/3⁄4 teaspoon) fine salt
– 3.5g (1⁄10 oz/3⁄4 teaspoon) bread improver
– 100g (31⁄2 oz) butter, softened

For wattleseed and pepperberry ganache:

– 250g (9 oz) bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
– 50g (13⁄4 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
– Pinch of fine salt
– 10g (1⁄4 oz) ground wattleseed
– 2g (1⁄16 oz/1⁄4 teaspoon) ground pepperberry
– 40g (11⁄2 oz) butter

For the streusel:

– 75 g (23⁄4 oz) cold butter, diced
– 100 g (31⁄2 oz/2⁄3 cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
– 130 g (41⁄2 oz) granulated sugar
– 150 g (51⁄2 oz) brown sugar
– 3g (1⁄10 oz/1 teaspoon) ground cinnamon
– 3g (1⁄10 oz/1 teaspoon) ground cinnamon myrtle
– Pinch of fine salt

Substitutions:

– Wattleseed > cacao nibs
– Cinnamon myrtle > cinnamon

Method

Babka dough:

1. For the babka dough, add all the ingredients except the butter to a stand mixer with 80g (2¾ oz) water and knead with the dough hook attachment on slow speed until the dough is smooth, shiny and elastic, about 12 minutes.

2. Add the butter and continue to mix until all the butter has been incorporated.

3. The dough needs to remain below 28˚C (80˚C) during the mixing process. If the dough becomes too warm, chill it before resuming mixing. The finished dough temperature should be 25˚C (75˚F).

4. Transfer to an oiled container, cover with plastic wrap and allow to bulk ferment until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

5. Knock back and shape into a flat rectangle, then transfer to a baking tray lined with baking paper.

6. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold and solid.

Wattleseed and pepperberry ganache:

1. To make the wattleseed and pepperberry ganache, stir the chocolate, sugar, salt and ground wattleseed and pepperberry together in a large mixing bowl.

2. Add the butter and, using a pastry blender or a fork, cut the butter into the mixture until completely combined.

Streusel:

1. Blend all the ingredients to small crumbs in a food processor. 

Assembly and baking:

1. To assemble, spread the chocolate ganache over the dough rectangle, leaving 2.5cm (1 in) of dough uncovered down one long side.

2. Tightly roll up the dough into a log, ending on the uncovered side, which will form the seam.

3. Cut the log in half lengthways and lay both halves with the stripes facing upwards.

4. Cross the halves at the centre, then twist the halves around each other. Don’t be tempted to put too many twists into the dough; the finished babka will feel drier as the dough layers will be too thin.

5. Spray the loaf tin with oil and place the twisted dough inside.

6. Cover the tin with a piece of oiled plastic wrap and leave the dough to proof somewhere warm until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

7. Preheat the oven to 150˚C (300˚F).

8. Egg-wash the surface of the babka and sprinkle the streusel over the top.

9. Bake for 40 minutes or until the babka is rigid (it should have an internal temperature of 85˚C/185˚F).

10. Allow to cool in the tin for about 30 minutes before unmoulding. The texture should be denser and chewier than a brioche.

Modern Australian Baking by Christopher Thé (Hardie Grant, RRP $60.00) is out now and yours to purchase from great Victorian booksellers such as Readings and Hill of Content.