Can you believe it’s December already?! I’m still trying to switch from full Autumn mood into winter, some snow would help for sure so keeping my fingers crossed! 😀 What I love about this cold time of the year are all things cozy and I think the recipe I share today definitely falls in that category so I’m very excited to share it so you can taste if yourself…
This year went by incredibly fast for me but at the same time it was life-changing with lost of important things and decisions happening, changes being made, new beginnings in every sense of the word, new exciting job opportunities and quite a few photography trips with friends. So overall, even if it was’t the easiest of times and it required a lot of my strength and energy to go through everything, I am very grateful for finally starting a new path, building my life and my business in a way I’ve always wanted to and generally for being given a fresh clean start to make things different (read: better!) this time.
If you’ve been following me on my social media pages (Facebook & Instagram), then you know that I’ve been pretty active there sharing my photography, from food images I shoot for work or pleasure to creating lots of content that just feels healing to me, nature, travel, beauty in details of everyday life…
So, now that serious stuff is out of the way, let’s talk about something sweet and fun! 😀 Chocolate babka, delicious sweet brioche bread with chocolate filling! Do I need to say anything more?
I wanted to bake Chocolate babka for a long time and now I finally did it. Glad to report it didn’t disappoint! In fact, I want to make it again when we are closer to Christmas, you know just to take a break from all the cookies and eat a slice of warm sweet bread filled with chocolate with my cup of tea or coffee! 😀 Little pleasure are everything…
Recipe in English:
- For dough:
- 3¾ cups (530 g) white spelt flour (or all-purpose)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp (10 g) instant yeast
- 3 large eggs
- ¾ tsp sea salt
- ½ cup (125 ml) milk (I used oat milk)
- ⅔ cup (150 g) butter, at room temperature, cut in cubes
- For filling:
- chocolate filling of your choice (I used homemade chocolate hazelnut spread)
- For sugar syrup:
- ⅓ cup (125 ml) water
- ⅓ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- Note: 1 cup = 250 ml
- This recipe requires leaving the dough in the fridge for about 8 hours or overnight before baking.
- To make the dough, place flour, sugar, yeast in a mixing bowl and stir until combined.
- Add eggs and milk, continue mixing for about 2 minutes, then add butter and salt mixing until all is well combined.
- Knead until dough gets smooth and shiny. Add a little bit of flour if needed when kneading.
- Cover the dough with plastic foil and place it in the fridge for about 8 h our overnight.
- Grease two 24 x 10 cm (9 x 4 inch) loaf pans and line the bottom of each pan with baking paper.
- Divide dough in half.
- Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface and shape into rectangle with long side closest to you.
- Spread the chocolate filling over the rolled out dough.
- Use both hands to roll up the rectangle like a roulade. Start from the long side closest to you.
- Seal the ends of the roll using your fingers.
- Cut the roll in half lengthwise, twist the halves together as if braiding them.
- Carefully place each roll into prepared loaf pans.
- Cover with plastic foil and leave to rise in warm place for about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 190 C / 357 F.
- Remove plastic wrap and place both babkas in the oven, middle rack.
- Bake for about 30-40 min or until tester comes out clean with no dough on it.
- Cover with baking paper if it's getting too brown on top.
- While babkas are in the oven, prepare sugar syrup.
- In a small saucepan bring water and sugar to boil, remove from the heat and let it cool.
- When you remove babkas from the oven, brush the sugar syrup over them.
- Let them cool slightly before removing from the loaf pans. Serve warm or at room temperature and enjoy!
- You can also freeze them for later.
Recipe in Croatian / Recept na hrvatskom:
- Za tijesto:
- 3¾ salice (540 g) bijelog pirovog brasna (ili bijelog psenicnog)
- ½ salice secera
- 1 zlica (10 g) instant kvasca
- 3 veca jaja
- ¾ zlicice soli
- ½ salice (125 ml) mlijeka (ja sam koristila zobeno)
- ⅔ salice (150 g) maslaca, na sobnoj temperaturi, narezanog na kockice
- Za punjenje:
- cokoladni namaz po izboru (ja sam koristila domaci namaz od kakaa i ljesnjaka)
- Za secerni sirup:
- ⅓ salice (125 ml) vode
- ⅓ salice (100 g) secera
- Napomena: 1 salica = 250 ml
- Ovaj recept ukljucuje ostavljanje tijesta u frizideru barem 8 h ili preko noci.
- Priprema
- Za tijesto stavite brasno, secer i kvasac u vecu posudu za miksanje i mijesajte dok se ne poveze.
- Dodajte jaja i mlijeko miksajuci oko 2 minute, zatim dodajte maslac i sol i miksajte dok se sve dobro ne poveze.
- Mijesite tijesto dok ne bude glatko. Dodajte malo brasna dok mijesite ako je potrebno.
- Pokrijte tijesto plasticnom folijom i stavite u frizider barem 8 sati ili preko noci.
- Namastite dva kalupa za kruh velicine 24 x 10 cm (ili slicno) i oblozite dno papirom za pecenje.
- Podijelite tijesto na dva dijela.
- Izvaljajte tijesto na lagano pobrasnjenoj povrsini u oblik pravokutnika s duzom stranom blize vama.
- Namazite ravnomjerno po tijestu cokoladni namaz.
- Koristeci obje ruke zamotajte u roladu, zapocnite s duze stane koja je blize vama.
- Stisnite krajeve rolade prstima.
- Razrezite svaku roladu po duzini i isprepletite ta dva dijela kao da pletete pletenicu.
- Pazljivo stavite svaku roladu u pripremljene kalupe za kruh.
- Pokrijte plasticnom folijom i ostavite na tolpom mjestu oko 1 sat.
- Zagrijte pecnicu na 190 C.
- Odstranite plasticnu foliju i stavite obje 'babke' u pecnicu, u sredinu.
- Pecite 30-40 min ili dok tester ne izadje cist, bez tijesta na njemu.
- Ako na vrhu pocnu poprimati previse smedju boju, pokrijte ih papirom za pecenje.
- Dom su 'babke' u pecnici, pripremite secerni sirup.
- U manjoj posudi zagrijavajte vodu i secer do vrenja. Odmaknite sa vatre i ostavite da se ohladi.
- Kad su 'babke' pecene, premazite ih secernim sirupom.
- Ostavite ih da se djelomicno ohlade prije vadjenja iz kalupa. Posluzite tople ili na sobnoj temperaturi. Dobar tek!
- Mozete ih i zamrznuti za kasnije.
I won’t be wishing you happy holidays just yet as I’ll do my best to post something before the holidays. But I do want to wish you to take care of yourself and don’t put too much pressure on yourself as many people do every December. Like this pressure that we created ourselves that everything needs to be done in time, everything needs to be perfect (what is perfect anyway?!) and if it’s not up to those imaginary standards, then a feeling of failure or not being good enough starts building inside you.
Don’t allow that, you are good enough and you can have your own way of doing things before the holidays and during, it doesn’t need to be what you think you ‘have to’ do, just do everything the way you feel it’s the best for you. Self-care is so important and it’s good to be reminded from time to time to slow down, have your own rhythm, your own way and not compare yourself with others.
Big lesson I learned is that comparison is a dangerous thing to do and we need to do our best not to fall into that trap, specially during holidays season. We should just focus on our own life and do the best we can to feel good, full-filled, give and receive love, accept what we cannot change and fight to change what we have the power to do so, be open and at peace with ourselves…
*Thank you so much for being here, that makes me so happy! You can also follow my Travelling oven on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, as well as sign up to receive new blog posts via email and subscribe to my newsletter.
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