My mom grew up in New York and went on the hunt for the perfect babka she remembered from the Jewish delis and bakeries that used to be all over the city. Now there are barely any great bakeries left, so, other than perfecting her golf game, she enjoys retirement by experimenting in the kitchen.
If you don’t know, babka is a beloved cake with Eastern European roots, made famous by a “Seinfeld” episode at the Royal Bakery in New York. This babka is the one that consistently generates rave reviews from all of our family for its irresistible combination of rich chocolate and other indulgent flavors, and I love that we can honor my mom this Mother’s Day by sharing her original recipe with you.
Notes:
- This recipe makes approximately three babkas in 9” loaf pans. Bake one or all three at once or store extra dough in the freezer, defrosted, and then baked off individually.
- This recipe has 3 components: the dough, the filling and the topping. I recommend making the dough first and, while that rises, making the other components.
- I use a stand mixer, but you can also use a large bowl with a hand mixer plus some hand kneading.
This recipe is written by Caren Libit, Bryan’s mom.
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Ultimate Chocolate Babka
Chocolate babka so good it could only be your mom’s recipe.
- Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 3 loaves
Ingredients
Units
For the dough:
- 1 ½ cups warm whole milk, approx. 110°F
- 2 (¼ oz) packages active dry yeast
- ¾ cups, plus a pinch, white granulated sugar
- 3 whole large eggs, room temperature (save 1 egg for egg wash)
- 1 Tbsp heavy cream, for egg wash (you can substitute milk)
- 2 large egg yolks, room temperature
- 1 ½ tsp of vanilla extract
- 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces, room temperature, plus more to grease bowl and loaf pans
For the chocolate filling:
- 24 oz. semisweet or dark chocolate chips (2 bags)
- 2 ½ Tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup walnuts
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup sugar in the raw or turbinado sugar
- ¾ cup unsalted butter (1 ½ sticks)
For the streusel topping:
- 1⅔ cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1⅓ cups all-purpose flour
- 12 Tbsp (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
Instructions
- Pour warm milk into a small bowl. Sprinkle yeast and pinch of sugar over milk, stir lightly; let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
- In a bowl of electric mixer with paddle attachment, mix together ¾ cup sugar, 2 eggs, vanilla and egg yolks. Add yeast mixture and lightly mix to combine.
- In a bowl combine flour and salt. Add to egg mixture, and beat on low speed until almost all the flour is incorporated, about 30 seconds. Change to the dough hook. Add 2 sticks butter, and beat until flour mixture and butter are completely incorporated, and a smooth, soft dough that’s slightly sticky when squeezed is formed, about 10 minutes.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead a few turns until smooth. Butter a large bowl.
- Place dough in bowl, and turn to coat. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
- To make the filling: Place chocolate chips, ½ cup sugar. ½ cup raw sugar, walnuts and cinnamon in the bowl of a food processor, process into coarse crumbs.
- Add the 1 ½ sticks butter and process until well combined; set filling aside.
- To make the streusel topping: In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, and butter. Using a fork, stir until fully combined with clumps ranging in size from crumbs to 1 inch.
- To assemble: Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously butter your 9-by-5-by-2 3/4-inch loaf pan.
- In a small bowl beat the remaining egg with the 1 Tbsp cream, set bowl aside
- Punch back the dough, and transfer to a clean surface. Let rest 5 minutes. Cut into three equal pieces. Keep two pieces covered with plastic wrap while working with the remaining piece. On a generously floured surface, roll dough out into a 16-inch square; it should be about 1/8-inch thick.
- Brush edges with egg wash. Crumble ⅓ of the chocolate filling evenly over dough, leaving a 1/4-inch border. Roll dough up tightly like a jelly roll. Pinch ends together to seal. Now, twist 5 or 6 turns.
- Fold long roll in ½ and brush top of roll with egg wash. Carefully crumble 2 Tbsp more filling over the roll and twist folded roll a few more times.
- Place twisted roll into prepared baking pan (it will be a little messy)
- Brush the top of babka with egg wash. Crumble ⅓ of streusel topping over each loaf. Loosely cover each pan with plastic wrap, and let stand in a warm place 20-30 minutes.
- Bake babkas, rotating halfway through, until golden, about 35 minutes test for doneness. Toothpick should come out clean of dough when done. Remove from oven and transfer to wire racks until cool. Remove from pans; serve.
Notes
- This recipe makes approximately three babkas in 9” loaf pans. Bake one or all three at once or store extra dough in the freezer, defrosted, and then baked off individually.
- This recipe has 3 components: the dough, the filling and the topping. I recommend making the dough first and, while that rises, making the other components.
- I use a stand mixer, but you can also use a large bowl with a hand mixer plus some hand kneading.
- Prep Time: 25 + 1 hour 30 minutes rise time
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Ashkenazi
This is wonderful. It receives rave reviews when I serve it.
Absolutely wonderful! I ended up omitting the streusel (oops) but they were still delicious and the friends I shared with loved it. Only tip I have is make sure you’ve got milk on hand!
Looks good. And now for a PAREVE version – which is much more practical if you want to compete with Green’s or Zabar’s delicious pareve babkas?
Hi Rena, we have numerous pareve babka recipes on the site, including this apricot-pistachio babka and this chocolate-hazelnut babka. Enjoy!
wow I’m gonna make this thank you!
It sure would be nice if nutritional information was provided for all these terrific recipes. S9ome of us have to watch CARBS…
If you are worried about that, don’t even consider this recipe. It is 3 different kinds of sugar and a ton of butter.
As a long time baker, with a published cookbook “The Muffin Bakers’ Guide”, I used to make chocolate babka and lemon babka for my parents, aunts and uncles when they visited.
Your recipe and photo look fabulous– and I will be trying the recipe out soon.
Qual e o peso de 2 tabletes de manteiga? Moro em Israel e o tablete aqui pode nao ter o mesmo.peso do pais da receita
Hi Paula, we love this handy calculator for queries like these.
Looks so good can’t wait to try it
Absolutely delicious – I didn’t have enough chocolate chips so I used one bag and a half bag of heath bar pieces!
This recipe is amazing. People always love it. I wish it didn’t make so much. I would love just to make a single one. I hate doing math with a baking recipe.
Just a small correction to your story… the babka in Seinfeld didn’t come from Zabar’s, it came from the Royal Bakery… which was my dad’s bakery. (I promise there was never hair in our babka, nor did the black and white cookies ever make anyone throw up – to my knowledge, I was pretty young). Looking forward to trying your recipe to see if it’s as good as my dad’s was. Thanks for this post.
Fascinating! I’m sure everything was delicious, thank you for sharing.