Today we are almost a month away from Christmas and Babusya, Symon and let’s be honest, me too, were really craving something sweet to fight this cold. So we put a Christmas TV movie on TV and we baked to get those pretty Babkas that Babusya has the secret to. I hope you will like our family’s recipe!

Ingredients:

Babka dough

• 260g of flour t45
• 3g of salt
• 30g of muscovado sugar
• 12g of fresh yeast (or 4g of dry yeast)
• 100ml of milk at room temperature
• 60g of unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• 1 egg

Filling

• 30g of icing sugar
• 20g of cocoa powder
• 60g of dark chocolate
• 60g of melted butter
• 50g of crushed hazelnuts (or pecans)
• 10g of muscovado sugar

The syrup

• 40g of muscovado sugar
• 40g of water

Method:

Babka dough

1. Dilute the yeast in the milk at room temperature for 10 min
2. In a bowl (or the bowl of the robot), mix the flours, salt and sugar. Add the egg then the milk and yeast mixture. Knead for 5 min.
3. Incorporate the softened butter, cut into pieces, and continue to knead until you obtain a soft dough.
4. Cover the dough with cling film and leave to rest for at least 1 hour in the refrigerator (ideally overnight.)

Filling

1. Melt the butter and dark chocolate in a bain-marie. Mix with the icing sugar and cocoa powder to obtain a smooth filling.
2. Crush the hazelnuts and brown them in a little sugar then set aside for assembly.

Assembly

1. After the resting time, divide the dough into 8 equal portions
2. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out each ball into a 20cm by 10cm rectangle
3. Spread the filling over the entire surface, leaving 1cm free all around
4. Sprinkle with crushed hazelnuts
5. Roll lengthwise. With the seam facing upwards, cut the resulting sausage in 2 lengthwise and braid. Bring the two ends together and place them in a muffin tin.
6. Cover them with a tea towel and let rise for 45 min
7. Preheat the oven to 180°C and bake for 20 minutes.
8. Make a syrup with 40g of sugar and 40g of water and brush it onto the Babka when they come out of the oven.

Cooking with Babusya is always an opportunity to learn more about her past or her cooking secrets. It’s also singing at the top of your lungs and being the victim of a flour fight or ending up with an improvised egg shampoo! I love these moments spent with her and Symon so much!