Babka

Week 9

This week's host was Michelle she choose Babka. Recipe on pages 110-120 of our book.

Before we get started I have to give a big thanks to my great neighbor Jen who let me borrow her standing mixer. This recipe noted that kneading the dough by hand was not an option so I was going to sit out this week. :( Low and behold my good friend Jen came to my rescue. Yea, I was looking forward to baking this recipe.

Looks so yummy! Cinnamon, sugar, and nuts for a filling. I can see why she picked it. To start I will comment on the finished product above. The bread picture in our book was nice and round. As you can see my bread didn't turn out that way. I didn't expect it to be perfectly round because the book instructed us to cut the dough into slices and arrange side by side in pan. I do like the design that came out of the oven though, looks unique.

This recipe took two full days to complete from start to finish. WAY to LONG if you ask me. The timeline, on the other hand, made me really excited to eat the bread. On the other other hand, I was nervous to eat. A standing mixer was required because of the high butter content in the bread. Yikes! The recipe also called for one cup of sour cream, not to mention sugar on top and a ton in the middle. Sounds a little to much for me. Putting that aside I slaved over this bread and it smelled really good.

Yes, I know the left loaf looks demented. Of course, I didn't have the proper equipment to make this bread, like the right size pans. So, I improvised and squished them in the two pans I had. 

There it is dough that has been rising for close to 24 hours in the fridge. It said it wasn't supposed to rise much because of the high amount of butter. That didn't make my mouth water when I heard that. Now to roll the dough. This was very difficult because it was so cold and made the dough so hard.. I had my husband do it. (I needed his strong muscles.) After the intense rolling I enjoyed putting fillings on, rolling the dough up, and cutting it into pieces.

I had to laugh at my demented bread! LOL But I thought the other loaf looked pretty, so it made up for the demented on. I covered the breads up in the middle of the baking with tin foil because, as you can see above, they got very dark on the outside very fast. Good thing the recipe warned us of this because I usually don't check my baking in the middle. I set the timer for the lowest amount and wait for the buzzer.

Doesn't look done does it? We ate the ends and then I put it back in the oven for 10 more minutes. Totaled the max amount of minutes for baking this recipe and it was still doughy in the middle. Maybe, that was a user mistake, thinking back to my small bread pans. Well, we'll have to slice and toast before we eat, I guess.

We all had a piece and liked it. . .what's not to like, right. After a piece I could feel the heaviness of the bread.  All I could think of was where is my homemade cinnamon bread. It's lighter, easier to make, and just all around better. They were right, it's a very dense bread and not our favorite but I was happy to give it a try. That's the point of the baking club. This is a recipe that won't be made again.

A Tip & A Question:

1. Let the dough get closer to room temperature before rolling out after it's been in the fridge for a day. This will make the dough easier to work with.
2. Why do all the recipes in this book want us to grease and plastic wrap over bowl to let dough rise? I just use a towel and put in a warmer place.