Gigi’s No Knead Sourdough Chocolate Babka

You can use a portion of your favorite challah dough to make a babka. This recipe uses a no-knead sourdough. It’s hard to describe how tasty this is fresh out of the oven.

INGREDIENTS

• 115 g ripe (fed) sourdough starter
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons melted butter or olive oil, plus
• 35g honey or sugar (2.5tbss), plus
• enough lukewarm water to make
• 198g water including eggs, honey & butter
• 301g Unbleached Bread Flour
• 1/2 tablespoon (9g) salt
• Filling:
• 85 grams dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate
• 2/3 stick unsalted butter
• 35 grams powdered sugar
• 20 grams cocoa powder
• Syrup:
• 1/4 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice (or the juice of one orange plus enough water to make 1/4 cup)
• 50 grams sugar

DIRECTIONS

Weigh your flour.

Combine all the ingredients through salt in a large mixing bowl.

Mix and stir everything together to make a sticky, rough dough. If you have a stand mixer, beat at medium speed with the paddle attachment until it all comes together. A minute or two. If you don’t have a stand mixer, just stir until everything is combined.

Leave the dough in the bowl, cover it with a silicone lid or a piece of plastic wrap, and let it rise for 1 hour.

Gently fold it over on itself 6 to 8 times, cover and let it rise for 1 hour.

Repeat the rising-folding process one last time for a total of 3 hours. 

Refrigerate the bowl and allow the dough to rest for at least 8 hours, up to 48 hours. 

Remove dough to a floured surface and allow to come to room temperature, about 20 minutes. Roll dough into a rectangle 11-inches in width by 16-inches with a floured rolling pin. You may need to let the dough rest for 15 minutes midway through if it keeps pulling back.

Make the filling: Melt butter and chocolate together and stir. Sift in powdered sugar and cocoa and combine until smooth.

Spread filling leaving ½-inch border. Starting from the short end, roll into a tight jelly roll type shape. Wrap it using parchment paper and transfer to a sheet pan. Refrigerate overnight or put in the freezer for 15 minutes. 

Line a loaf pan with a sheet of parchment paper large enough to cover the entire pan, and stick up a few inches from the sides. 

Place dough on a cutting board and remove parchment paper. Trim 1-inch edges off each log and put in them chocolate side up in the corners of the loaf pan. Cut the roll in half lengthwise and lay each half next to each other cut sides up. Lift one half over the other and twist each around each other. Place the twist chocolate side up into the prepared pan, gently squishing it in if necessary. Cover pan with plastic wrap and let rise 5-6 hours at room temperature or until dough has risen and is filling the pan.

Heat oven to 375°F. Remove plastic wrap, place loaf pans on a sheetpan and bake on the middle rack of your oven. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until center of loaf is 210F. Cover with foil if its browining too quickly. 

Meanwhile. make syrup: Place orange juice and sugar in a saucepan and simmer until sugar dissolves, stirring only a little. Remove from heat. 

Remove babka from oven and brush with syrup. 

Let loaf cool for at least 15 minutes in the pan.