Author: joepastry

Making Chocolate Babka

Imagine a mouthful buttery, fluffy brioche. Its cottony texture is interspersed with a creamy-decadent bittersweet chocolate swirl. Notes of cinnamon fly high overhead while bits of crunchy baked streusel dot the terrain. That’s what a big bite of chocolate babka tastes like, friends. I can’t sell it any harder than that.

There’s word on the street that babka takes a lot of time and effort to make. Which isn’t true. You can have the whole thing done in about four hours and have a cooled loaf waiting for you by tea time. Trust me, this isn’t hard. Start by assembling your ingredients. Next, grease a standard 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pan and place a piece of parchment in it like so. Grease a little more.

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Salt vs. Salt

Reader Barbara points out that there is no salt post in my ingredients section and asks that I include one. I am vey happy to do that, though I’ll warn you it’ll be short. Why? Because I never use anything other than plain ol’ iodized table salt in my baking. There’s good reason for that: because all baking recipes call for standard table salt or its very near equivalent. Commercial table salts are virtually identical the world over. Those table salts, sea salts (both coarse and fine) and pickling salt all deliver the same amount of salinity by volume. All can be used interchangeably.

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What sort of babka are we making here?

That’s an excellent question, reader Margaret, for in fact there are several kinda of babkas out there. I’m making the Jewish version which originated in Eastern Europe and is almost certainly a relative of potica, another rolled bread baked in a loaf. There are at least two other varieties, however. One is a bundt-style version that’s more like a brioche cake, sometimes made with raisins and occasionally iced. Those babkas often look like this, and it’s said that the name “babka” — which literally means “grandmother” in Polish — is actually a reference to a grandmother’s skirts. That’s the story at anyway.

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Hello E.R.

I was just getting down to posting when the call came in from school that little 7-year-old Joan Pastry had broken her finger by slamming it in a door. So…off to the emergency room. Fortunately there was no break, more like a crack. A splint and some aspirin and she’s mostly back to normal. More […]

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Chocolate Babka Recipe

Most babka recipes, I’ve noticed, are not only complicated they make enough for 2-4 loaves. This one, thanks to he addition if instant yeast, is quite simple. It makes a single loaf but can be scaled up to your heart’s content (remember, baking recipes — especially yeast-based recipes — can be doubled, tripled, quadrupled, quintupled, whatever) with no ill effects).

For the Dough

9.5 ounces (1 3/4 cups) bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1.5 ounces (3 tablespoons) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 ounces (1/2 cup) whole milk
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ounces (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened

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Happy P?czki Day!

They may call it Mardi Gras down in The Big Easy, but back home in Chicago it’s P?czki (POH-nch-kee) Day. It’s the day that Chicagoans of every ethnic background dive head-first into a dozen box of, you guessed it, p?czki, the Polish version of jelly doughnuts. Chicago has more Poles than any other city in the world, (including all the cities in Poland, with the sole exception of Warsaw). So it’s hardly surprising that p?czki are everywhere the day before Lent. And being that it’s Chicago, they’re an easy sell.

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On Seasoning Cast Iron Pans

Reader Rikki writes:

I know this probably isn’t your area, but I’m trying to season a cast iron pan. The pan maker says I should use low heat to season it, but just about every other seasoning article I’ve seen on the web says very high heat is the thing. Can you tell me: what’s the difference and which method should I use?

Rikki, just because I’m a baking blogger doesn’t mean I can’t flap my fingers for a while on this general cooking subject. It’s pretty interesting stuff! As you surely know by now from your readings, seasoning is the process by which porous die-cast metal pans are transformed into smooth, virtually non-stick cooking implements. In the old days people didn’t think much about seasoning since it just happened over time with use. Today home cooks take a more clinical attitude toward seasoning. As you mentioned

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Making Pork Pies

I have to admit, these Melton Mowbray-style pork pies aren’t just something you just throw together, but for the serious pork pie enthusiast they are well worth the time and effort. To make them the old-fashioned way you’ll need an old-fashioned piece of equipment called a pie dolly plus some rendered leaf lard, for without good quality lard the side walls of the pie won’t stand up in the oven. Oh yes friends, these pies are baked free-standing, didn’t you know? Forms are for sissies. At least they are in Melton Mowbray.

That said you absolutely can adapt this recipe to more conventional ingredients and equipment. A standard hot water pie crust or even an American-style pie crust can be used along with a muffin tin or other form. They’ll come together in an afternoon. Personally, once I read about this technique I couldn’t resist trying it, even if it took three days. The result was the pork pie of the gods.

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