- Makes 1 (900g / 9"x5" tin) loaf – Ready in 24 hours (as long as you have a mature sourdough starter available to use) –
Inspired by the babka making 'technical challenge' on The Great British Bake Off? I was. I love the GBBO and I love using my sourdough starter - "Mary" - in recipes, so I am doubly pleased with the recipe I've developed here.
Gather together…
42g melted butter (sliced and heated in the microwave for 10-20 seconds on HIGH).
55ml lukewarm milk (heated in the microwave for 20 - 30 seconds on HIGH).
25g brown sugar.
1 medium egg (lightly beaten).
80g of mature sourdough starter (active and bubbly - see below how to get it to this stage).
175g strong white bread flour.
1/2 tsp salt (fine 'table' salt, not salt flakes/coarse grains).
plus...
5 tbsp plain flour to dust the work surface / dough.
and finally...
150g Nutella chocolate-spread equivalent (choose palm-oil-free if possible) - I use the Hazelnut & Chocolate spread from Gü or the Lindt Hazelnut Chocolate Spread, as both are palm-oil free and come in glass jars.
Optional glaze....
2 - 3 tbsp of golden syrup (warmed for a few seconds in the microwave to make it pour more easily).
Get making…
1. FIRST THING IN THE MORNING OF THE DAY BEFORE you want the babka to be ready, remove the sourdough starter from the fridge (if that's where you keep your starter, I usually keep mine on the kitchen worktop and only put it in the fridge if I'm not baking with it for 3+ days). As you need 80g to bake the bread with, you'll need to discard less of the starter than usual, ensuring you have a 1/3 cup (80g) of starter left in the Pyrex bowl (I now use a Pyrex - aka toughened glass - bowl to store my sourdough starter, after having three regular glass jars crack, each incident was a near miss each time for my poor starter "Mary" - eek!) To that 80g of starter in the Pyrex bowl, add a 1/3 cup (80g) of lukewarm water - at this stage stir well to loosen the starter - then add a 1/3 cup (40g) of wholemeal flour. Stir well and wipe down the sides with a clean damp cloth, cover the jar with a clean, dry cotton cloth (secured with an elastic band) and put it to keep warm in the oven, WITH JUST THE OVEN LIGHT ON (the heat from the bulb will keep the oven slightly warm) for 3 to 6 HOURS - however long it takes for your particular starter to become very active and bubbly. If it is a COLD DAY then pre-warm your EMPTY oven for 1 minute at 180 C ish - set a timer for 60 seconds or it will get too warm, before turning the heat OFF and just leaving the oven light ON. Set a timer to ring after 3 hours to remind you to check your starter and in the meantime put a note on the oven door so that no one unwittingly turns the heat on and frazzles your starter - eek!
2. Check your sourdough starter half way through the six hours, i.e. after 3 hours (set a timer to remind you to do this). If it looks bubbly and active - great, get on with the recipe steps. If it looks inactive or hungry (i.e. if a layer of watery 'hooch' liquid has formed within the starter or on the top) then stir in the hooch and do another cycle of 'discard all but 1/2 of a cup and feed with 1/2 cup warm water and 1/2 cup wholemeal flour'. If it is a COLD day, repeat the quick oven pre-warm (warm the empty oven for 1 minute at 180 C ish - set a timer for 60 seconds or it will get too warm, before turning the heat OFF and just leaving the oven light ON to continue to keep the sourdough starter cosy).
3. After the three or six hours, so in the EARLY / MID AFTERNOON OF THE DAY BEFORE you want to bake, start to make the enriched dough. In a medium-large bowl (IDEALLY use the bowl of a stand-mixer-with-dough-hook-attachment if you don't want to knead by hand) mix the 42g of melted butter with the 55ml of lukewarm milk and the 25g of brown sugar.
4. If necessary, let the buttery-milky-sugary mixture cool for a minute or two until it is lukewarm and not hot (so you don't scramble the egg or frazzle the yeast!), then add the beaten medium egg and the 80g of happy, bubbly, active sourdough starter. Stir well to combine.
5. In a SEPARATE medium bowl, combine the 175g of white bread flour, and the 1/2 tsp of salt. Mix well.
6. Tip the flour/salt mixture into the wet ingredients and mix very well with a metal spoon and then knead for 10 minutes (I hope you have a stand mixer and dough hook attachment!)
7. Cover the bowl with a clean damp tea towel (flat across the top of the bowl, not touching the dough) and put it in the oven with just the oven light on (this will keep the rising dough at a constantly warm enough temperature) for 4 HOURS. Again put a written note on the oven (so it isn't turned on fully by accident) and set a timer to ring to remind you when 4 hours have passed. During its time in the oven the dough should rise a bit, but don't worry if you can't see much of a difference.
8. In the EARLY EVENING OF THE DAY BEFORE baking day, clear a large space on your (clean) worksurface and dust an A3-paper-sized area with 3 tbsp (i.e. a lot) of plain flour. Tip out the dough and sprinkle 1 more tbsp of flour on top of the dough (you may need even more if the dough seems to be sticking). Shape the dough into a large rectangle using your hands to press/ease it gently into shape. Dust the dough with another 1 tbsp of flour and then (to finish off shaping) use a rolling pin, to achieve an in between A4-paper-size and A3-paper-size rectangle (approximately 45cm x 20cm) of dough.
9. Spread the 150g of (hopefully) palm-oil-free chocolate spread over the dough rectangle, keeping a 1cm gap away from each edge.
10. Roll up the dough by lifting a SHORT edge up and rolling it tightly (you may need to use a fish slice to help unstick it from the surface if you have rolled the dough onto a less-well-floured part of the worksurface). You will end up with an oversized cigar-looking thing. Transfer it to a cutting board if you are concerned about your worktop.
11. Use a serrated bread knife / large scissors to cut the 'cigar' completely in half lengthways, so you have two long thin pieces.
12. Turn the cut sides to face upwards (as you want the beautiful layers to be on show when the loaf bakes).
13. Line a 900g (9"x5" tin) loaf with greaseproof paper (usually I'd use a reusable silicone liner, like this Toastabag reusable liner, but your loaf will come out rather oddly shaped as the excess material folds in on itself and this bake doesn't want its beautiful layers disrupting), or use a 20cm circular reusable liner, just draped over the bottom of the tin and going part-way up the sides of the tin.
14. Pinch the two strands firmly together at one end and do a very simple 2-strand plait down their length. Cross the left strand over the right (so it then becomes the left), then cross the new left strand over the new right strand, and continue until there is no more length of dough to braid. Be mindful of how long the loaf tin is - stretch out or squash up your plaiting accordingly.
15. Use a fish slice to lift the dough plait into the lined loaf tin.
16. Cover the loaf tin generously with foil, so there are no gaps. Stretch the foil across the top of the tray (not touching the dough) to keep moisture in, to ensure the plait stays soft during proving. Neither a reusable beeswax wrap, nor a baking tray placed over the top should be used, as they do not seal in the moisture sufficiently.
17. Put the generously-foil-covered tray in the oven-with-just-the-oven-light-on (to keep a constantly warm temperature) for 2 HOURS so the plait puffs up - set a timer to remind you.
18. Then put the tray of uncooked dough plait in the fridge overnight, still covered with the foil.
19. On BAKING DAY ITSELF take the COLD uncooked dough plait out of the fridge, REMOVE the foil (you can wash, save and re-use the same piece of foil to store the loaf in and then re-use again and again...) and place the loaf tin in a COLD OVEN (i.e. no need to pre-heat). This cold oven baking method seems unusual, but it works and it saves time and energy as there is no need for wasteful oven-preheating.
20. Set the oven to 200 C (180 C fan) or Gas 6 and bake the plaited loaf for 30 minutes. (Part of this time will be taken up with the oven heating up, this is fine as it gives the dough time to warm through before baking).
21. After the 30 minutes, remove the baked loaf from the oven. If you like a shiny, glazed-look on your baked goods (as you can see from the top photo, I don't favour a glazed finish) then brush the 2 tbsp of warmed golden syrup over the still-warm babka.
22. Cool the loaf in the bread tin for at least 10 minutes and then transfer it to a wire rack to cool further.
23. To store, keep the (cooled) babka loaf in an airtight tin at room temperature and eat it up within 3 days. On day 3 (if it hasn't been devoured!) the babka can be refreshed by heating individual slices in the microwave on HIGH for 10 seconds or so.
Adapted from the Sourdough Babka recipe on mydailysourdoughbread.com (the link no longer seems to work, sadly), I combined traditional babka ideas with the super-easy method I use for making my Sourdough Cinnamon Swirl Buns.
A festive version, using mincemeat instead of chocolate, is available here. I've found I don't get such a beautiful swirl with a mincemeat filling - see image below- but it still tastes delicious.
