Autor: Prstohvat soli

Babka with a Chocolate Filling and Plazma

Prep Time - 120 min.

Preparation

The dough is prepared the night before baking. Cut the butter into cubes. In a large bowl, put the flour, salt and all the sugar except one tablespoon. Take that one tablespoon of sugar and mix it with the yeast in a small bowl and then pour warm milk over it. Cover the bowl and leave it on the side so the yeast starts working. When the yeast becomes active, add it to the bowl where the flour is, add the egg and knead a soft dough (the dough should slightly stick to the hands). Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, then add the butter, which was previously warmed to room temperature, cube by cube. Before adding each cube, knead the dough so the butter blends in well. When you have used up all the butter, form a ball out of the dough and put it in a bowl coated with sunflower oil. Cover the bowl with transparent foil and leave it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, put the chocolate and the butter for the filling in a smaller pan, and place it over low heat so they melt. When they have melted, add the cocoa and powdered sugar and blend everything together nicely.

Line all the sides of a loaf tin with baking paper. Take the dough out of the fridge and stretch it on the working surface using a rolling pin, so you get a 30 x 40 cm rectangle. Apply the chocolate filling evenly over the dough, leaving 1 cm of the edges uncoated. Sprinkle the hazelnuts and Plazma Ground over the filling. Coat the top, longer, side of the dough with a little bit of cold water then carefully shape the dough into a roll. Using a sharp knife, cut the roll lengthwise in two halves, so that they remain connected on one side of the roll. Carefully braid the dough strips, and cut the edges that don’t contain the filling. Gather the braid and transfer it into the prepared tin and leave it in a warm place for 1 hour and 30 minutes so it rises. Heat the oven to 170°C. Before putting the dough in the oven, coat it with the whisked egg yolk which you have previously diluted with some water. Sprinkle the babka with some almond leaves and put in the oven for 30 minutes- until the dough turns a golden color. In a small pan, put the sugar and water for the syrup and bring them to boil over medium heat. When the sugar has melted, remove the pan from the heat and using a brush, coat the babka with the syrup the moment you take it out of the oven. Leave the babka to rest for 5 minutes and then take it out of the loaf tin so it cools.