Bittersweet Chocolate-Pumpkin Babka
Pumpkin and chocolate are a delicious, but underrated combination. If more people tasted these two together, coffee shops would be changing their signature fall drink flavors to combine these two ingredients (pumpkin mocha--you heard it here first!).
This pareve babka makes a perfect breakfast bread or Shabbat dessert. If you don’t have time to bake today, try a refrigerator rise. After making the dough, rub it with a little oil and place in a resealable plastic bag. Refrigerate for up to 2 days. When you’re ready to bake, remove from the fridge, place dough in a greased bowl or on a parchment lined pan, and let come to room temperature. Then shape, fill, and bake!
- Duration
- Cook Time
- Prep Time
- 3 BabkasServings
Ingredients
Sponge:
- 1½ cups hot water at 100°F
- 4½ teaspoons yeast or 2 (¼-ounce) packages yeast
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Dough:
- 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
- ⅔ cup honey
- 5 egg yolks
- 2 whole eggs
- 6 cups all-purpose flour
Chocolate Filling:
- 1 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
Pumpkin Filling:
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- ½ cup confectioner’s sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch of ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- Pinch of kosher salt
Cinnamon Glaze:
- 1½ cups confectioner’s sugar
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- Pinch of sea salt
Preparation
Sponge:
1. Combine water, yeast, flour, and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer. Cover with a towel and let stand for 30 minutes, until the surface looks like a sponge.
Dough:
1. To the sponge add oil, honey, egg yolks, whole eggs, and flour to sponge and mix to combine.
2. Add flour, a little at a time until dough is not sticky, but still has a bit of tackiness to it.
3. Transfer dough to a lightly greased bowl. Cover and rise for 2 hours. Or lightly oil the dough and transfer to a resealable bag and store overnight in the refrigerator (see note under photo).
Chocolate Filling:
1. In a medium bowl, stir together chocolate, sugar, cinnamon, and salt together. Set aside.
Pumpkin Filling:
1. In a medium bowl, stir together pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt together. Set aside.
Shaping and Filling:
1. Lightly grease 3 loaf pans with oil. Separate risen dough into 3 equal pieces. If using refrigerated dough, let it come to room temperature before shaping.
2. With a rolling pin, roll one piece of dough into a 16-inch square. Sprinkle chocolate filling on half of the square. Shmear the other half with pumpkin filling. Roll dough up tightly into a rope, being sure to seal the ends.
3. Slice rope lengthwise and wrap the halves around each other at least 6 times. Fold rope in half and place in a greased loaf pan. Repeat with remaining dough. Allow babkas to rise for 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 350°F.
5. Bake babkas at 350°F for 40 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Remove babkas from the pans and cool on the rack for 10 minutes more. Drizzle with cinnamon glaze, slice, and serve warm.
Cinnamon Glaze:
1. Whisk together sugar, water, cinnamon, and salt. Drizzle over cooled babkas.
