This perfect chocolate babka is made with a soft, buttery and rich dough, with swirls of fudgy chocolate filling! This chocolate babka recipe has been tweaked and perfected over years, with tender loving care. And here, I’m sharing all my detailed tips on how to make the most amazing babka.
Why I love this chocolate babka recipe
Made with a soft, rich and buttery bread dough, With an intensely fudgy chocolate swirl filling, A cross between a cake and bread (enriched dough bread), A foolproof recipe with step by step tips and details! Perfect for gift giving, Super versatile! You can add all kinds of different fillings.
A quick note on equipment first
As with most bread recipes, equipment is crucial. Since this is an enriched bread recipe with a filling, the equipment that you use will make your job easier, and ensure the best results! After all, you’re here to get the best chocolate babka recipe that is foolproof! So let me share the tools of the trade that will guarantee those results.
Stand mixer
A stand mixer is pretty important to knead the dough. It just makes your life that much easier. The dough is soft and sticky, and hard to knead by hand. It’s important to knead the dough enough to develop gluten, and the stand mixer will do that job for you.
A kitchen scale
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I am a huge proponent of using a kitchen scale, especially for baking. Volume measurements are very unreliable, and can and will vary each time you make this recipe. Measuring dry ingredients like flour with a cup is very error-prone, depending on how you fill the cup with flour. While some variation in flour amounts is OK, know that it’ll have an impact on how soft your bread will be. So, PLEASE invest in an inexpensive kitchen scale if you love baking. It’ll wipe away all those tears of frustration in an instant, as if by magic!
Loaf pans
The pan that I use to make chocolate babka (or any babka) is a 9 x 4 x 4 inch loaf pan. The pan is also called a small pullman loaf pan on amazon. Just make sure that you check the measurements of the pan before you purchase it. This larger and taller pan allows the babka loaf to hold its shape while baking. Absolutely! it’s about making sure that you portion the dough properly. With this recipe, you can make FOUR chocolate babka loaves, using a standard 8 x 5 x 2.5 inch loaf pan. However, the loaves won’t be as tall. You could maybe try your luck with THREE loaves, but there is a chance that the bread may spill over when baking, especially if the pan is not taller than 2.5 inches. The baking time will also be less, so you will have to keep an eye on that.
Rolling pin
A rolling pin will be necessary because you will be rolling out chilled dough portions to uniform thickness, before spreading the filling on the dough. If you don’t have a rolling pin, you can also use a wine bottle that has flat sides (not sloped), or a different glass bottle with flat sides.
Big bowl (for proofing)
The dough will require proofing. I prefer to do a room temperature proof, and a cold proof in the fridge overnight. To allow the dough to proof properly, make sure the bowl has enough room for the dough to at least double in size.
Spatula or bowl scraper
It’s important to use spatulas or bowl scrapers during the mixing process. This will ensure that the dough will knead properly and mix the ingredients uniformly, and develop the gluten better. I also use my bowl scraper to cut the dough into portions as well.
How to make Chocolate Babka
There are three parts to this chocolate babka recipe. The dough. The filling, and the glaze.
Milk Active dry yeast (see recipe notes for substitutions) Honey Sugar Eggs All purpose flour Salt Unsalted butter
Semisweet chocolate (bittersweet for a less sweet, deeper flavored filling) Sugar Cocoa powder (I prefer Callebaut / cacao barry cocoa powder that is a dutched cocoa powder) Unsalted butter Heavy cream Salt
Sugar Water
Making the enriched dough
To make the enriched dough for my chocolate babka recipe, I use eggs and butter to ensure softness and richness. This also makes my babka dough very soft and sticky to work with. First, measure all the ingredients needed to make the enriched dough. Make sure all the ingredients (especially the butter) are at room temperature. Start by activating or dissolving the yeast in warm milk first. Once the yeast is activated, the rest of the ingredients (except the butter) are added and mixed. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes before adding the butter in 4 portions. Knead the butter in well. Once the butter has been incorporated, knead the dough for a further few minutes until the gluten has formed and the dough is shiny and cohesive, but still very soft. The dough should form a lovely “window pane” when stretched, and the consistency of the dough should feel like a water balloon when it’s in your hands. This can take about 15 – 20 minutes if the dough is kneaded at the correct speed. Proof the dough at room temperature as this helps with gluten development of the dough. Then, reshape the dough and allow it to proof overnight in the fridge.
Making the chocolate filling
To make the chocolate filling, place the cream, cocoa powder, sugar and salt in a saucepan and bring the mix to a simmer. Make sure to dissolve the cocoa powder and sugar in the process too. Remove the saucepan from the heat, and add the butter and chocolate into the hot mixture. Whisk until everything is smooth and melted. Place the chocolate mixture in a shallow container and let it cool down until it’s thick and has a spreadable consistency. This can take a few hours depending on the container and the weather. You can also let it cool in the fridge, but check on it to make sure the chocolate hasn’t hardened too much. You can make this filling the day before and store it in the fridge, and then reheat it in small increments until it regains the thick spreadable consistency needed to spread on the dough.
Assembling the babka loaf – The next day
Remove the chilled dough from the fridge. The next step is to roll and shape the dough to make the chocolate babka. Make sure the dough is chilled while you work with it. It’s much easier to handle the dough while it’s chilled. If it gets too soft, I pop it in the freezer for a few minutes, so that it’s nice and chilled again. Roll out the dough portion into a rectangle shape (10 – 11 x 15 – 16 inches), with a somewhat even thickness. Spread the chocolate filling in a thin layer over the surface of the dough, making sure to leave a 1 inch border along one of the long edges. See pictures below. Next, roll up the dough towards the 1 inch border with no filling, and seal by pinching the edge. The dough is usually too soft for me by this point, so I carefully place the rolled up dough on a baking tray, cover it with plastic wrap, and freeze it for about 20 minutes until the dough becomes firm again. When the dough is firm again, it’s ready to be shaped. Trim the edges, and cut the tube of dough in half (lengthwise) with a sharp knife. Twist the two pieces of chocolate babka dough together, and tuck it into the prepared loaf pan.
Baking the chocolate babka
Cover and let it proof again. Proofing time will vary greatly depending on the weather and ambient temperature in your kitchen. The babka loaf should at least double in size before it’s ready to be baked. And because of the filling in the loaf, it’s harder to do the indentation test to check for readiness as well. However, the more you make this recipe, the easier it becomes to tell when the loaf is done proofing. Preheat the oven while the loaf is proofing. Bake the cake in the preheated oven until the loaf is baked through. I use a conventional oven, and the bake time is around 50 minutes. If the loaf is browning too much, I place a tented foil on top to stop further caramelization. Once the babka is baked, while it’s still hot, generously brush the whole babka with the simple syrup.
How to store the chocolate babka for later
You can serve the babka while it’s still warm. The bread is so soft and rich and buttery, and the chocolate is intensely fudgy! But it’ll be just as good at room temperature too. This loaf of chocolate babka doesn’t last very long in our house, which is why I always make TWO at a time. You can keep the loaf in an air-tight container and in the fridge (or a cool, dry area) for about 5 days. However I prefer to store my extra loaf in the freezer. I slice the cooled chocolate babka into thick slices, wrap them well, and place in an air-tight bag / container and freeze for up to 1 month.
Other chocolate babka variations
You can upgrade your chocolate babka with more flavors too! Here are some ideas,
Chocolate cinnamon babka – Add 1 tbsp ground cinnamon to the chocolate filling. Or see here for my classic cinnamon babka recipe. Mocha babka (chocolate and coffee) – Add 1 or 2 tsp instant coffee granules to the chocolate filling. Chocolate orange babka (jaffa babka) – Add 2 tsp orange extract or about 2 tbsp finely zested orange peel. Spiced chocolate babka – Add a spice mix to the chocolate filling. Spice fillings like pumpkin spice or apple pie spice or my favorite, this chai spice mix. Chocolate hazelnut babka – I personally don’t like to use Nutella, so I prefer to spread some chopped hazelnuts with the chocolate spread instead. Chocolate peanut butter babka – Add about 1/3 cup of smooth peanut butter to the chocolate filling mix and stir to mix well. Then spread this chocolate peanut butter filling instead.
Tips for perfecting this chocolate babka recipe
First piece of advice is simple, read the recipe well. It’s long and detailed, but that is so that it’s easy to follow, and will guarantee successful results. I recommend using a stand mixer for kneading this dough. Kneading by hand would be too time-consuming and messy (because of the sticky nature of the dough). Make sure the ingredients are at room temperature, especially the butter. Take your time with kneading the dough. Enriched dough takes time to develop gluten, but it will happen. Do not skip the overnight chilling step! It helps to develop flavor, AND it makes the dough easier to handle. If at any point, the dough gets too soft and sticky, then place the dough on a baking tray and cover it with plastic wrap and chill in the freezer for a few minutes, until the dough becomes firm. Use a 9 x 4 x 4 inch loaf pan. With this pan, you can make TWO loaves. If you’re using 8 x 4 x 2.5 inch loaf pans, you will be able to make FOUR smaller loaves. If your loaf pan is higher than 2.5 inches, you’ll get THREE loaves instead of four. I use a conventional oven. If you have a convection oven, then you will need to reduce the temperature of the oven by 25 F / 15 C to bake the loaf.
Troubleshooting
