Babka Monkey Bread

Babka Monkey Bread

This is a mashup of a Chocolate Cinnamon Babka and a Monkey Bread.  It is good. I know that a lot of people are obsessed with cooking big pieces of meat or making cookies over the holidays, but I want breakfast or tea time treats.  Those buttery, cinnamon kissed baked goods that are just sweet enough and add something special to a cup of strong tea or coffee. I felt like I was falling down on the job of contributing to the KCRW sad kitchen treat ledge. (Not sad for what’s on the ledge, but the ledge itself.  Yes we ARE moving into a real building sometime in the forseeable future).  I remembered this recipe I saw on Joy Wilson’s blog and decided to make a double recipe, one for tomorrow morning breakfast with friends.  Another to take into the station on Tuesday.  Joy’s original and the first one I made (see below) is basically a Monkey Bread, but instead of rolls you’re stacking up buttered and sugared strips which are then cut into squares.  Once they’ve risen they’re the perfect slice of donut-y goodness.  I don’t know why they taste like cinnamon donuts, but they do.  Perfect with good strong milky tea or a caffe latte.  For some reason I didn’t take a picture of my strips.  Go to Joy’s original post to see how she did it.

But after the first (you see above) was done and eaten I realized I could do a shortcut babka using this technique  So I added cocoa powder and chocolate chips to the filling and gave a finishing sheen with a bit of sugar syrup.  See the “variation” in the recipe.

Chocolate Pull Apart Bread

Course: Breads, Breakfast, Brunch, Tea Time
Cuisine: American, Jewish
Servings: 1 loaf
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Passive Time: 2 hours

Ingredients

Dough
3 cups AP flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 scant tablespoon instant yeast
2/3 cup milk
2 large eggs lightly beaten
2 ounces butter

Filling
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 cup dark cocoa powder optional
3 ounces butter melted
1- 2 cups chocolate chips optional

Sugar Syrup (if making chocolate version)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar

Instructions
1. Put flour, sugar, salt and yeast in mixing bowl. Briefly stir to mix. Mix milk and eggs together. Melt butter and add to milk mixture.

2. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients in the bowl. Mix on low speed just until ingredients combine. Let wet dough sit for 15 minutes. Mix again for about a minute on medium speed. Scrape dough down from sides of bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel and set aside in a warm spot to rise. Dough will take about 2 hours to nearly double.

3. Meanwhile prepare the filling. Mix together the sugar, cinnamon and cocoa powder (if using). Set aside. When you are ready to roll out the dough, melt the butter.

4. After dough has doubled scrape it out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Knead it until it comes together in a fairly smooth ball. Don’t worry if the dough is a bit sticky. You can refrigerate the dough at this point (even overnight) and make the bread later in the day if you wish. It is easier to work with when a bit cold.

5. Roll the dough out to an approximate rectangle about 12″ by 20″. Brush all the melted butter over the dough.

6. Add ALL the cinnamon (chocolate) sugar and spread it around to cover the dough. Sprinkle on the chocolate chips if using.

7. Cut the rectangleish thing in 6 strips as pictured here. Stack the strips on top of each other. Don’t worry if some of the filling falls out, you can sprinkle it over the strips once they’re in the pan.

8. Cut the stacked strips into 6 pieces so you end up with squares. Lift them carefully and set them into the greased loaf pan, fitting them in however you can. If you have a lot of filling left on the working surface, scrape it up with a bench scraper and pour it in between a few of the slices in the loaf pan.

9. Cover the pan with plastic wrap, and set it in a warm place to rise. In about 30 to 40 minutes the slices should have risen again.

10. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes.

11. While the loaf is baking make the sugar syrup by combining the sugar and water and bringing it to a boil.

12. Removed the finished loaf from the oven and drench it with the warm syrup, using a brush to give a sheen to each of the slices.