- Babka is beautiful, tasty, comforting, sweet,
family, love, home.
It's basically life to me.
Hi, my name is Chef Shimi,
and today I'm gonna teach you
how to make a show stopping babka.
To get started, we'll make our dough.
First we're gonna place
all the dried ingredients in a mixer bowl.
We're gonna mix all the dry ingredients together.
Then put it on a standing mixer.
We don't have to use a standing mixer,
we can do it by hand,
but it's gonna take much more time.
We need the dough hook
because that's the one you're using for bread kneading.
We'll attach the hook,
and then we'll add the water.
Our water is gonna be a little warm,
between 95 and 100 degrees.
It needs to be that temperature
in order to help activate the yeast much quicker.
If it's too hot it can kill the yeast,
and we don't want that.
So we'll turn the mixer on speed number two,
and we're gonna start mixing all the ingredients.
We're gonna add a teaspoon of vanilla.
I do vanilla just to get some more aroma into the dough,
and more flavor.
And I just like the smell of it when you're baking.
One egg and a quarter cup of oil.
The reason I use oil instead of butter
is because of the way my mom was baking.
We knead the dough for about seven to 10 minutes.
It just needs to become smooth,
and all the ingredients need to incorporate.
Ours is looking a little bit dry,
so I'll add one tablespoon of water.
It's coming together,
and the sign that it's all been incorporated
is the fact that the mixer bowl is clean.
I like to remove it from the mixer bowl,
and then put it on a surface,
and start kneading it by hand just a tiny bit,
just to get a feel of it,
and to be in more control of the dough.
One of my favorite parts is to knead by hand.
By babka journey started in London,
and from there I started baking every day,
and started getting people contacting me for it,
posting it on social media.
People wanted to buy it from me.
Then I started traveling in Europe,
teaching students how to make their own babka.
So the babka we make today is not a traditional babka,
but it's my interpretation of what I wanted it to be.
So we shape it with our hands,
and we're turning it into a smooth ball.
And then we get a mixing bowl sprayed with oil,
and we place it in the bowl,
and then we wrap it with cling film or plastic wrap.
We let the dough rise for about 45 minutes to an hour.
While we wait for the dough to rise,
we're going to make our filling.
I liked to roast the hazelnuts
because it takes the oil out of it,
and creates more flavor and more texture.
We place them on the pan,
and then we roast them for about eight minutes.
We'll put these in the food processor,
and then mix them until they're nicely chopped.
You want a consistency
that wouldn't be too much of a powder,
but still has some texture to it.
Now we're going to make the chocolate ganache.
I prefer doing the chocolate ganache from scratch
'cause I believe it tastes much better.
First of all we're gonna melt the butter.
I use butter instead of cream
because it's less heavy,
and because it makes the layers look more distinct.
And as soon as the butter melted completely
we're gonna add the chocolate to it,
and start whisking is slowly.
When the two are incorporated,
we're going to add the cocoa powder
and start whisking until it all dissolves.
Then we add the powdered sugar,
which is the last thing for the ganache,
and we keep whisking it
until we don't see any lumps.
We're looking for a spreadable consistency,
nothing too runny or too thick.
Our ganache is ready,
so we'll set it aside
and start making our syrup.
Babka always has syrup,
but I kind of made mine a little bit less traditional.
To get started,
we're going to peel the skin from the orange.
I like to use a pairing knife.
So we're gonna hold the orange in the center,
and then starting from the top,
going towards the bottom,
we're gonna peel it using the knife.
After doing that we're gonna start chopping the orange peel.
I like to chop it really fine,
but you can do it the way you wanna do it.
It doesn't have to be perfect.
Orange peel is really untraditional.
It reminds me of my childhood
when I used to make candied orange with my mom,
and we used to dip it in chocolate.
I love oranges,
and I incorporate in almost everything that I do.
So first of all we're gonna boil the water,
and as soon as they're boiling
we're gonna add the sugar,
and make sure it dissolves properly.
Keep stirring it for about three minutes,
and then add the cinnamon stick
and star anise.
Mix it a little bit more for about a minute.
And add the orange peel to it.
I love aromas.
Star anise is very middle eastern,
as well as cinnamon.
I grew up in Israel.
My family originated in the middle east,
so this syrup is an homage to my family
and my heritage.
It just reminds me of my childhood,
and everything that I used to love and still love.
So we wanna cook the syrup with the orange peel in it
for about 20-25 minutes.
We want to get a thicker consistency,
but we also wanna cook the peels through.
Let's set it aside and get back to our dough.
Our dough doubled in size.
It looks great.
We can remove the plastic now,
and take out some of the air.
I love punching the dough
'cause it's a fun thing to do.
So we'll punch the dough, get some air out,
start making it more smooth on the sides,
turn it into a firm bowl again,
and set it on the surface.
And then we'll slice it in half.
This recipe makes two loaves.
If you have guests this is the perfect dessert.
Every time I make it,
'cause I practice so much,
and I bake so much,
my neighbors are always the ones
who are enjoying more than anyone else,
'cause I knock on people's doors with babkas,
and just love to give them as a gift,
'cause I think they make everyone happy.
We start working with one piece of the dough.
We sprinkle some flour on a surface,
and using a rolling pin we start rolling the dough
from top to bottom,
and then over to the sides
into a rectangle sized 21 by 15 inches.
So now it's time to bring the beautiful
and smooth chocolate ganache,
and start spreading it on the dough.
I love to use a silicone spatula for that
'cause I feel the metal ones can hurt the dough
and pinch it, so that's my best tip.
After we spread the chocolate on the dough,
and we make sure it's spread evenly,
because we want everyone to get the same bite
when they eat the babka.
Then we use the hazelnut,
and we sprinkle it evenly all over the chocolate.
The next thing we'll do is start turning the dough
into a log.
We're gonna work lengthwise.
So from bottom to top
we're gonna start rolling it,
and pressing it very gently
just to make sure it stays.
The reason we wanna get the tight spiral
is because we wanna be able
to see these beautiful layers at the end.
After you finished rolling the two logs,
you let them rest for 15 minutes
before we slice them.
Have a drink, relax.
There's a babka coming.
So it's rested,
and now it's ready to be cut.
We are going to use a serrated knife,
and the reason being is because,
again, we don't wanna hurt and damage the babka inside,
and we wanna keep those beautiful layers.
So we'll do it very, very gently,
and slice it without pressing the dough.
Look at those layers.
That's exactly what we want.
Now we're gonna braid.
We're going to place one on top of the other in an S shape,
and then starting from the center
we're gonna start braiding it from the center
over to the bottom,
and from the center over to the top.
If you wanna do the traditional one,
you can just leave it like this,
and bake it just like the loaf,
but if you wanna make my classic round,
you do the same braid,
but you're gonna spiral it.
Today we're gonna do the wreath shape
because I think it's a show stopper,
and it's suitable for the holiday season.
So when it's rounded,
we'll place it in a round baking dish.
We're adding egg wash to give it some color
and to create some more strength to the dough.
I don't like to use a lot
because I don't like pastries
that looks like there's an omelet on top of it.
This is why I dilute it
with just a little bit of water.
So I add one tablespoon of water on each egg that I use.
And then using a brush
I just brush it really, really gently,
you don't wanna have too much egg on it
because it's just gonna hide the beauty of the babka.
We're baking this for about 25 to 30 minutes.
Our wreath is ready, it looks beautiful.
It's golden brown all around, gorgeous.
So now while it's still hot we wanna soak it with syrup.
They both need to be hot
in order for the syrup to soak into the babka
and create the texture we wanna create.
This is my favorite, favorite part
of making babka,
which is the decoration part
and the garnishing.
We're going to use rose petals,
they remind me scents from my childhood.
They remind me of home.
And I like to add pistachios
because I love the flavor,
but I also love the colors.
Finally it's ready, we can eat it.
Cut me a slice already.
This is the surprise.
I like slicing it,
and then you see all of these beautiful swirls inside.
This is the most satisfying part.
If you end up making this,
and it doesn't look like that,
that's fine, it's still gonna taste delicious,
just keep practicing.
Visual is something that will happen eventually,
you just have to keep doing it.
Thank you guys so much,
I hope you make it
and enjoy it.
And if you do, please take a picture of it,
tag me in it because I love seeing
what you guys are doing with it.
(gentle music)