Chocolate in my Homemade Bread

Article first published as Chocolate in my Homemade Bread on Blogcritics.

Never in my life have I eaten babka. So naturally I never had a desire to bake babka bread. Not until I stumbled upon Smitten Kitchen’s blog post about it that is. Her description sounded devine. How could something that called for over 2 pounds of chocolate be bad?

Of course, I didn’t follow the recipe exactly. Repeat after me: recipes are recommendations.

I made a few changes to the filling portion. The original recipe recommended using semi-sweet chocolate along with a cup of sugar. Semi-sweet chocolate is just too sweet for my taste even without adding more sugar. I prefer bittersweet. So, that’s what I used: 3 packages of bittersweet chocolate chips, ground up in the food processor. I ommitted the sugar altogether. I also increased the butter in the filling to 1 cup or 2 sticks partly because Elly mashed the stick of butter making it impossible to cut in half equally (it’s amazing how high she can reach now!) and partly because I love butter.

Here’s my version of the filling:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 packages of bittersweet chocolate chips (11 oz), chopped finely in a food processor
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Stir together until smooth.Then, taste it. If you think it’s too bitter, add some sugar or don’t use bittersweet chocolate. You’re the one who has to eat it. I already have my bread and I’ve eaten it too.

Though we tried to eat it for breakfast, it quickly became a dessert bread. 2 pounds of chocolate really IS a lot of chocolate. That’s not a complaint. I couldn’t be more pleased with my babka.