Chocolate Babka Pull Apart Muffins

I realized not long back that I have an unchecked list in my head, a list of things that only other people bake.  As in… a list of things that for some reason, thanks to a laundry list of reasons and excuses, I don’t know how and shouldn’t attempt to bake.  

On that list is baguettes (to be honest, I really don’t have the right oven for it), Doberge Cake (if you don’t know you better ask somebody), bagels (really good bagels), this seemingly insane Russian Honey Cake, and Chocolate Babka (because what is going on with that filling and that magical twist!?).  

Why build road blocks?  Ain’t nothing wrong with a good hard try, amiright?

Here’s to acknowledging that list, looking it straight in the face and getting after it.  I spend the better parts of September and October demystifying bagels for myself.  Recipe test after recipe test I found that Peter Reinhart’s proportions and rest were the easiest to work with in my kitchen, and absolutely essential:  diastatic malt powder.  Let’s call that ONE impossibility checked off the list.  

This month, BABKA – and we’re coming in through the sidehatch.  We’re making a buttery enriched dough, folding in a melted chocolate + chocolate cookie mixture, folding, slicing, and piling into a muffin tin.  These are good!  We’re working towards a loaf pan, but these muffins are mighty indeed.  

This recipe comes in three parts:  

•  a soft yeasted dough with butter, milk, and eggs.

•  a melted chocolate, melted butter, and chocolate cookie crumble filling

•  and a buttery crumble topping. 

We’ve made a lot of this yeasted dough together.   For a step-by-step, holler at these Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls.  Everything goes in a bowl and the magic of eggs and milk and butter makes for a slightly sticky, soft and tender dough.  

Let’s talk about filling! 

Here’s one of my baker tips:  when making a filling or topping, I make twice as much as I need and save a batch of filling and topping in the freezer for my future self.  Then!  When I decide I’m a genius and need more babka rolls, I only have to have the yeasted dough because the filling and topping are waiting for me in the freezer.  The recipe below reflect the inflated filling and crumble amounts. 

Good, right? 

For our filling – butter is melted with milk and bittersweet chocolate.  Good good great.

We’ll add a dash of ground cinnamon and a few big spoonfuls of honey.  

Now… things need to cool.  The chocolate mixture needs to cool to room temperature before stirring in the cookie crumbs.  A cooled chocolate will create a thick and spreadable filling. 

Want to talk about these chocolate cookie crumbs?  Many recipes call for chocolate wafers crumbled finely.  I find that Oreo cookies are often easier to find than chocolate wafers so… you guessed it… I removed the cream filling from the Oreos and ground the cookies in a food processor to a fine crumb.

I was a Girl Scout.  I’m nothing if not savvy, resourceful, and good at memorizing pledges. 

Stir the cookie crumbs into the melted chocolate.  Stir and stir.  The mixture will thicken to spreadable and if it doesn’t, allow the mixture to cool to room temperature further. 

You can throw the mixture (not literally) into the refrigerator to speed up the cooling process as long as you stir the mixture every 15 minutes or so for even cooling.

After a rise to double, the dough is rolled to a 18×12-inch (ish) rectangle.  You’ll want the long side facing you.  That’s where we’ll spread and fold from. 

The chocolate mixture (listen… we already feel like successes, don’t we?) spreads across the rolled dough. 

And we’re folding the dough, from its longest side, into four.

This will be like rolling a cinnamon roll but instead of a tight coil, we’re folding the dough upwards in four quarters on top of itself. 

We’re creating a flat fold from the long side of the dough. Chocolate filling inside.  

Now! We’re going to do something that feels impossible.  From the length of the rolled dough (we should be at about 18-inches, right) we’ll make 24 thin vertical slices.  24 slices because we want two dough pieces to go into each of the 12 muffin tins.  

Divide the flat dough log in half and slice each half into 12 pieces. 

For extra insurance, the muffin cups are greased and floured.  We’ve come so far, the last thing we want is for these beauties to stick! 

With a pinch of each dough piece, two are layered per muffin tin. 

You could go two different directions here: 

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F for about 20 minutes, allowing the prepared dough to rest at room temperature, rising just slightly while the oven heats.  Bake and enjoy!
2. Wrap the pan in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to slowly proof overnight.  In the morning, take the pan out of the refrigerator, preheat the oven.  Allow the rolls to come to room temperature before baking and enjoying! 

But before out bake:  a cinnamon crumble streusel.  This mixture of flour + brown sugar+ butter is optional but encouraged. 

Into the oven to raise, brown and bubble! 

Allow the rolls to cool in the pan.  They set. They’ll get to be friends.  

Run a butterknife around the edges of each cup and coax each muffin out.  

This is exciting.  Treat yourself. Have a warm muffin. 

Tender dough. Chocolate filling, a lightly crisp top.  Let’s check one thing off the Bake List.  

If you make these (on your holiday break, perhaps!?) share a picture with me on Instagram! I can’t wait to see what you make! 

Photos with my friend Jon Melendez.

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