When I lived at home, my dad was always the one who did the grocery shopping. Many times he would come home with new and interesting treats for us to try. On one such day he came home with a really strange looking bread that said babka on the label. None of us had ever heard of it before and we weren’t sure whether it was sweet or savory, so we couldn’t wait to cut into it and have a taste…
As we sliced the first piece, it was obvious to us that this was something we had never had before. It was a very rich and sweet yeast dough that was rolled out into a thin layer and then covered all over with a chocolate and cinnamon filling. It was then filled with chunks of chocolate and rolled up into a loaf, proofed then topped with a streusel topping and baked. The rolled layers created a perfect series of concentric circles within the heart of the bread, so not only was it delicious but it was also beautiful to look at. Babka actually looks very much like another sweet bread called Potica (pronounced po-tee-tsah). This is a rich, traditional Croatian and Slovenian brioche- like sweet bread that is filled with a nut (or poppy seed) mixture that creates the similar concentric circles in the bread. If you’ve never had it, you really must try it.
Over the years, I have enjoyed many more chocolate babkas…and let me clarify that there are chocolate versions with cinnamon and then you have the more traditional cinnamon only version too. The bread originated in Poland and was traditionally served at Easter time…kind of like cinnamon bread filled with raisins and then topped with a sugar glaze. This bread is truly delicious but does require a good bit of time to make. Since ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, I set out to create a quick coffeecake to satisfy my sweet tooth for this delightful treat.
The cake and the cinnamon swirl is the same one that I used for the cinnamon bun cake, and the only difference is that I omitted the sugar glaze and simply added bittersweet chocolate chips and a streusel topping. I also drizzled this with a rich chocolate ganache glaze but you don’t have to do that…it is equally delicious without it.
If you’re in a pinch and just need a quick dessert, you can use a cake mix and then add the rest of the components to create the same dessert…but this cake is so easy to put together and is made from ingredients that we generally have on hand, so save yourself a trip to the grocery store and try your hand at making this delicious cake…you won’t regret it.
Chocolate Babka Coffee Cake (makes 1-10”x 10” square)
1 recipe cinnamon bun cake (use the cinnamon swirl but do not use the glaze)
1 recipe cinnamon streusel topping
1 recipe quick ganache **optional
2 cup mini bittersweet chocolate chips or crushed chocolate pieces
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Then grease and line your cake pan and set aside. Prepare your streusel topping, cinnamon swirl filling and ganache (if you are going to use this) and set them aside. Next, prepare your cake batter and pour this into your prepared pan. Using an offset spatula, spread the batter evenly in your pan.
Then take one cup of the chocolate pieces and combine this with your cinnamon swirl filling. Add the cinnamon swirl filling to the cake batter and using a knife swirl it into the cake batter. Add the other cup of chocolate chips on top of this and swirl them into the batter also. Lastly, top the entire cake with the streusel topping and bake in your preheated oven for 30-40 minutes until your cake test clean.
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