Make your own babka
Let me start by saying, I am not a great baker. I love food and cooking, but baking involves following a recipe a lot more closely than I tend to. My mom is, however, a great baker. I told her I wanted to make a babka because one—an emotionally significant one—appears in Unwritten Rules. (She refrained from asking what an emotionally significant babka was.)
The recipe we made is adapted from The Nosher’s My Mother’s Ultimate Chocolate Babka recipe (with a few minor modifications I’ll note). Click the arrows to scroll through the pictures below.
If you make this, let me know how it goes! Tag me on Twitter or Insta so I can 🤤 over it.
All of the ingredients needed to make babka. Please note the amount of butter.
Adding yeast to warm milk. (And temp-ing it with a meat thermometer.)
Beating together eggs and sugar on a stand mixer that's slightly older than I am.
It needed a little assist in turning.
Adding the flour in stages.
Us learning that the dough hooks on this mixer are directional, and having the dough rise up the hooks and spin everywhere. (We fixed it.)
First proof (before).
First proof (after).
Flouring the board generously. This was actually fairly easy to work with dough — the amount of butter made it handleable — but we were a little concerned about sticking.
Rolling out dough.
Rolling out dough again.
We swapped pecans for walnuts in the filling and would definitely recommend that. (We didn't toast them, but it might make it a touch less sweet.) I could not stop eating the combo of nuts, chocolate, cinnamon, and sugar. (We called it "Jew-tella.")
Rolling it into a log.
This is where the directions said to "cut in half and twist it." We did a horizontal cut not a vertical cut (whoooooops), but it still came out amazing. Pictures of what it should actually look like are at the end.
Applying an egg wash.
Making a streusel with even more butter. (We calculated that this babka has 1.5 tablespoons of butter per slice.)
The second proof.
The finished product!!!
Spreading the filling. Picture courtesy Bookishly Jewish.
Cutting the log. Picture courtesy Bookishly Jewish.
The full cut. Picture courtesy Bookishly Jewish.
Twist one. Picture courtesy Bookishly Jewish.
Circling up. Picture courtesy Bookishly Jewish.
The final product. Picture courtesy Bookishly Jewish.
Unwritten Rules: The Soundtrack
One of these days, I’ll make a book soundtrack that doesn’t have quite as many breakup songs on it. Also, I love music and love hearing new music, so if there’s a song you think fits Unwritten Rules, please let me know!