Bakers of ChiefsPlanet... show us your breads (and other baked goods)!

[Mephistopheles Janx]

I've been baking most of our bread for the past year or so. It has consisted, mostly, just white sammich bread and potato bread for dinner rolls. My sister-in-law got me to watch "The Great British Bake Off" and I felt inspired to try baking some stuff that is just a bit more difficult than plain white bread.

Today I decided to make a Babka which is a sweet bread (or cake) that is braided... very popular within Jewish communities.

Finished Product:


The process:



Flatten out the dough and cover it with chocolate filling topped with chopped nuts. (the chocolate filling was also home made)



Roll up the dough, cut the ends off, and slice the roll right down the middle with a sharp knife. Flip the rolls so that the chocolate filling is facing up and braid them together. Put the bread in a baking tin.



Bake the bread per the instructions.



Glaze with a sugar syrup (home made and SUPER easy).



Served best when warm but room temp also works. My rolling will be MUCH tighter next time to get more swirls within the bread.

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I also made a tear and share mozz and garlic bread the other day... the top was excellent but the bottom was slightly burned.

[Mephistopheles Janx]

Originally Posted by tredadda

Won't lie, that looks amazing! Need to get the dough recipe from you. I see the ingredients, but not how to prepare the dough.

I was given a Kitchen Aid mixer that has made my baking life a billion times easier.

I take the bowl from the mixer and put in all the ingredients and knead it for around 8 minutes (my go to kneading time on the machine) .

Heavily dust your working surface with semolina, drop the kneaded dough on the surface, roll it around to get good coverage, then split into 3 dough balls that weigh 230gr (ish) a piece.

If you want to make a pizza immediately, go for it. Otherwise I like to put the 3 balls into 3 containers that have been greased with cooking spray and throw the dough in the fridge for up to 72 hours. I find that the dough develops a bit of a sour taste to it and I REALLY like it. *if you don't use all that dough in that time frame throw it in the freezer... it will keep there no problem*

To prepare the dough (using photos from previous preparations)...

I'd like to do the toss method but my ceiling isn't that tall so I spread the dough and get it into a round shape, pick it up, then shuffle it around pulling at the edges ( NEVER THE MIDDLE ) to stretch out the dough to the desired size.



You can do some fun shit like making it a stuffed crust



Enough olive oil to coat the entire top of the dough but make sure there aren't any puddles. Same with the sauce. *note: I want to make my own sauce but for now I'm using Prego Marinara*



I like to use a 50/50 mixture of low fat and full fat mozz for the topping. I don't think I would put more than 2 toppings on this particular pizza. I don't think the dough would handle it.

You actually want to use less cheese than you would think. When you get to the point where you think "I could use just a little more cheese" just stop right there.

[tredadda]

Awesome! Thanks for that. Gonna try it out when I get home as the wife has a KitchenAid and I have never heard anything poor about it.

[Mephistopheles Janx]

Oh shit... I forgot to add.

Bake it at 550 degrees (or as hot as your oven goes) and be sure that the oven has been at 550 for at least a half hour with the stone in the oven before you put the pizza in there.