Lemon Cranberry and White Chocolate Babka

Apart from a little inclusion in my Quinoa Berry Christmas cake recipe I haven’t experimented with cranberries. After my eye catching them in the shop the other day I decided to purchase some and come up with a recipe. For something different I decided I wanted to make a bread with the cranberries.

As cranberries are so sweet I paired this flavour with the zesty taste of lemon and added in white chocolate to produce a marbled flavour effect throughout the bread.

Making the ‘Babka’ bread came about as a fourth attempted in this baking session as the original recipe experiment of a sponge roll log cake was not a success at all.  The experiment aim was to make a sweet treat that allowed me to produce a spiral effect and a babka dough would allow for exactly this. Babka is bread that a) is rolled up and b) involves platting the dough together to intensify flavour bursts.

I actually had quite a few versions of this where  2 were serious standouts, this Lemon Cranberry and White Chocolate Babka being one of these.

Ingredients:

Dough

• 210g flour
• 25g sugar
• 4g yeast
• 1 egg
• 85g warm water
• 35g butter, at room temperature

Filling

• 80g cranberries
• 100g white chocolate
• 40g butter
• 30g icing sugar
• 3 tsn lemon zest

Method:

1. Place the flour, sugar and yeast in a bowl and mix until combine.
2. Whisk the egg and add to the mix with luke warm water.
3. Using a wooden spoon stir until the mix is combining and resembles a dough.
4. Flour the bench and place the dough on the flour. Kneed for 5 minutes of until the dough is elastic and smooth.
5. Place the mix in an oiled bowl and using hands massage the butter into the dough until it is combine and glossy.
6. Place a towel or plastic wrap over the bowl and leave in a warm place for 2 hours or until the dough triples in size.
7. Dice up the cranberries.
8. To make the filling place the butter in a bowl and heat until boiling in the microware.
9. Add the white chocolate and allow to sit for 1 minute. Stir the white chocolate until the mix is smooth.
10. Punch down the dough and knead until smooth.
11. Add the icing sugar to the chocolate mix, lemon zest and the cranberries.
12. Roll the dough out to 40cm x 20cm shape with a rolling pin.
13. Spread the filling over the dough evenly.
14. On one of the short ends brush water with a pastry brush.
15. Roll up the dough from the small end with no water and finish at the water end (the water will seal the roll).
16. Place the dough onto the baking tray, cut a slit down the middle longways, almost to the top of the roll.
17. Plat the 2 halves by crossing them over each other, place the towel or plastic wrap back on top of the bread and leave for 45 minutes.
18. Pre-heat the oven to 190c degrees and place the bread in the oven for 25 minutes or until the bread is golden brown.
19. Cut into slices and serve with a spread of butter, delish!

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