Chocolate Hazelnut Cinnamon Krantz Loaf
Babka dough filled with dark chocolate, hazelnut, and a sprinkle of cinnamon becomes a show-stopping krantz loaf when cut down the middle so the beautiful filling shows through on top. You will need either two standard (8.5 or 9-inch) loaf pans or one 14-inch Pullman loaf pan.
Servings: 2 8.5-inch loaves or 1 Pullman loaf
Ingredients
Yeast Dough
- 2 ¼ teaspoons dried yeast or 20g of fresh yeast
- 2 ⅔ cup (330 g) strong white bread flour (like King Arthur Flour)
- scant 3 tablespoons (40 g) superfine sugar*
- pinch kosher salt
- 1 large egg gently beaten
- 5 ¾ tablespoons (85 g/ml) whole milk, lukewarm
- 6 ⅓ tablespoons (90 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
Filling
- 7 tablespoons (100 g) unsalted butter
- ½ cup + ⅓ cup (190 g) superfine sugar*
- rounded ½ cup (80 g) 70% dark chocolate roughly chopped
- ⅓ cup (40 g) dark cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅓ cup (60 g) roasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
Assembly
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- scant ½ cup (100 g) sugar
- scant ½ cup (100 ml/g) water
- 1 tablespoon honey, glucose, or light corn syrup
Instructions
Yeast Dough
- Place the milk in a small bowl, then sprinkle with the yeast and stir once. Allow yeast to bloom, bubbling gently on the surface, about 5 minutes.
- Transfer the milk-yeast to a mixing bowl, then add the egg, butter, and sugar. Stir briefly to combine. If using a mixer with a dough hook, attach the dough hook, add the flour and salt to the liquid ingredients, and knead at low speed until the mixture forms a glossy, cohesive ball of dough, about 5-6 minutes. [If you do not have a mixer with a dough hook, knead by hand on a clean, lightly floured work surface.]
- Cover the dough in the mixing bowl and chill it in the refrigerator at least 6 hours or overnight.
Filling
- Line one 9x13" Pullman loaf pan or two 9x5" loaf pan(s) with parchment paper, leaving enough overhang at the long ends to enable lifting the baked loaf out. If your parchment paper doesn't cover the sides, butter the sides of the pan(s).
- Set up a mis-en-place. Place your sugar in one bowl and stir together the chopped chocolate, cocoa, cinnamon in a second bowl.
- In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter (or use the microwave). Immediately remove the saucepan from the heat, add the sugar, and stir to quickly dissolve. Moving quickly, add the chocolate, cocoa, and cinnamon, and stir to combine and melt the chocolate. The chocolate does not need to completely melt into the butter.
- Set aside briefly to cool at room temperature while you roll out the dough. Don't wait too long, as this filling solidifies quickly and is difficult to spread.
- Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator and place it on a clean, lightly floured work surface. Roll it out into a rectangle about 16-by-12-inches (40-by-30 cm), with a thickness of about ⅛th of an inch.
- Spread the room temperature filling (it can't be hot, otherwise you'll melt your dough) evenly over the surface of your dough rectangle, reaching all the way into the corners as best you can. Sprinkle the chopped hazelnuts over the filing.
- Starting at the long edge closest to you, tightly roll the dough away from you to produce a 16-inch long dough spiral log. [If the dough has softened too much and is difficult to handle, place it on a tray in the refrigerator to re-chill, about 10 minutes.]
- Using a sharp knife or pastry cutter, evenly split the dough log down the middle lengthwise, exposing the layers. Place the two halves side-by-side, with the filling facing up. Lift one half over the other, crossing at the middle. Working from the middle out, braid the strands over each other, keeping the filling layers pointed up as much as possible. If making two loaves, split the braided loaf horizontally.
- Place the braid(s) in the prepared loaf pan(s) and cover loosely with a cloth towel or plastic wrap. Leave to rise again for 1.5 - 2 hours at room temperature or up to 14 hours in the refrigerator. The dough will appear soft and fluffy, increasing in size by almost double.
- Preheat the oven to 425 F, letting it equilibrate for 10 minutes after reaching the specified temperature.
Assembly
- Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolk and cream for the egg wash. Remove the loaf/loaves from the refrigerator, if stored there. Brush the surface of the loaf/loaves with the egg wash and let the dough finish rising as the oven preheats.
- Place the loaves in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 375 F. Bake for 25 minutes at 375 F, then reduce the temperature to 350 F, rotate the pans, cover with foil to prevent the tops from becoming too browned, and bake another 15 minutes. Decrease the temperature to 325 F and bake for another 5-10 minutes. The bread is fully baked when it reaches 180 F degrees internally.
- While the bread bakes, prepare the simple sugar syrup. Add the sugar, water, and honey to a small pan. Stir to combine and start dissolving the sugar. Bring to a boil, skim off any residue on the surface, then remove from the heat.
- As soon as the krantz is finished baking (55 minutes total), remove from the oven and immediately pour the sugar syrup over the hot bread. It will look like a lot, but it's supposed to be (alternatively, store leftover sugar syrup in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.) Place on a wire rack and let the krantz loaf cool completely in the baking pan, otherwise it will fall apart.
Notes
*Using granulated sugar is fine instead, it simply won't dissolve as completely in the filling. Alternatively, you can make your own superfine sugar from regular granulated sugar in a food processor, grinder, or blender. Just pulse to yield finer grains of sugar.