Babka has been on my to-bake list for years. Even after I grew comfortable with baking yeasted breads, babka seemed like a big project. I've bookmarked a few recipes, but this one looked so easy I jumped on it almost right away. King Arthur Flour writes that the bundt shape is supposed to be reminiscent of a grandmother's skirt. The dough comes together easily in a stand mixer, and the two risings are brief. What you get is a rich bread that is a bit like cake, in the style of brioche, but denser. I adore the rum syrup, which turns the babka into something like baba au rhum. I could do without the white icing on top, which I found cloying and unnecessary, and just double down on that rum syrup.
Other babka recipes will call for shaping, and filling with chocolate or cinnamon (or both), and I fully intend to tackle one. By Easter, I hope. But I'm mostly about the easy and quick recipes these days. In fact, some (very few?) of you may have noticed I've been posting way less. I'm stepping back my blogging because life is just getting too hectic. Also, I've recently adopted a healthier lifestyle that doesn't fit with baking cake and pie every week. And I feel great! But I've gotta say, sometimes I get an itch not necessarily to eat, but to bake something like pie. I'm working on another dining review for the paper this week, but maybe I'll get around to baking that chocolate babka! Fingers crossed.
