Salted Chocolate and Marzipan Babka for #TwelveLoaves

#TwelveLoaves is a monthly bread baking party created by Lora from Cake Duchess and runs smoothly with the help of Heather of girlichef, and the rest of our fabulous bakers.

Our theme this month is A LITTLE SOMETHING SWEET. For more bread recipes, visit the #TwelveLoaves Pinterest board, or check out last month's mouthwatering selection of #TwelveLoaves Mexican Breads!

This month, our bread basket includes...

• Apricot Challah from A Shaggy Dough Story
• Blueberry Cheese Danish from Kudos Kitchen By Renee
• Cinnamon Mocha Swirl Bread from blackberry eating in late september
• Cinnamon Sticky Buns from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Gluten-Free Strawberry Lemonade Muffins from Rhubarb and Honey
• Hawaiian Style Sweet Rolls from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Malt Bread from girlichef
• Nocatole {Calabrian sweet fritters} from Cake Duchess
• Saffron bread with raisins from TheBreadSheBakes.com
• Salted Chocolate and Marzipan Babka from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• S'mores Monkey Bread from The Redhead Baker

If you'd like to bake along with us this month, share your SWEET bread using hashtag #TwelveLoaves!

I read a bunch of traditional babka recipes and, then, in typical Camilla-style, deviated beyond recognition. But this was a tasty, tender bite for my son's birthday snack. Yum.

Ingredients

Babka

• 1/2 C warm water
• 1 T active dry yeast
• 1 T organic granulated sugar
• 4 1/2 C flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 t pure almond extract
• oil

Filling

• 3 ounces dark chocolate, finely chopped (I used a chili pepper infused chocolate from Theo)
• 2 T organic unsweetened cocoa powder
• 5 T butter, softened
• 7 ounces marzipan, grated
• 1/2 t ground cinnamon
• flaky sea salt for sprinkling
• organic raw turbinado sugar for sprinkling

Glaze

• 2 T butter
• 2 T organic granulated sugar
• 1/2 t vanilla bean paste

Procedure

Combine water, yeast, and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Let bloom for ten minutes - until it gets foamy on top. Add in the flour, then the eggs and almond extract. Knead until it comes together in a ball. Oil the bowl and cover with a towel. Let rise until doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes to two hours.

During the rise, make your filling. Place all of the ingredients, up to the cinnamon, in mixing bowl. And, with a fork, blend everything together until a thick paste is formed.

Once the dough is risen, roll it out on a parchment paper. You can divide the dough into half; I kept it all together in one loooooooong roll of dough in the end.

Spread the marzipan mixture over the rectangle. Sprinkle the entire roll with salt and turbinado sugar. Roll the rectangle lengthwise into a jelly roll.

Cut it down the length of the roll so that you have two long skinny pieces.

Wrap and twist the two pieces around each other so that you have a twisted loaf. I shaped mine into a ring to fit on my baking sheet.

Let the loaves rise for an hour and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the loaves until golden brown and baked through, approimately 20 to 25 minutes.While the loaves are baking, make the glaze. Bring sugar, butter, and vanilla paste to a simmer until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and set aside to cool somewhat. As soon as the babka is pulled out of the oven, brush the syrup all over.

Let cool for a few minutes before slicing!