It is dark and raining out, Hanukah has ended, yet I still want to bake goodies to give away. I recalled a fantastic babka recipe that appeared in Gourmet magazine years ago. Rather than a bready sparsely filled loaf, or crumbly dry loaf I was after the moist buttery strands of a many layered pastry rolled up with chocolate and other luscious fillings. The original recipe was in a December 2006 issue of a print Gourmet Magazine, and can be found at this site on Epicurious. Just click on the highlighted Epicurious.
I altered the recipe by adding an extra half cup of flour. It made the dough easier to work with. I made one recipe, that is two loaves with the chocolate filling and since I never bake just one batch of anything or buy just one of anything…I made more dough. I filled one batch of dough with marzipan and dark cherry preserves. A third batch became my cinnamon, brown sugar, pecans and raisins batch, and the very last recipe of dough I decided to fill with cinnamon, sugar, chocolate chips and pecans. 
For the marzipan and cherry preserves Babka, use one log of the Odense marzipan. Roll it out into a long thin rectangle. First butter your rolled out dough, then spread 1/2 cup of Hero brand cherry preserves and lastly, tear the thinly rolled marzipan rectangle into irregular pieces to randomly scatter over the surface of the rectangle of Babka dough. Roll up the log and follow the directions as for the chocolate Babka.
Linda, the babka looks really yummy, I love the fillings you’ve used I have been thinking about making one for a while now, I am bookmarking the recipe and will try it soon! Thank you for sharing. 🙂
Hi Linda,
WOW!!!! What a rainy day project.
Your lovely photos are inviting me to try this. Looks simply delicious.
I hope you will get to post the Hawaiian fish recipes that you previously mentioned. We will all be looking for healthier eating when the holidays are over.
I enjoy each and every post!
Norma
This looks so, so gorgeous and delicious. I’ve never made babka before – chocolate or otherwise – but after reading and seeing this, I am completely inspired and motivated to try out this recipe.
Thanks for sharing, and thanks as well for the very helpful tutorial-esqe photos. As with all my favourite types of cookbooks, I find it really does help and inspires confidence when you’re trying out a recipe for the first time, but aren’t exactly sure you’re doing it correctly, and have photos or a step-by-step tutorial to guide you.
Hi Linda,
Just wanted to let you know that I did the babka recipe today—and what a success!!! Just filled it with chocolate chips and a little sugar. The recipe is not hard–just need time for dough to rise.
The taste is so fresh–well worth the effort.
Thanks for sharing with us.
Norma