Month: June 2021

This recipe was inspired by my baking teacher, Ma Baker. My son does not have much of a sweet tooth but he loves Biscoff. What is Biscoff? It’s a spread, like Nutella, but it seems to be lovely biscuits combined with butter and sugar to make a smooth paste. Once my son knew Biscoff Babka was a thing, I had to make it for him. I adapted this recipe from Astrid Field of the Sweet Rebellion. Her recipe is much more elaborate than mine with the addition of sugar syrup and a Biscoff cookie topping. Looks amazing but too sweet for my son’s tastes.

Babka is a traditional Eastern European dough, rich and slightly sweet with a swirl of filling through it. You can fill your babka with any sweet filling: Nutella, cinnamon, peanut butter, jam. And as it turns out – Biscoff. This recipe makes two loaves but you won’t be sorry that there’s extra. It freezes nicely but my experience is that it doesn’t hang around enough to need freezing.

The braiding and rolling instructions seem complicated but don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect; no one but you will know what it was supposed to look like. Here’s a video on braiding babka, worth a watch before you start.

Let’s get baking.

Instructions

• 525 grams bread flour
• 10 grams yeast
• 50 grams brown sugar
• 50 grams white sugar
• 5 grams of salt
• 250 mls milk
• 100 grams unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 jar of Biscoff, 500 grams
  
• 1 egg for washing the dough
• 50 grams of butter to soften the crust after baking

Instructions

1. Melt the butter in the microwave. Combine with the milk and set to one side to cool for about 5 minutes
2. Combine the flour, sugars, yeast and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer. Mix well.
3. Beat the eggs with the vanilla, add to the milk and butter mixture. The mixture should be just warm or room temperature.
4. Put the dough hook on the mixer, start it turning at slow speed with the dry ingredients.
5. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture with the dough hook turning slowly. When the ingredients are well combined, increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 6 to 8 minutes.
6. Scrape the sides and bottom to make sure all ingredients are incorporated.
7. The dough will be relatively sticky so handle with care. Tip onto a well floured surface, form into a ball and place in a well oiled bowl. Cover with cling film or a shower cap.
8. Allow the dough to rise for 3 to 4 hours then refrigerate to continue rising. If possible, allow it rise overnight in the refrigerator but a minimum pf 2 hours to firm up the dough. It should have doubled in size.
9. Once the dough is ready, warm the Biscoff either in a bowl of warm water or in the microwave to make it easier to spread.
10. Prep your loaf pans – line them with parchment paper or you will have a sticky mess. Greasing the pans is not sufficient because some Biscoff will leak out and try to bond with your pans.
11. Divide the dough into two halves. Flour your worktop. I have a marble slab and an alternative if you have stone worktops is to lightly oil them with coconut oil or another relatively flavourless oil.
12. Pat or roll the dough into a 30 cm by 20 cm rectangle with the long side towards you. Cover the dough with half the Biscoff, leaving a margin of about a centimetre around the edges. Roll the dough carefully into a cylinder.
13. Cut the cylinder down its length, leaving about 5 cms at the top uncut. PInch the cut edges together to keep the filling inside. Braid the two pieces together by passing one over the top of the other and repeating. Try not to stretch the pieces as you’re braiding. Once the braiding is complete – compress the length so it fits in your loaf pan and place in the pans.
14. Repeat with the second half of the dough.
15. Lightly cover the pans with either a tea towel or a shower cap for the second rise of 1 to 2 hours. The dough will puff up but will not double in size.
16. Preheat the oven to 180C.
17. Beat the egg with a pinch of salt and generously brush the tops of the loaves immediately before placing inn the oven. Bake the loaves for 30 to 35 minutes
18. Remove from oven when golden brown. Brush the tops with butter to ensure a soft top to the loaves.
19. Cool and enjoy.
    
    

Thanks for reading the blog, cooking the recipes, sharing your photos and your feedback. Find me on Instagram and Twitter @mamadolson .

These cookies are the magical result of excess ingredients. I had a bulk buy of peanut butter that was approaching it’s best by date. And I always have plenty of rolled oats and chocolate chips – so they all came together in these cookies. I test my baked goods on a wide audience – from teenage boys and my gardeners to my fellow volunteers at Smartworks. And of course the Davinator, who’s never met a cookie he didn’t like. A European colleague said the taste of peanut butter was well balanced and didn’t overwhelm the other ingredients.

These cookies are quick and reliable – great if you realise after dinner you need to supply treats to the office the next day. My base recipe assumed American peanut butter (sweeter and higher in fat than European) and American butter (slightly lower in fat than European). I used a standard smooth UK peanut butter brand ‘Sunpat’ and unsalted butter. If you use organic or speciality peanut butter you may not get as smooth a dough because the peanut butter is less homogenised.

If you’ve preheated the oven and softened your butter – you can put this recipe together in less than 15 minutes, and each tray takes 12 to 14 minutes to bake. It makes about 36 cookies. You can make a double batch but it might challenge your mixer.

Let’s get baking.

Prep steps

• Preheat oven to 175C (160C if fan)
• Line baking trays with parchment or silicon – you can recycle the trays but if you have enough trays, it’s good for them to be completely cool when you drop the cookie dough on them

Ingredients

• 110 grams rolled or porridge oats (not instant oatmeal but otherwise tolerates most types of oats)
• 125 grams plain white flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 115 gram unsalted softened butter
• 125 smooth peanut butter
• 100 grams caster sugar
• 110 grams brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 175 grams chocolate chips (your choice, milk, dark, semi-sweet, white)

Instructions

1. Combine the oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Stir well.
2. Put the butter and peanut butter in the bowl of your stand mixer and beat on medium speed until smooth. Give this as long as it needs to be lump free and uniform texture.
3. Beat in the caster sugar, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until well blended.
4. Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture, about 1/3 at a time and beat until incorporated.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips.
6. Drop by generous rounded tablespoons onto the cookie sheets.
7. Place in the oven for about 13 minutes. If you have two or more sheets in the oven rotate them half way through the cooking time.
8. Keep an eye on the first batch – if they spread out promptly take no further action. If they don’t spread out in 2 or 3 minutes, pull them from the oven and tap the top of each dough ball with a metal spoon to encourage them to flatten. If necessary for the first batch, then squish subsequent batches before you put them in the oven.
9. They will turn golden brown – move to a wire rack or laid out tea towels to cool immediately. Try to let them cool before eating – burning the inside of your mouth with a cookie is an embarrassing injury.

Thank you for reading the blog and trying the recipes. Please share photos of your baking and tag me @mamadolson on Twitter and Instagram.

Happy baking.