Chocolate Marble Babka

Happy Friday! Happy Good Friday (though, I guess Good Friday really isn’t all that happy, is it?). However, from where I’m sitting today, it’s looking pretty good. The sun is out (for now, snow later???? Pleeeease nooooooo!), the holiday weekend is ahead, and I’m pretty sure I heard birds chirping as I got out of the right side of the bed this morning…but maybe that’s just me. Even if all of the above is just in my head, here’s something that, if you make it, may transport all of those good things into yours: a Chocolate Marble Babka.

Chocolate, butter, eggs, chocolate, cream, chocolate.

That should do it.

With Easter all around us (and those Godforsaken peeps seemingly everywhere), you’ve probably seen more than a few babka recipes out and about.  So, what is a babka? Let’s get into it.

Babka, which in Polish literally translates to “little grandmother,”is a sweet, eggy, buttery bread often served around Easter to celebrate the return of all things decadent after the forty day fast of Lent.   Since I kicked off the Lenten season by talking about the glutinous Polish donut, Paczki, it was only fitting that I end it on a similar note with the babka.

Traditional babkas all have the same yeasty brioche-like base, and each loaf is distinguished by its flair:  fruit, nuts, seeds and booze being the most traditional additions.  Sweet cheese or chocolate fillings were either reserved for the well-to-do, or not seen at all (chocolate not becoming an acceptable edible until 1879 when made palatable by Mr. Lindt).  One account suggests different cultural groups make the babka differently; whereas traditional Polish loaves are baked in a bundt pan, meant to resemble a grandmother’s wide, flowing skirt, the Jewish sector in New York is credited with twisting their babkas and fitting them in a loaf pan, and really embellishing them with chocolate.  If that’s true, thank you to them.

Chocolate talk bring me to today’s recipe.  I’ve known H for approximately 10 years (whoa) and I know you’ve heard about her multiple times throughout my travel and food tales. She’s one of my best friends with whom I’ve hopped oceans, crammed for law school exams, laughed until it hurt, and cried until it stopped. I know her well enough to know that absolutely, under no circumstance, will we ever plan a vacation around Easter. Easter in her household, and in most traditional Polish households, is sacrosanct; a weekend filled with time-honored traditions strictly observed despite age, distance and the relative busyness of one’s life.  Easter baskets filled with colored eggs are blessed on Holy Saturday, mass is attended on Easter Sunday, and I know that, in the Lettuce household, a babka, along with a lemon tart, graces the countertop every year.  According to her, they top theirs with a chocolate ganache for maximum goodness. In fact, if you leave this alone on the counter in her house ,someone will covertly peel a bit of icing off the side…at least, until the babka disappears altogether, which takes less than 24 hours. Pastry addicts, all.

Despite being traditionally a yeast cake, the Lettuce version is yeast-free, making it more like a marble pound cake. Still, the idea is the same, and it’s a really, really good idea.