Making this delicious Chocolate Cinnamon Babka from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day { book review }

Okay, so let me start by saying that this post will not have the recipe for the bread I'm going to show you. That wouldn't be fair to the author or publisher -- and quite frankly probably isn't legal. :) 

So, if you think this bread looks delicious, you'll either want to find a similar recipe online or find this book (which I highly recommend anyway, for it's plethora of other delicious bread recipes!) Here's the link to it on Amazon.

What I will show you, however, is my process in following Reinhart's instructions - my opinions on how easy it was to follow and how my finished recipe turned out! That way, you can see how truly easy bread making can be!

Here's a slice of the finished product:

I was very happy with how this bread turned out. It was a little sweeter than I would have thought - quite a rich bread. And usually, when I make something, since there are only two of us in the apartment, we don't eat all of what I make. However, I will say, one day after making this bread, half the loaf is gone.

Dough after kneading.

This bread was quite simple to mix up and the kneading process was very quick. The dough was very pliable, so it didn't require much effort at all.

Really (as I've found with most recipes in this book), the waiting is the hardest part. There are a couple periods of allowing the dough to rise for a couple hours in between steps, which is typical. The main difference with this recipe compared to some of the other ones I tried, was this did not require a refrigeration overnight. It was a one day recipe. At the end, I believe it took me somewhere between 5-6 hours (including the waiting periods) to complete this recipe.

The dough rolled out very simply.

Unfortunately, I was not able to snap a picture of the chocolate process. This portion of the recipe is best done with a food processor (which I do not have), so I got to spend a good chunk of time chopping frozen chocolate chips, and my hands were quite chocolatey when all was said and done.

But the instructions for rolling and forming this loaf were quite easy to follow, with a few options for variation, if you prefer. I chose the standard option which worked quite well for me.

This is the loaf in the pan, prior to it's resting (and rising) period.

The loaf with streusel, ready for the oven.

You can see that after the loaf rises in the pan, it gets quite a lot bigger. And is also topped with an optional streusel. I did not put nearly as much streusel as I had made on the bread, but I probably should have. I don't think I ended with quite enough streusel on the loaf.

However, this bread is certainly sweet enough it would be delicious without the streusel as well!

Here's the loaf after I pulled it out of the oven:

Another shot of the loaf. You can see that the crust is quite dark, it almost appears that it is burnt. However, I believe this is just the way it cooks. The inside was delicious and soft.

And here's one final shot of the inside of the loaf:

I really enjoyed making this loaf. Like I said, it ended up tasting delicious and it makes a good breakfast bread. If you want to try this recipe out yourself, or are looking into getting into bread making, I really do recommend this book. Here's the link one more time. Happy Baking!