Pizza Babka
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 30 minutes plus 2 hours rising time
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Serves: 6
For dough:
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 80ml/2.8flozs. room temp water
- 315g/11ozs. bread flour plus extra for rolling
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon instant dried yeast
- 75g/2.6ozs. butter, cubed, room temperature
- Oil for greasing
For filling:
- 200ml/7ozs. tomato pasta sauce (I used an Arrabbiata sauce)
- 1/2 onion, peeled and diced
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
- 150g/5ozs. finely diced or thinly sliced pepperoni or your favourite salami
- 1.5 cups/165g/5.8ozs. grated mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup/50g/1.7ozs. grated parmesan cheese
- Beaten egg to glaze
Step 1 - Dissolve the salt into the water. Add the flour in the bowl of an electric mixer and then add the eggs and salt water. Then add the yeast. Stir to combine and then attach a dough hook and knead for a minute or two until it starts to come together. Add the butter cubes a few at a time, around 4-5 lots of them until they are incorporated into the dough and the dough is elastic. This can take up to 7-9 minutes or so.
Step 2 - Grease a large bowl and form the dough into a ball with no cracks on top and place in the bowl. Cover and place in a warm area and allow to rise until triple in size, around 1 hour or so. About 15 minutes before the dough is fully risen prepare the filling ingredients so that they're ready to use.
Step 3 - Punch down the dough. Flour a large work surface and roll out the dough to become a large rectangle around 25x45cms/9.8x17.7inches in size. Spread the tomato sauce, sprinkle the onion and garlic over this and then add the pepperoni and two cheeses.
Step 4 - Start rolling up the dough from the shorter end and roll up to the end. Place on a baking sheet and pop it in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. This is to help with the next step which is the fun bit but also the tricky bit.
Step 5 - Spray a loaf tin with oil. Remove the log of dough from the freezer. It should be firm but not frozen. Cut off the two ends (cook's treat!) and then cut the log down lengthways with a sharp serrated knife leaving the top inch attached. Turn the dough so that the cut side faces up and plait it by simply crossing each log over each other. Place in the oiled loaf tin and cover and allow to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour in a warm place.
Step 6 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F and brush the top of the bread with egg glaze and bake for 30 minutes. Then turn the heat down to 150C/300F and bake for another 15 minutes. Serve warm, with extra marinara sauce. I love you too ;)