Matthew Woolen is a master pastry chef and has worked in a variety of Seattle restaurants, including gastropub Old Sage, Zhu Dang, and a gluten-free restaurant called Capitol Cider.

Matthew Woolen

Layers of plush and buttery yeasted bread and slightly bitter dark chocolate, sweetened with syrup, twisted up and baked in a Bundt pan ... that’s right, it’s our take on chocolate babka!Babka comes in many forms—sweet, savory, and everything in between. The main pitfall of chocolate babka in particular is it can bake up a little dry. We solve for that by intentionally underbaking the bread. Starches gel at [f 185], so cooking the dough to just under that temp ([f 175]) amplifies the gooeyness of the bread, which, when combined with the rich dark chocolate, makes a super-gooey, chocolatey treat, perfect for breakfast or a midday or midnight snack, any day of the week. Sure, it’s basically a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-chocolate-cake">chocolate cake</a>, but with none of the stigma attached to eating chocolate cake for breakfast!To preserve the distinct layers of bread and chocolate filling, you have to be a little careful when twisting the dough—too tight and you run the risk of smooshing all those layers together. Once you’ve got the coil of dough and filling twisted tight—but not too tight—we found that setting it in a Bundt pan increased the caramelly browned notes, thanks to the increased surface area. We also reduced the proof and bake times significantly when compared with versions proofed and baked in loaf pans.

Ultimate Chocolate Babka