A pizza infused babka, of sorts.
Ingredients:
Per 5-6 servings -
For the bread:
- 1 (2.25 teaspoon) package active dry yeast
- 1.5 cups warm water (I put it in the microwave on high for 30 seconds)
- 3.5 cups all-purpose flour (plus a little extra to bring it to the right consistency, if needed)
- 1/3 cup olive oil (plus extra to oil the surface, about 2 tablespoons)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- a pinch of sugar
For the filling:
- 3 tablespoons pesto (I’ve made this using genovese pesto and basil pesto and both worked great)
- 1/3 cup marinara sauce
- 5-6 cherry tomatoes or 1 small roma tomato, minced
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 2 tablespoons parmesan or pecorino romano (optional, vegans - skip this)
Instructions:
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Yeast activation! In a medium sized mixing bowl, mix the warm water and the packet of yeast. Cover with a cloth and let the yeast activate for about 10 minutes. If the mixture isn’t foamy at this point, your yeast may be dead and I would suggest replacing it and re-doing this step.
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Uncover the yeast mixture, add flour 1 cup at a time, and mix until incorporated. Next, add the olive oil, salt, and pinch of sugar. Mix in the bowl until incorporated. At this point, your dough should be sticky but it should pull apart from the sides of the bowl while you’re mixing. If it does not, add a little more flour (you shouldn’t need to add more than 1/4 cup).
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You have two options to knead - you can lightly flour a surface and knead for a few minutes, or you can knead it inside the bowl itself. Because of the olive oil in the dough, kneading in the bowl is fairly easy and slightly less messy.
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When your dough has been kneaded, shape it into a ball and put it in a lightly greased mixing bowl. Flip the dough once to make sure that the oil covers the whole dough, cover the mixing bowl with a cloth, and let it rise in a warm area for 1-1.5 hours. For the warm area, you can put it by a window if it’s sunny out. Alternatively, you can preheat the oven to 200 degrees, turn it off once it preheats, put the mixing bowl with the dough in there, and leave the oven door slightly open.
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After the dough has risen, deflate it and reshape into a ball.
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Lightly grease a clean surface with olive oil and move the dough over there. Using your hands, roll it out into a rectangular shape.
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First, add a layer of pesto.
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Next, add the marinara sauce.
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For the final layer, add the parmesan/pecorino romano (if using) and the italian seasoning.
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Ready to braid! Starting on one side of the rectangle, slowly roll the dough to the other side, making a log.
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starting from about an inch or two at the top, cut a line down the middle of the babka and separate the strands.
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Twist the strands over each other starting at the top of the strands all the way down. When you finish doing this, extend the cut line to the top inch or two of the babka and braid the top as well. This step can get pretty messy and I’m personally quite horrible at braiding bread so your babka might look prettier than mine does, but here is an image for reference
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Finally, we lightly grease a loaf pan and transfer the babka over. This step can get a little messy as well.
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
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Cover the loaf pan with a cloth and let the bread rise for about another 10 minutes, and then put it in the oven. Bake for ~40 minutes.
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When the babka is done, wait for it to cool slightly and then slice and serve!
