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Recipe: Oreo Peppermint Babka

oreo-peppermint-babka
oreo-peppermint-babka
oreo-peppermint-babka

I’m walking around the monkey forest in Bali. The first thing to fly out of my mouth is, “This is like India, except with way less aggressive monkeys.” I don’t think anything of this as I say it. In fact, it’s a true statement. It’s exactly how I would describe this place. It does look like India but with less aggressive monkeys. So really, this is accurate

A few months before, I said something similar in Lisbon. Trekking up a miradouro that overlooks the city, I remarked to my friend, “This is like San Francisco, except it’s cleaner.” Once again, an accurate description in my eyes of how to describe this foreign city.

Familiarity bias runs rampant in my travels and in my eating habits. THIS ice cream flavor is like the one I used to make at the restaurant (needs more salt though). THAT croissant is like the one I ate in Paris. Familiarity bias keeps me stable and knowing. And sometimes a little annoying (“We get it, you went to Paris.”) 

Do we act on familiarity bias to stay comfortable, or because the thing we are experiencing really isn’t net new? In our current pop culture world of reboots and remakes, it’s entirely possible. Maybe making new experiences is too hard to do. Maybe we’re maxing out, and comparisons are the only way we connect to what is around us.

But then I ate a babka and threw all these musings out the window.

oreo-peppermint-babka


I don’t remember exactly when I first ate babka. But I remember it was from Wise Sons, our famed Jewish deli in San Francisco. Babka didn’t have the nasal intonations of my beloved French croissants or the childlike simplicity of American cookies or cake. It looked like a loaf but also like a roll, whorled with glossy mahogany-colored chocolate. It looked messy (at least to eat) but also meticulously organized. There wasn’t a crumb out of place in its sweet whirlpool. 

I needed this. 

Without any basis to judge its appearance, I had even less basis to judge its taste. And it was nothing like anything else I had tasted before. Chocolate gave it density, but yeast gave it air. Each bite altered the chocolate-to-bread-ratio depending on which part of the swirl I encountered, so each bite was a new experience. It also pulled apart easily, making it an unexpected finger food that I didn’t know I needed in my life. 

Finally—I had found a pastry that I couldn’t compare to anything else. And trust me, I’ve tried. I brought my version of babka, swimming with crushed Oreos and candy canes, to a brunch and stuttered my way through describing it. I ended by saying, “Ugh, it’s babka! Just eat a slice and you’ll see.”

There’s no babka hybrid or knock-off. There are few ways to improve upon it other than swapping out the filling for your favorite ingredients. Since I love desserts with a touch of whimsy, I swirled mine with crushed Oreos and candy canes. You can do the same, or crush up Thin Mints when it’s Girl Scout cookie season (which is soon, right?). Or you can add whatever else you want. 

The only way to make a babka is to make it yours. Take the flavors you love and layer them in. As I write this, I realize I’m telling you to take the familiar tastes you like and add them in. So I guess familiarity bias really is how we connect to the world and create comfort. And if that comfort comes in babka form, that’s all good with me.

oreo-peppermint-babka

Oreo Peppermint Babka

Created by on December 20, 2018

  • Prep Time:5h
  • Cook Time:30m
  • Total Time:5h 30m
  • Serves: 10
  • Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients

  • 1/2 box regular Oreo cookies
  • 1/2 box candy canes
  • 6 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1/4 cup whole milk
  • 1 teaspoon rapid rise yeast
  • 30 grams granulated sugar
  • 225 grams AP flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 2 large eggs
  • 70 grams butter at room temperature
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar

Instructions

  1. In a small bowl, microwave the milk until it’s lukewarm but not hot (about 110 degrees). Add yeast and stir with a fork, setting aside until ready to use.
  2. In an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook, mix together flour, sugar, salt, vanilla, and nutmeg. Beat in the yeast mixture and eggs until the dough comes together in a soft mass, about 2 minutes. If the dough sticks to the side of the bowl and doesn’t come together, add a tablespoon more flour at a time until it does, beating very well in between additions.
  3. Add the 70g of butter and beat until the dough is smooth and elastic, 3 to 5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed. Keep beating until the dough is smooth and stretchy, another 5 to 7 minutes. Again, if the dough sticks to the sides of the bowl, add additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time.
  4. Butter or spray a clean bowl. Form the dough into a ball and roll it around in the bowl so all sides are buttered. Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let it rise in a warm, draft-free place (inside of a turned-off oven with the oven light on is good) until it puffs and rises, about 1 to 2 hours.
  5. Press the dough down with your hands. At this point, you can choose to roll it out to fill and bake, or refrigerate it until ready to bake. Keep in mind that if you want to bake it now, you’ll still need 1-2 hours more of rise time before putting into the oven.
  6. In the meanwhile, make the filling. In a food processor, grind together the Oreos and candy canes until they become a fine pepperminty mixture. Keep aside until ready to use.
  7. Prepare the syrup: In a small saucepan, combine sugar and 1/3 cup water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then simmer for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves. Set aside.
  8. Butter a 9-inch loaf pan, then line with parchment paper, leaving 2 inches of paper hanging over on the sides to use as handles later. Spray again.
  9. Remove dough from refrigerator (if you had chilled it). On a floured surface, roll one piece into a 9-by-17-inch rectangle. Spread with 4 Tbsp of the melted butter, going all the way to the edges. Spread the Oreo mixture everywhere in a single layer, reserving about 1/4 cup for later.
  10. Tightly roll up the dough—the tighter you roll it, the more swirls will be in the filling. Once rolled, take kitchen scissors or a serrated knife and cut the coil in half, so you’ll have two equally sized rolls.
  11. Take one coil and slice it in half lengthwise, so the filling is exposed. Twist the halves together as if you were braiding them. Repeat with the other coil. Then take the braided coils and swirl them around each other for one mega-coil. Tuck the edges under so the coil looks and stays tight.
  12. Place into the prepared pan, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until puffy (it won’t quite double). Alternatively, you can cover the pans with plastic wrap and let them rise in the refrigerator overnight; bring them back to room temperature for an hour before baking.
  13. When you\'re ready to bake, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the remaining melted butter over the top and sprinkle the rest of the Oreo mixture on top. Transfer to oven and bake until a tester goes into the cake without any rubbery resistance and comes out clean, 20-30 minutes. The cake will also sound hollow if you unmold them and tap on the bottom. An instant-read thermometer will read between 185 and 210 degrees.
  14. As soon as the cakes come out of the oven, use a skewer or paring knife to pierce them all over going all the way to the bottom of the cakes, and then brush the syrup over the cakes. Make sure you get all sides of the cake and be as liberal as you can. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before serving.
Source: NY Times Cooking

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