Chocolate Bobka.

Chocolate Bobka... so good, it's no wonder it was the topic of discussion in one Seinfeld episode:

JERRY: That was our Bobka.

ELAINE: You can't beat a Bobka.

JERRY: We should have had that Bobka.

ELAINE: They're going to be heroes.

JERRY: What are we going to do now. If we can't get the Bobka the whole thing's useless.

This recipe for bobka is so good, you will never suffer the fate of Jerry and Elaine, who had their chocolate bobka scooped up by the woman in line in front of them.

It's not that hard to make, especially once you become adept at working with yeast. My initial inspiration was from the December 2006 gourmet magazine, I've futzed with the recipe. This works great every time, and it's definitely worth the effort. It's also pretty easy to fit bread making into a busy schedule. I tinker with the recipe and timing a lot, but here's one way to get started:

The night before, make a sponge by mixing together 200 g flour, 1/4 tsp yeast, 3/4 tsp salt, 250g cold milk. Let that sit on your counter overnight, covered.

The next morning, whisk 1/2 c. sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla into the sponge. In a separate bowl, mix together 300 g flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 tsp yeast. Knead that into the wet sponge mixture. Let the dough rest for about 5 min, then knead in about 1 stick butter. Half should be kneaded in so that the dough is smooth. The other half, break up with your fingers and knead it in such that it is well-distributed as small pieces, but there should still be small pockets of butter.

Return the dough to the bowl, cover, let rise 1 hr. After 1 hr, fold dough, return to bowl. Let rise about 1-1.5 hr more, until it's about doubled in size.

Divide the dough in half and roll it out into a rectangle, about 10x18". Spread 1.5T softened butter over the dough, leaving a 1.5" border on all sides. Distribute 4 oz good-quality chopped bittersweet chocolate over the butter. Sprinkle 2T sugar over this. Make an egg wash by mixing an egg white with about 1T water, use a pastry brush to brush some of the egg wash on the 1.5" border.

Roll the dough up like an 18" cigar. Bring the ends together so that you have a circle with an 18" circumference. Seal the ends by overlapping them and banging them with your fist. Twist the circle into a figure 8, then give it one more twist and put it into a greased 1-lb loaf tin.

At this point, you have a few options: You can let it rise until the dough comes up to the top of the bread pan, then bake it. You can put it in the fridge, covered w/ plastic wrap, overnight... then bring to RT for 2-3 hr and bake it. OR, my favorite, put it into the fridge, covered with plastic wrap until you go to bed. Then take it out and put it in a box outside, or in a shed if you've got one (the nights here are about 45-50F). Let it rise slowly at this cooler temp. In the morning, pop it straight into the preheated oven.

Before you bake it: for a glossy finish to the bread, save the yolk from that egg wash and mix it with 1T milk. Brush that gently over the surface right before you put it into the oven.

Bake it at 350F for 35-40 min, or until it's 190F inside the bread. If it browns too early, put foil over the top and finish baking. Let the loaves rest in their tins for at least 30 min before removing them to fully cool.

You can always make extra and share...



My friend, Valentina, and I had fun time photographing the bread. The top 2 pics are her works of art- thanks Vale! You captured the bread's jauntiness.