Pepperoni Pizza Babka Loaf
Bread + pepperoni pizza… sign me up! This Mozzarella and Pepperoni Pizza Babka Loaf combines two of the greatest things on earth: buttery and eye-pleasing babka loaf and cheesy delicious pizza! This cheesy savoury bread starts of with a traditional babka dough, which is buttery and rich. Spoonful’s of marinara are place on top, alongside a nice helping of stringy pizza mozzarella and chopped up pepperoni. This pizza topped babka dough is then rolled up, sliced, and braided into an eye-pleasing, cheesy, pizza filled babka loaf!
What is Babka?
Babka is yeasted bread with Jewish origins. It is typically made from an enriched dough that is filled with some sort of filling. This filling is typically sweet, with the most popular being chocolate. The filling topped dough is typically rolled up into a log, and then sliced and braided, resulting in a bread with beautiful swirls throughout.
Babka actually originated from Jewish grandmothers utilizing the scraps leftover from making challah bread, which is another enriched Jewish bread. These grandmothers would twist together the scraps from the challah with nuts or seeds. Interesting right! As such, the dough from babka is therefore quite similar to challah, or even other enriched doughs such as brioche.
How to Make Mozzarella and Pepperoni Pizza Babka
My favorite way to make bread is with the stand mixer and dough hook. These seriously make such easy work out of making any bread dough! To make this Pizza Babka, start by blooming the yeast in the slightly warm milk. Once the yeast and milk have become frothy, add it to the stand mixer. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, salt, and sugar, until well combined. Throw this egg mixture and the flour into the stand mixer, and mix it all together with a wooden spoon until a very shaggy dough is formed. Place the dough hook onto the stand mixer, and proceed to beat the dough on medium. Once the dough has come together and looks uniform, begin to add the soft butter 1 tbsp at a time, ensuring the butter is fully incorporated before the next addition. After all the butter has been added continue to beat for around 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth, elastic, and no longer dry.
If the butter doesn’t seem to want to incorporate, I find it’s always best to try to manually knead the butter in with your hands. Also, you can and more flour, but add it very slowly – 1 tbsp at a time, until the butter begins to incorporate.
The dough should be pretty tacky, smooth looking, and elastic. It should be sticking to the bottom of the bowl, but should not be sticking to the sides of the bowl. This should take about 10 minutes. Then you place the dough into a greased bowl, cover it with plastic, and place in warm place to rise for about an hour. After an hour it should be doubled in size. This is now where you roll out the dough, top it, slice it, and braid it. Then, after a second rise the babka is ready to be baked!
How to Assemble, Cut, and Braid Babka
Assembling and braiding the babka is actually a lot easier than it seems. You start by rolling out the once-proofed dough into a 15”x15” square. Spread the marinara overtop of the dough, leaving about a 1” strip empty along the top. Sprinkle the parmesan, mozzarella, and pepperoni overtop of the marinara. Brush a little bit of water onto the bare 1” strip, then proceed to roll the dough away from you into a log shape – similar to how you would when making cinnamon buns. Using your hands, try to shape the dough as best as you can to ensure even thickness throughout the log. (Freezing the dough for 30 minutes at this point can help with getting a clean slice). Next, using a serrated knife, slice the log down the length of itself.
Now were ready to braid! To braid the dough, place the sliced edges face up and place the two strips into an ’X’ formation. Working from center out, interweave the two strips by folding them over one another alternating back and forth. When at the end, pinch the ends together. Repeat on the other half. Place this into the prepared loaf pan, and allow to rise once more before baking.
Get the Recipe: Pepperoni Pizza Babka Loaf
Ingredients
Pizza Babka Dough
- ½ cup Whole Milk, warmed to 105°F
- 2¼ tsp Active Dry Yeast
- 2 Large Eggs
- 1¾ tsp Kosher Salt
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 2½ cups All Purpose Flour,, plus more if needed, measured correctly †
- 7 tbsp Unsalted Butter, cut into small pieces, at slightly warmer than room temperature (should be very soft)
- ½ tsp Dried Oregano
- ½ tsp Coarse Sea Salt
- 1 tbsp of Melted Salted Butter,, for brushing
Pizza Filling
- 1/2 cup Marina Sauce or Pizza Sauce
- 1 ¼ cup Shredded Pizza Mozzarella
- 1/2 cup Finely Grated Parmesan
- 3/4 cup Chopped Pizza Pepperoni
Equipment
- Stand mixer
Instructions
Making the Babka Dough
- In a measuring cup add warm milk and yeast together. Stir together to combine, then allow to sit until it becomes foamy, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium mixing bowl, add eggs, salt, and sugar. Whisk together to combine.
- Add egg mixture, foamy yeast-milk, and flour to stand mixer. Using a large wooden spoon, mix together the dough until a shaggy dough forms. Place the dough hook onto the stand mixer and turn the stand mixer onto medium. Beat the dough until it has come together and looks uniform.
- While still beating the dough, begin adding in the butter 1 tbsp at a time, ensuring that each addition is incorporated before adding the next. After all the butter has been added, continue to beat for another 5-8 minutes, or until the dough is smooth, elastic, and tacky.
- Transfer dough to a greased large bowl, cover with plastic wrap, then place in a warm area to rise for about an hour, or until the dough is doubled in size.
Shaping and Braiding the Babka
- Prepare a 9”x5” loaf pan with grease and parchment paper. Turn the dough out onto a lightly flour work surface, and roll the dough out into a 15”x15” square.
- Spread marinara over top of the dough, leaving about a 1” strip along the top. Sprinkle the mozzarella, parmesan, and pepperoni evenly on top of the marinara. Brush the bare 1” strip with a bit of water. Roll the dough away from you into a log (try to maintain even thickness throughout).
- Using a serrated knife, slice the log in half lengthwise. Place the sliced halves face up and side by side each other. Form an ‘X’ formation with the two strips. Working from center out, interweave the two strips by folding them over one another alternating back and forth. When at the end, pinch the ends together. Repeat on the other half.
- Transfer the braided dough into the prepared loaf pan, cover lightly with plastic wrap, and place into a warm place to rise for another hour, or until doubled in size.
Baking the Babka
- Preheat oven to 375°F. After the dough has doubled in size. Sprinkle with oregano and coarse sea salt. Place into the oven and bake for about 35 minutes (internal temperature of 200°F). When done, brush with melted butter and allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before cutting into it.
Notes
Source: Dough recipe adapted from Bon Appetit
Related Recipes
Be sure to look at some of my other baked good such as my BROWNED BUTTER BOURBON BANANA BREAD, CREAM PUFFS W/ VANILLA BEAN CRÈME DIPLOMAT, or if you’re in the mood for pizza try out my PROSCIUTTO AND GOAT CHEESE PAN PIZZA.
So good! soft and buttery bread. Loved the pizza toppings with it