Chocolate Krantz Cake

Name: Chocolate Krantz Cake
Cook time: 27 min
Total time: 13 h
Yield: 10 Servings
Ingredients: White Bread flour: 110g/ 4oz; instant dry yeast: 12g/ 1tbsp; water: 150g/ 0.6 cups; all purpose flour: 110g/ 4oz; White Bread flour: 320g/ 2½ cups; granulated sugar: 110g/ ½cup; Eggs: 2 medium; starter dough: all the starter; water: 50g/ 2oz; Butter: 175g/ 6oz; Vanilla extract: 1 tsp; Lemon zest: ½ tsp; Salt: 1 tbsp; Butter: 200g/ 7oz; all purpose flour: 10g/ 2 tbsp; dark chocolate: 100g/ 0.4 cups; Milk Chocolate: 100g/ 0.4 cups; Double cream: 70g/ ⅓ cup; Cacao powder: 1 tbsp; Butter: 2 tbsp; Eggs: 1 scrambled; water: 1 tbsp

Ultimate Chocolate Krantz (Babka)

Features:

Cuisine:

Austrian

13 hours
Serves 10
Hard

Ingredients

Quick starter
110g/ 4oz White Bread flour
12g/ 1tbsp instant dry yeast
150g/ 0.6 cups water
110g/ 4oz all purpose flour
for covering the starter
For the dough
320g/ 2½ cups White Bread flour
110g/ ½cup granulated sugar
2 medium Eggs
all the starter starter dough
50g/ 2oz water
175g/ 6oz Butter
in room temperature
1 tsp Vanilla extract
½ tsp Lemon zest
1 tbsp Salt
butter insertion
200g/ 7oz Butter
cold butter
10g/ 2 tbsp all purpose flour
Chocolate Ganache filling
100g/ 0.4 cups dark chocolate
100g/ 0.4 cups Milk Chocolate
70g/ ⅓ cup Double cream
1 tbsp Cacao powder
2 tbsp Butter
Coating
1 scrambled Eggs
1 tbsp water

Directions

During Winter I often come back to to the rich buttery cakes that works great by a good cup of coffee or tea. Chocolate krantz is a one of the best there is, its light and airy because of the layered butter inserted into the dough and still rich in flavor. There is a wide confusion between Krantz and Babka, there are indeed many similarities, rich yeast dough and chocolate being the trademarks of them both. The big difference is that Krantz is recognized by its folded butter into the dough which creates a separation between the layers into leaves.

The process of making a layered yeast dough is long and takes patience but the outcome is definitely worth it, once you make this dough you will never go back to the regular pound cake dough which is used for a babka.

Krantz cake

The cake by itself takes about 5 minutes to assemble and making the chocolate ganache is fairly easy as well, the big time consumer is the dough. we use butter insertion and folding the dough over it a few times with resting time in order to create separated leaves of rich and moist dough and chocolate.

krantz dough

Creating the layers

The idea behind this is simple, by creating separation between layers, in the oven, hot air is getting inside the dough which is raising each and every layer. This give the cake a light and tender texture, as opposed to a pound cake when the body of the cake is rising as one unite and will be more dense.

making the dough takes time so make sure you are making a big batch of it and freeze it, afterwards just unfreeze the amount of dough you need and pick your filling. if you’re about to entertain guests and you need a cake that will be simple and impressive just take out of the freezer a pound of this dough, choose your filling and there you go, an award winning cake in no time…if we don’t count the hours of making the dough…

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Steps

1 Done 30 minutes to 1 hour	making the starter dough combine the flour and the instant dry yeast, add the water and mix. cover with the extra flour, wrap with a plastic wrap and rest for 30 minutes to 1 hour until there are cracks in the dough.
2 Done 3 hours	Prepare the dough In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment add flour, sugar eggs, water, butter, Vanilla extract , lemon zest and starter dough. mix for 3 minutes on low speed add salt and mix on medium speed for 5 more minutes. The dough is very sticky so it's important to stop the mixer a few times and scrape the bottom of the bowl. take the dough to a floured work surface, work the dough for 1 more minute, cover and let it rest for 30 minutes. remove cover, work the dough for another minute, place in a floured bowl and put in the fridge for 2 hours.
3 Done 3 minutes	Preparing the butter for the dough folding In a stand mixer fitter with the paddle attachment add the butter and flour for the layered dough and mix for 2-3 minutes until combined into a big lump. place in a bowl and refrigerate.
4 Done 2 hours and 20 minutes	Folding the butter into the dough Take out the dough from the fridge and open it to a 25×60 cm (10×24 inch) rectangle shape. soften the butter in the microwave for 20 seconds until its still firm but we can spread it over the dough. spread half of the butter on 2/3 of the dough and fold the 1/3 empty dough on 1/3 of the buttered dough and fold the last 1/3 on it. with the rolling pin layer the dough into a smaller rectangle shape of 20×50 cm (8×20 inch) and fold the dough as the earlier stage only without the butter. cover with a plastic warp and put in the fridge for 2 hours
5 Done 2 hours and 20 minutes	repeat dough folding repeat the earlier stage in full with the other half of the butter, create a rectangle, cover 2/3 with butter, fold 1/3 of the dough and then the other 1/3, flattening the dough again with the rolling pin and folding again into an envelope shape without the butter. Cover the dough with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for minimum of 2 hours, best if kept in the fridge overnight. The dough is now layered with butter and ready for work. At this point it can be frozen for up to 30 days.
6 Done 10 minutes	Making Chocolate Ganache For the Krantz cake we will make a heavy chocolate ganache filling . Place a medium saucepan filled with water half way on medium heat and place a small heat proof bowl on top (Bain-marie), put all the chocolate, cream, cocoa powder in the bowl and stir until in all combines. remove from heat, add the butter and mix until shiny and smooth. cover with a plastic wrap refrigerate if using the Ganache the next day, if used same day it can be stored at room temperature up to 6 hours.
7 Done 10 minutes	Assembling the Krantz Butter two 8 x 4 x 2 1/2 inches (20 x 10 x 6 cm) loaf pan. We will use 450 grams (1 pound) per each Krantz, I recommend preparing 2 cakes, they will disappear very fast! . sprinkle flour on the counter and open the dough to a rectangle shape of 25x25cm (10x10 inch), it is important to work fast and that the dough will be cold else it will get too sticky, if this happens, place it in the freezer for 10 minutes. Spread the chocolate ganache over the dough and roll into a thick sausage shape. Cut the dough in the middle lengthwise, pinch the ends of each part and twist each section on top of the other, this step is messy, part of the fun. immediately place the Krantz in the loaf pans, cover with a wet towel and let rest for 1½ hours at room temperature, the cake will not double its size, we are looking for a 30-50% rise.
8 Done 27minutes	coating and baking Preheat oven to 170°c/ 340°F Mix the egg with water and brush the Krantz cake with the egg . Place both cakes together in the oven and bake for 27 minutes rotating the cakes position after 15 minutes in order for the cakes to bake evenly. Take the cakes out of the loaf pans and cool down for 30 minutes before serving.