Last week I made a  no-knead loaf and thought, why not separate out a bit of the batter and see if I could create some sort of sour dough starter. It had added yeast and was quite feisty, so I let it sit out on the counter and it grew quickly. I read that I could store it in the fridge, so I moved it in there and today gave it a feed.

When I fed the jar, I had scooped out some of the batter and spent some time thinking about what I wanted to create.

I decided to make a fake vegan chocolate babka.
Fake because I chose to just wing it. Vegan just because…

The dough:

• ⅓ cup sour dough starter ( flour, water, yeast from the no knead dough recipe)
• 2 cups sugar
• ⅓ cup olive oil
• Enough water to make a nice bread dough- ¾ to 1 cup ish

Mix it, knead it( yes, this one I chose to knead), let it sit covered for 2 hours, because that’s how much time I had.

Preheat the oven to 375F

Roll out into a square or rectangle about 1 cm thick on a lightly floured surface.

The filling

• 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips – melt in microwave 30 second bursts
• 1 tablespoon peanut butter – stir into the melted chocolate
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon- sprinkled on the filling

Pour the filling onto the dough and roll it up into a log.

Cut through the centre of the log lengthwise, leaving 2 cm dough still attached at one end.

Braid the two pieces carefully, and gently place into a lined loaf pan or greased pan.

*probably could let this proof more now, I chose not to .*

Bake for 35 minutes or until an inserted tester comes out clean. Technically a babka would have a glaze, I’m going to skip that step and just try it as is for this time around…or maybe make a simple vanilla icing sugar glaze… but for now:

tada!