Cheese, Marmite & Spring Onion Babka
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- 420g white bread flour, extra for dusting
- 2 Le Naturelle Eggs
- 18g instant yeast
- 5g salt
- 25g caster sugar
- 25g honey, runny
- 120ml milk
- 170g Valio Unsalted Butter, melted
For the Filling:
- 12 spring onions
- 150g comte cheese, coarsely grated
- 100g Valio Unsalted Butter
- 30g Marmite
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
For Cooking:
- Olitalia Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 Le Naturelle Egg, beaten
Method
- Place the flour into a mixing bowl with a dough hook fitted and add the yeast to one side of the bowl and the salt and sugar into the other.
- Combine the eggs, milk and honey and whisk together. Add the milk mixture into the bowl and then knead for about 3 minutes on the lowest speed.
- Gradually add the melted butter into the bowl. Turn up the speed to medium and knead until the dough is elastic and shiny. Transfer the dough to a lightly buttered bowl, cover and leave in the fridge to prove over-night.
- Place a large griddle pan over a medium-high heat.
- Drizzle the spring onions with olive oil, add a pinch of salt and pepper, rubbing all over the onions. Add the onions onto the griddle pan and leave to cook and lightly char for about 2 minutes on each side. Leave to cool completely.
- Combine the softened butter and marmite and mix together until fully incorporated.
- Lay out a large sheet of baking parchment onto your work surface. remove the dough from the fridge and then roll out on the baking parchment into a rectangle 55xm x 45cm.
- Evenly spread the marmite butter over the surface of the dough and then scatter over the grated cheese in an even layer. Evenly distribute the spring onions over the cheese. Finally, scatter over the sesame seeds.
- Tightly roll up the babka as you would a Swiss-Roll.
- Cut the dough in half lengthways to expose the internal layers. With the cut-side facing upwards, lay one half over the other to create an ‘X’. Working from the centre outward, plait the dough on each side, finishing by tucking the two ends of the dough under themselves.
- Transfer the plaited dough into a parchment-lined loaf tin and leave to set for 2-3 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 150⁰C (fan), transfer the babka to the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Brushing the top with egg wash after 1 hour.
- Leave to cool before slicing.