Recently, Marge and I have really gotten into watching the Great British Bake Off. This is a baking competition show which is oh so very British. I can’t stand for most American reality or competition shows with their manufactured drama and one-dimensional characters. But I go head-over-heels for their foreign counterparts! Amazing Race Canada, Eurovision, and the show we’ve forced all of our friends to watch at one point or another, the spectacular Canadian bounty hunter show Mantracker.
So we’re working our way through every season of the Great British Bake Off. In each episode, the contestants, amateur home cooks, face a different style of baked goods. They must bake one recipe of their own creation, one recipe that is given to them, and one difficult “show-stopper” that meets the requirements given. Needless to say, I leave every episode not only hungry for the food onscreen, but inspired to bake!
One episode recently was all about bread, and one contestant made a chocolate babka. As Seinfeld fanatics, we are very familiar with the chocolate babka from the episode “The Dinner Party.” And recently, some friends from New York City had brought us an unbelievably delicious babka from Brooklyn. So I had babka on my mind to begin with. Watching someone else bake one, I was determined to make one myself!
Ingredients for babka dough
| Ingredient | Cost | Size of Package | Cost Per Unit | Amount Used | Cost Per Recipe |
| Milk | $3.75 | Gallon | $0.25/ cup | 1 1/2 cups | $0.38 |
| Active Dry Yeast | $6.99 | 4 oz | $0.44/ tbsp | 2 tbsp | $0.88 |
| Sugar | $2.39 | 4 lb | $0.16 | 1 3/4 cups | $0.28 |
| Eggs | $3.59 | dozen | $0.30/ egg | 5 eggs | $1.50 |
| Flour | $1.89 | 5 lb | $0.11/ cup | 6 cups | $0.66 |
| Salt | $0.65 | 26 oz | $0.01/ tbsp | 1 tsp | $0.01 |
| Butter | $3.59 | BOX! | $0.90/ stick | 3 1/2 sticks | $3.15 |
| Chocolate Chips | $3.99 | 24 oz | $3.99/ bag | 36 oz | $5.99 |
| Cinnamon | $3.89 | 4.12 oz | $0.31/ tbsp | 2 1/2 tbsp | $0.79 |
| Heavy Cream | $1.69 | 8 oz | $0.11/ tbsp | 1 tbsp | $0.11 |
| Total | $13.75 | ||||
| Servings | 3 Loaves | ||||
| Cost Per Loaf | $4.38 |
Marge did her research on babka recipes, and strangely enough, one of the most highly regarded recipes was from Martha Stewart, so that’s what I used. Since this is a yeast dough, there is some waiting for it to rise, and I made this over two nights, leaving the dough in the fridge overnight. This method wouldn’t make me Star Baker on the Great British Bake Off, but you do what you have to do.
After that, I took the dough and added all those filling ingredients. The recipe calls for finely chopped chocolate, but I used chocolate chips, and chopped those as best I could. Combined with the sugar, butter, and cinnamon and spread out on the flattened dough. Ideally, your chocolate is finer than mine and achieves more thorough coverage…
Then you carefully roll it all up. I found a few methods of rolling it up. You basically roll one long log, fold it in half, and roll the two ends around each other. Alternately, you can also cut the log in half and twist the two separate logs around each other as in a candy cane.
The recipe makes three loaves, so be prepared. We have two loaf pans, and I laid one out on a baking sheet. It’ll end up delicious no matter what, but the loaf pan makes the babka look really finished and neat. Some egg wash will make them golden brown.
As for deliciousness… um… THIS IS DELICIOUS. I mean, obviously! It’s a sweet bread filled with chocolate! Of course it’s great. What’s especially great, you’ll notice, is the abundance of cinnamon in the recipe. That adds an extra flavor sensation. So excuse me if I rate this 10 out of 10. I’ll be happy to eat this every day, thank you very much.
As for the cost, it came out to $4.38 a loaf. Not cheap! Each loaf makes, I don’t know, 12 servings? So 36 cents a slice? It has mostly to do with all that chocolate. If you can find a cheaper source for chocolate, please let me know.
Also, the eggs cost a pretty penny. We buy only eggs from Nellie’s Eggs, a farm in Vermont which lets the chickens roam where they please. No factory farm eggs for us. If you buy factory farm eggs, I’m sorry to tell you, but you’re a monster enabling cruelty in the world. Just shell out a few extra pennies for cage-free eggs. They taste better anyway.
Deliciousness Rating: 10
The normal Cost Per Serving rankings don’t apply in this case, so here’s my extra table.
| Recipe | Cost | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Chocolate Babka | $4.38 a loaf | 10 |
| Barbeque Sauce | $2.80 a bottle | 9 |
And here are the normal Cost Per Serving standings so far:
Have a recipe you think is cheap and delicious? Send it to me and I’ll eat it! – norm@ridinkulous.net –
* The stated deliciousness of each recipe is solely the opinion of the author. Cost is objective, but your tastes may vary.