Chocolate Tahini Babka Buns

The countdown is on, with only a few days left until One Tin Bakes is finally out in the world. After waiting well over a year my new book is finally published and to say I am excited is an understatement. I can’t wait for you guys to see it, to bake from it and to have it in your kitchens. Always the impatient baker, I couldn’t wait until publication to share a recipe from the book with you, so today I am sharing one of my favourites, the Chocolate Tahini Babka Buns. I am also telling you that the book is out NEXT THURSDAY and if you want it on the day there is still time to preorder, hint there is a link here.

Think of these buns as the meeting of cinnamon buns and babka with tahini thrown in for good measure. The story I tell in the book is how these were inspired after spending the afternoon in the kitchen with Uri Scheft, the baker who led the recent rise in popularity of babka, in the United States and around the world. The traditional babka, of Eastern European Jewish origin, is made with leftover challah dough rolled up with jam or cinnamon, It’s a world away from the babka that most people are making these days, it also lacks the adoration the modern version receives, it seems to have a love it or hate it quality, denser and drier than its modern counterpart. So, what changed the babka’s fortunes? Well, the answer seems to be simple…butter. Traditional Jewish breads would have been made with oil to keep them parve, but when non-jewish or non-parve chefs took on the babka in the early 2000’s they started making them with butter, the doughs became more brioche in style and the fillings became richer with more and more chocolate added. The one modern recipe that can fairly claim the crown, for pushing the babka into a wider public consciousness, is the one served at Breads Bakery in New York. The bakery was founded with Israeli baker Uri Scheft, of Lehamim Bakery (the partnership has since dissolved), and the babka that the bakery introduced to NYC became a true media darling, it was quite literally everywhere. Every magazine, every paper, every blog, it was a bread that went viral. And more importantly, it became the standard, the version that most people now think of when they think of babka, a swirled bread made with a brioche like dough and swirled with chocolate.

I was lucky to spend the afternoon in the kitchen with Scheft early last year where he taught me his famous babka recipe, as good as I remembered when I first tried in NYC. During that trip, where babka and tahini seemed to be two daily staples, the idea of sneaking in a little tahini into a chocolate babka seemed like an obvious one. On arriving back home I tried out the idea immediately, before my bags were even unpacked, with the memory or Uri’s version still fresh in my mind. I knew immediately it was a good thing, have a second slice good. The version I am finally posting is the one I made for One Tin Bakes, adapting the idea to the form of cinnamon buns which made the recipe 9x13 friendly. If you don’t follow me online elsewhere or you have managed to miss my last few posts let me briefly explain the book. The idea is that every single recipe is baked in the same 9x13 tin (its a classic brownie tin) making the required equipment so much lower than most baking books, hopefully making it more approachable. The recipes run the gamut in terms of style, required skill, and time required to bake them. There is something for everyone and no matter whether lockdown has got you baking for the first time or you’ve baking since you were a kid you’ll find something you will love. 

COMPETITON TIME

Before we get to the recipe I have one last thing to tell you, its competition time! To celebrate the release of the book I have partnered with Nordicware, Guittard Chocolate and Belazu to create a brilliant prize package. The prize is a signed copy of the book, a One Tin Bakes tote bag, the Nordicware 9x13 tin I recommend in the book plus one of their iconic bundt pans, a whopping 3kg bag of Guittard Chocolate (they’re providing a bag of one of my favourites) and belazu are proving a selection of their tahinis (classic and their new black tahini) and oils. To enter the competition all you have to do is make one of the recipes from the book and post a picture on instagram saying that it came from my new book One Tin Bakes and tagging me using the hashtag #OneTinBakes. Obviously the book comes out halfway through the window for this competition so feel free to make these babka buns or get yourself a copy of the June issue of Olive magazine which has a bunch of other recipes from the book. Competition is only open to UK residents and the winner will be picked at random. 

Chocolate Tahini Babka Buns
Taken From my book One Tin Bakes (Kyle Books 2020)
Makes 12 

Brioche Dough
500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
25g caster sugar
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
7g fast-action dried yeast
250ml whole milk
2 large eggs
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature, diced, plus extra for greasing 

Chocolate Tahini Filling
100g dark chocolate (65–70% cocoa solids), finely chopped
100g unsalted butter, diced
55g light brown sugar
100g tahini
flaked sea salt, for sprinkling 

Vanilla Syrup
65g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons sesame seeds 

For the bread dough add the flour, sugar, salt and yeast to the bowl of an electric stand mixer with the dough hook attachment and mix briefly to combine. Add the milk and eggs and knead on medium-low speed for about 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth, elastic and pulling away from the sides of the bowl. With the mixer still running, add the butter, a little bit at a time. Once the butter has been worked into the dough, continue kneading for a further 10 minutes or so until the dough is once again pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate overnight or for up to 2 days. If you prefer, you can let the dough rise at room temperature, but it’s worth making this in advance as the dough is much easier to handle when thoroughly chilled.

The next day, lightly grease or line the base of the 9x13 baking tin with a piece of parchment paper. Make the filling. Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water (ensuring the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water underneath) until melted. Remove from the heat, stir in the brown sugar and tahini, then set aside. 

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and, working on a lightly floured surface, roll out into a large 50 x 50cm (20 x 20in) square. Spread the chocolate tahini mixture evenly over the dough. At this point, the tahini mixture will be loose and glossy, so if you attempt to roll the dough up now it will be very messy, therefore, allow the mixture to sit for a couple of minutes until it goes a little tackier and loses its shine (don’t leave this too long though, because the filling will eventually set, meaning it won’t stick to the dough when it’s rolled). Sprinkle over a little flaked sea salt and roll up the dough into a tight sausage. 

Cut the sausage into 12 equal-sized slices and place them, cut-side up, into the prepared baking tin. Cover with clingfilm and set aside to prove in a warm place for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the rolls are touching each other and feel puffy to the touch. 

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F), Gas Mark 5. Bake the buns for 30–35 minutes, or until golden brown. 

Meanwhile, make the syrup. Place the caster (superfine) sugar and 60ml (1⁄4cup) water in a small saucepan and cook over a low heat just until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla. 

When the buns come out of the oven, while still hot, liberally brush them with the syrup and then sprinkle over the sesame seeds. Leave the buns to cool completely in the tin before removing and serving. 

Stored covered, these buns will keep for 2–3 days. 

Sourdough Detroit Style Pizza

So I seem to have pizza on my mind a lot right now, and this week that obsession is in the form of Detroit style pizza. I love classic Neapolitan or New York pizzas but the shaping can be tricky, especially if you’ve never done it before and getting a great bake at home needs a couple work arounds to get something close to restaurant standard. None of that normally bothers me, I enjoy the process, but right now I want pizza but I want it with a little less effort, but i’ll get to that in a minute.

Firstly, we need to ask, what actually is Detroit pizza. It’s a type of pan pizza, very closely related to Sicilian style, and Grandma style rectangular pies, in fact they’re effectively brothers. Sicilian style pizza is a focaccia like dough that’s baked on the thicker side in large rectangular sheets, with cheese going on first, before the sauce. That sauce is also classically a cooked tomato sauce, unlike the raw tomatoes that adorn a Neapolitan pizza. As mentioned, Detroit pizza is very similar to its Sicilian sibling so its maybe not too surprising that the origins of the pizza start in, you guessed it, Sicily. The story goes that in 1946 Gus Guerra, of Buddy’s Rendevous, decided his menu needed something new so he looked to his Sicilian mothers pizza recipe. This could easily have become Sicilian style pizza, just served in Detroit, but there are a couple key differences. The biggest change is the pan. Detroit style pizzas are cooked in a ‘blue steel’ pan that was widely used in the automotive industry back in the 40’s and its use became an identifying part of this style of pizza. Thankfully a 9x13 brownie tin is similar enough in size and style so that us home bakers can make our own version at home. The second change is again all to do with location as the cheese used is Wisconsin Brick Cheese, a variant of American cheddar thats slightly higher in fat, kind of like a cross between a low moisture mozzarella and cheddar. This is close to impossible to find in the UK so instead I use a grated blend of mozzarella and cheddar, the type sold in bags at almost every supermarket. But what I consider to be the signature of a Detroit style pizza is the crisp cheese crust. The cheese is spread all over the pizza including the sides. As the pizza bakes the cheese melts and slips down the side of the dough and caramelises into the a crisp skirt of cheese surrounding the pizza, like the cheese that escapes the bread when making a grilled cheese. We all know this is the best bit.

For the dough the recipe is very similar to my Neapolitan recipe although with a couple small changes. Because we want a more bread like chew, I’ve used regular white bread flour, I’ve also upped the hydration to 70%. To make things move along a little quicker I have also included slightly more sourdough starter. The method is the same up until shaping and the good news, there really isn’t any shaping to do, this is pretty hands off pizza making.

Sourdough Detroit Style Pizza Dough
Makes enough for one pizza 

Cooked Pizza Sauce
Makes enough for x2 pizzas

2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp chilli flakes

Toppings
250g grated cheese (I use the bagged blends of cheddar and mozzarella sold in most supermarkets)
150g pepperoni, cut into rounds
Parmesan or Grana Padano

Detroit Style Pizza Dough
500g White Bread Flour (100%)
15g fine sea salt (3%)
350ml water, 28-30C (70%)
100g mature sourdough starter*, 100% hydration (20%)
10ml extra virgin olive oil (2%)

DONT FORGET MY NEW BOOK ONE TIN BAKES (WHICH USES THE SAME TIN USED IN THIS RECIPE IS OUT JUNE 25TH YOU CAN FIND MORE DETAILS HERE WWW.THEBOYWHOBAKES.CO.UK/ONETINBAKES

*If when you want to start making the dough your starter has fallen and is no longer at its peak (this is what you call mature starter) you can make a levin by simply mixing together 35g of the starter, 35g water at 28-30C and 35g bread flour, covering and setting in a warm spot, oven with the light on is ideal, and leaving until doubled in size. Using the above ratios and temperatures this should take 2-3 hours.

To make the dough pour the water into a large bowl and scrape in the mature starter/levain and mix briefly to break up a little. Add in the flour, salt and olive oil and mix briefly to form a shaggy dough. Pop the mixture into you’re stand mixer and knead, with the dough hook attached, for about 8-10 minutes on low/medium speed. 

Once the dough is smooth and elastic tip out onto the worksurface and use a bench scraper to help you form the dough into a ball and place into a bowl very lightly greased with olive oil. Cover the bowl and set aside somewhere warm (26-27C is perfect) for the moment. After 30 minutes, using the techniques we learnt making our first loaf of sourdough bread, were going to preform a set of stretch and folds to build in more strength. If the dough feels strong and resisted stretching you can leave the dough to rise but if it feels a little slack you can do a second set of stretch and folds in another 30 minutes. Once your folds are done let the dough rest for another 30 minutes to relax. Meanwhile pour in a couple tbsp of olive oil to your 9x13 tin and spread all over, making sure to rub it up the sides as well. Once the dough is rested carefully transfer to the pan and gently stretch it out a little. Dont worry about getting it to the edges of the pan just yet, but give it a little push on its way (you don’t want to de-gas the dough just gently tease it towards the edges). Cover the pan and set aside to proof. This dough, kept in an area around 26-27C, should take about 7 hours in total to proof, this window of time starts when you’ve taken the dough off the mixer.

Whilst the dough is proving make the sauce. Pour the oil into a saucepan and heat over low/medium heat. Add the crushed garlic and cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant and the garlic is just taking on the barest of colour. Add the chilli flakes and oregano and stir to combine. Tip in the tomatoes and stir to combine, seasoning with salt and pepper (at this point I like to puree the sauce with an immersion blender but that is optional). Gently simmer for about 15 minutes or until reduced by about a third to a thick tomato sauce. Remove and chill until needed. The sauce can be refrigerated for a couple days or even frozen for up to a couple months. 

After a total of 7 hours you should see the dough has expanded, pushing to the sides of the tin, and it should have nice signs of fermentation on the top of the dough. Using lightly oiled hands gently press the dough into the corners if it hasn’t already reached them. Cover the tin with clingfilm and refrigerate for anything up to 24 hours. 

A few hours before you make the pizza you need to get it out of the fridge and allow to to come to room temperature, this should take about 2 hours. You know it’s ready to bake when the dough has a nice jiggle when you rock the tin. 30 minutes before you bake the pizza place a baking stone or pizza steel into the oven and preheat to 230ºC (210ºC Fan). 

To assemble the pizza sprinkle over the cheese, making sure there is plenty all around the edges. Spoon 1/2 of the sauce onto the pizza, either in random dollops or in a few strips. Add any extra toppings. Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until the cheese is melted and lightly browned, there should also be lots of bubbling around the edges from the combination of melted cheese and olive oil. As soon as the pizza is out of the oven use a round-bladed knife to separate the pizza from the sides of the tin, as it cools it will glue itself to the tin. Carefully remove the pizza from the tin, grate over some parmesan or grana padano and serve. 

Pistachio and Cherry Sheet Cake

Happy Birthday to me! Yes this week recipe is my own birthday cake. Whenever I tell people that I like to make my own birthday cake they always seem sad, like no-one offered to make one for me. The truth is, I quite like making it myself maybe I’m control freak when it comes to cakes? I rarely get to bake just for fun these days, it’s always for a work project, for a magazine feature or to meet a book deadline. This week the baking was just for me, or at least it was until I decided to give you guys the recipe and make a video from it. Oh well, the intention to bake purely for its enjoyment was there. 

My birthday isn’t the only thing I am celebrating this week though, it is now just one month until my new book, One Tin Bakes, is finally published, and to say I am excited is quite the understatement. For those of you who haven’t heard anything about the book it’s a book dedicated to recipes that all use the exact same one tin, specifically a 9x13 tin you would traditionally use for brownies. The recipes run the gamut of cakes, cookies, brownies and bars, desserts, pastry and even a bunch of yeasted recipes. The idea was to reduce the required bakeware to just one single thing so that everyone could make the recipes, with just one tin the barrier to entry is so much lower. Baking for everyone!

This weeks recipe isn’t from the book but you could think of it as a bonus recipe, it’s an example of what you might find in the pages of the book and in spirit, this is a One Tin Bakes recipe. The cake recipe is a simple pistachio sheet cake which, like its almond brothers and sisters, is a moist cake that’s a smidge dense but without ever being heavy, its the perfect sheet cake texture as far as i’m concerned. The topping is a classic cream cheese frosting enriched with plenty of vanilla and finished with a simple cherry compote, a wonderful flavour combination and something which felt like the perfect choice for spending my birthday relaxing in the park enjoying the unseasonably warm weather we had this week. 

If you would like to read more about my new book, I have a page dedicated to it, which provides links to where the book can be pre-ordered wherever you are in the world, whether that is online or if your looking for an independent bookstore to support. The book is released June 25th in the UK and New Zealand, June 30th in Australia and Sept 1st in the US. 

Pistachio Sheet Cake
335g unsalted butter, room temperature
300g caster sugar
Zest of 3 limes
6 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract (or bean paste)
100g plain flour
200g pistachios*
100g ground almonds
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp fine sea salt

*pistachios can be more expensive so if you want to make this an almond cake simply replace the pistachios with an equal weight of ground almonds and skip the grinding step. 

Cherry Compote
350g cherries, stoned and halved
50g caster sugar
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 tsp almond extract (optional)

Cream Cheese Frosting
75g unsalted butter, room temperature
125g full fat cream cheese, room temperature
400g icing sugar
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
2-3 tbsp finely chopped pistachios

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C Fan) and lightly grease a deep 9x13 brownie tin and line the base with parchment paper (this tin from Nordicware is the one I recommend in the book).

Place the pistachios into a food processor and pulse until finely ground, you’re looking for the same consistency as ground almonds. Add the flour and almonds and pulse to combine. Tip the nut mixture into a large bowl and whisk in the baking powder and salt. Place the butter, sugar and lime zest into the bowl of a stand mixer (you can also make this with an electric hand mixer) and, using the paddle attachment, cream together for about 5 minutes, on medium speed, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until fully combined before adding the next. Once the eggs are combined add the vanilla and mix to combine. Add the nut mixture and mix on low speed until combined. Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin and spread into an even layer. 

Bake the cake in the preheated oven for about 50-55 minutes or until the cake springs back to a light touch and is pulling away from the sides of the tin. Remove from the oven and set the tin on a wire rack to cool completely. 

Whilst the cake is baking start making the compote. Mix together the cherries, sugar, lime zest and almond extract, if using, and set aside for the moment. The almond extract amplifies the cherry flavour but you can leave it out if you prefer. 

When the cake is baked remove from the oven and set the tin on a wire rack to cool completely. To finish the compote tip the cherry mixture into a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil. Continue cooking for a couple minutes before using a slotted spoon to transfer the cherries to a bowl, leaving the cooking juices in the pan. I cook the cherries for a couple minutes to soften them but remove them before they break down into mush. Continue cooking the juices until reduced and slightly syrupy. Scrape the syrup over the fruit and then transfer to the fridge to cool completely. 

For the frosting place the cream cheese and butter into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium/high speed until creamy and lump free. Slowly add in the icing sugar beating until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla and salt and beat to combine. Spread the frosting over the cooled cake and top with the compote, sprinkling over a couple tablespoons of chopped pistachios. 

Tiramisu Brownie Crinkle Cookies

How are we all doing this week? The hot weather we have welcomed this week has been both a pain and a pleasure. Pain because all I want to do is spend my time outside, out of my hot kitchen and apartment, which is of course not the right thing to do right now. Pleasure because I am lucky to have a small park next to my apartment that has remained very quiet so I have safely been able to enjoy my lunch breaks outside soaking in a little sun. I have also been very busy in the kitchen cooking up something special and I know its something you’re going to love. Why so confident? Well the original recipe these are based off are one of, if not the most, popular recipe I have ever published. Ive taken the brownie crinkle cookies, shrunk them, infused them with A LOT of coffee, and sandwiched them with a mascarpone, vanilla rich, rum laced cream. If you can’t tell, I love these so much.

The cookies are as easy to make as their bigger relatives and thankfully the filling is just as easy. All you need to do is whisk everything together until smooth. The most important thing to note is that the mascarpone is a tricky ingredient, this incredibly rich creamy Italian cheese has a tendency to want to split when whipped so it is very important that the cream and cheese are used cold straight from the fridge. This means the cream will whip up quickly before the cheese has a chance to split.

Over the last couple years since the original recipe was posted there has been a few people who’ve had issues with the recipe and whilst this has been a small handful I wanted to go over the recipe for a second to help those people succeed in the future. I have given a lot of detail in the recipe below but to double down, the timings are very important. If the chocolate and butter, once melted, are left to cool for too long the cookies can come out flat, if the chocolate mixture is too hot it can set the cookie dough too much meaning they won’t spread enough and can look dull and lacking any shine. When it comes to baking it is also very important all of the cookies are baked at the same time, otherwise as they sit at room temperature the batter will start to set and again they won’t spread and won’t have a nice shiny crust. Try and stick to the timings as closely as you can and you are sure to have the most delicious cookies going.

Tiramisu Brownie Crinkle Cookies
Makes 10 sandwich cookies

Brownie Cookies 
200g dark chocolate, 65-70% cocoa solids
125g unsalted butter, diced
20g ground coffee (ground finely for espresso)
25ml espresso (or very strong coffee)
150g caster sugar
100g light brown sugar
2 large eggs
130g plain flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt

Mascarpone Cream Filling
100g mascarpone, cold
165g double cream
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
65g icing sugar
2 tbsp dark rum (or marsala or brandy), optional

Temperature and timing is very important with this recipe so before you start get all the ingredients for the cookies weighed out, two large baking trays lined with parchment paper and the oven preheated to 180C (160C fan) 350F.

Place the butter into a small saucepan and over medium heat cook until browned. The butter will melt and then splutter and then foam. When it foams the milk solids will have fallen to the bottom of the pan and will be a nutty brown. Immediately pour the butter into a bowl with the ground coffee. Set aside for 10 minutes before pouring in the espresso. Pour the coffee mixture through a very fine mesh sieve into a heat proof bowl. Press on the back of the coffee grounds to extract as much of the butter as you can. 

Place the bowl with the butter over a pan of simmering water. Add the chocolate the bowl and stir occasionally until fully melted. Remove the bowl from the heat and set aside for the moment. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or using an electric hand mixer, whisk together the eggs and sugars for exactly 5 minutes, on medium/high speed. Meanwhile mix together the dry ingredients, sieving the cocoa powder if it has lots of lumps. Once the eggs have been mixing for exactly 5 minutes pour in the chocolate mixture and mix for about 30 seconds to combine. 

Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix very briefly just until combined. Use your spatula to give one last mix, scraping the bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is evenly combined. Use a 2 tablespoon sized ice cream scoop to form the cookies. Make sure to leave plenty of space between each cookie as they will spread. Sprinkle each cookie with a little flaked sea salt before placing into the oven and baking for 8-9 minutes. The cookies will come out of the oven with that wonderful crinkled look and slightly domed. They will collapse a little as they cool but this helps form that perfect fudgy centre. The cookies will be very soft so allow them to cool on the baking trays for at least 20-30 minutes before removing from the tray to cool completely. 

These cookies will keep for 4-5 days but will be best within the first 3 days. 

Once the cookies are fully cooled make the filling. Simply add all of the ingredients to a mixer and whisk on low speed to break up the mascarpone a little then raise to medium speed and whisk until the mixture holds soft peaks. This whisking should take no more than 30 seconds. To get the idea texture it is imperative that the cream and mascarpone are cold, straight from the fridge. It’s also important to whisk only to the right texture. If you are going to pipe the filling its best to whisk to a slightly looser consistency, just beginning to form peaks, as it will thicken when its piped. If you’re using spoons to fill the cookies you can whisk until fully soft peaks. 

Using a piping bag fitted with a plain round tip, or a spoon, to pipe a round of cream onto half of the cookies, sandwiching together with a second cookie pressing gently together until the cream filling almost comes to the edges. 

Refrigerate the cookies for an hour to firm up the filling a little. If not serving immediately the cookies should be kept in a sealed container in the fridge and allow to come to room temperature for a few minutes before serving.