10/25/2023
Well, they can't all be a success. Yesterday I recipe tested a caramel apple babka. Such a recipe does not exist, so I made it up in my head. My dough was lovely. I made a salted caramel sauce that I poured over finely chopped apples. It was delicious! The parts of this were so good.
Unfortunately, the sauce was runny (I have lots of ideas why and where I went wrong). The Frankenstein loaf in the second picture if the result of my first attempt to fill and fold the dough. It was a mess. The second loaf, I filled much better. However, I was not able to braid and create the typical babka loaf. But, the second loaf looked beautiful and I was very happy.
This morning I cut into the second loaf and was quite surprised to see a giant pocket (steam pocket created likely because the sauce had too much water). Does the bread taste delicious? Yes! So, I've not given up hope that I can do this. Just need to regroup and try again!