Yummy Malaysiana: chocolate swirl buns

A few years ago, I conquered one of what has to be one of the seven wonders of my culinary world, chocolate babka. Babka, if youre new to it, poor you, is a brioche-like sweet yeast cake, usually rolled thin and spiraled around a filling of chocolate, cinnamon, sweet cheese or fruit, and is often studded with streusel. And I know that most people save their gushing prose for lemon meringue pie, 8 inches high, or brownies with swirls of peanut butter, candied bacon and candy bars inside, I know that most people hadnt heard of babka before it became a punch line, but Alex and I fondly remembering the grocery store chocolate babkas with endless spirals slicked with bittersweet chocolate of our childhood and I couldnt rest until I cracked the code at home.

Martha Stewart made it easy, as her late mothers chocolate babka is the finest out there, and not just because it contains the complicated twist patterns, pebbles of streusel and touch of cinnamon that its just not right without. Nope, her version won all prizes because it was completely and totally, bo! rderline indecently, overcrowded with chocolate. The chocolate-to-dough ratio is staggering. Its unseemly. Its some kind of wonderful.