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    Home » Desserts

    Author: Emily Krill | Published: May 11, 2018 | Modified: Nov 28, 2021

    Quick Gluten-Free Chocolate Babka

    Jump to Recipe

    This Gluten-Free Chocolate Babka recipe is a healthy take on a classic Jewish dessert.

    Low Carb Keto Chocolate Babka

    Jump to:
    • Greetings!
    • What is Chocolate Babka?
    • Where does Babka come from?
    • Why make it gluten free?
    • Ingredients
    • Where to buy sugar-free chocolate chips
    • Is it hard to make?
    • 📋 Recipe

    Greetings!

    It's tea time, and I'm just enjoying a slice of this delicious Gluten-Free Chocolate Babka. And it's incredibly good, so today I'm going to share this healthy coffee cake recipe with you.

    What is Chocolate Babka?

    Chocolate Babka is a brioche-like braided coffee cake filled with chocolate.  Classic yeast-risen babka takes all day to make, but the Gluten-Free Babka we are making today only takes 1 hour and 15 minutes from start to finish. 

    Where does Babka come from?

    This Jewish coffee cake originated in Poland in the 19th Century. Like so many foods, emigrants from Central European countries brought Babka with them to the United States, where it became a Jewish bakery staple.  

    But you probably heard about Chocolate Babka from Seinfeld.

    In the episode called “The Dinner Party”, the gang prepares to attend a dinner party and Elaine feels they must bring a cake. So Jerry and Elaine stop at a bakery to purchase a Chocolate Babka.  But they forget to take a number at the counter, so another couple gets ahead of them in line and purchases the last Chocolate Babka. 

    Jerry and Elaine resort to purchasing a Cinnamon Babka, which Elaine considers a "lesser babka". They find that the Babka has a hair on it, and are forced to wait in line again to exchange it.  It’s a whole thing.

    Annnnnyhoo.

    Why make it gluten free?

    Gluten has become quite the pariah these days.  Some people, like those suffering from Celiac Disease, can’t tolerate the gluten that is present in flour and so they cut it out of their diets.  But the Gluten-Free Diet has healthy benefits for everyone. Cutting out gluten can increase energy, eliminate bloating, reduce joint pain, improve hair, skin, and bone health and even reduce Depression.    

    But honestly, who could be depressed while eating this delicious dessert?

    a cross section of Quick Gluten Free Chocolate Babka

    Is this recipe Keto?

    Instead of making this Babka with a white flour yeast bread, it uses Fathead dough, so it only has 6g net carbs.  So yes, this Chocolate Babka recipe is very Keto-friendly.

    Ingredients

    • cream cheese
    • heavy whipping cream
    • sugar-free chocolate chips
    • cocoa powder
    • cinnamon
    • Swerve Granular
    • vanilla extract
    • mozzarella cheese
    • almond flour
    • baking powder
    6 bags of Lily's Baking Chips against a purple background

    Where to buy sugar-free chocolate chips

    Lilly's makes a plethora of sugar-free chocolate and flavored baking chips that you can use in this recipe. Your options are:

    • Dark Chocolate
    • Milk Chocolate 
    • Semi-Sweet Chocolate
    • White Chocolate
    • Chocolate Salted Caramel 
    • Butterscotch
    • Chocolate Mint
    • Pumpkin Spice
    • Peppermint
    • and Unicorn... Swirl? These blue and pink chips made of white chocolate turn a whimsical purple color when you melt them together. None of your friend have ever had a purple chocolate babka before, I'd wager.
    lily's baking chips

    Lily's Sugar-Free Dark Chocolate Baking Chips

    Buy Now →
    milk chocolate baking chips

    Lily's Sugar-Free Milk Chocolate Baking Chips

    Buy Now →
    semi-sweet baking chips

    Lily's Sugar-Free Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Chips

    Buy Now →
    white chocolate baking chips

    Lily's Sugar-Free White Chocolate Baking Chips

    Buy Now →

    Is it hard to make?

    It’s a bit complicated making this braided coffee cake, so I’ve included step-by-step pictures in the recipe card.  But simply put, you mix up the dough, roll it out, spread chocolate on the dough, twist it up, and bake it. It's actually not as complicated as it looks.

    Now you can choose to make Cinnamon Babka if you’d prefer…

    But in the words of Elaine Benes, “What?  A Lesser Babka?”

    Print

    📋 Recipe

    Gluten Free Chocolate Babka

    Low Carb Keto Chocolate Babka
    Print Recipe

    ★★★★★

    5 from 6 reviews

    This Gluten Free Chocolate Babka recipe is a healthy take on a classic Jewish dessert.

    • Author: Emily Krill
    • Prep Time: 15
    • Cook Time: 60
    • Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
    • Yield: 12 slices 1x
    • Category: Dessert
    • Cuisine: Jewish
    • Diet: Gluten Free

    Ingredients

    Scale

    Chocolate Filling:

    • 5 oz cream cheese
    • ⅓ cup heavy whipping cream
    • ½ cup Lily's Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips
    • 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
    • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
    • 6 tablespoons Swerve Granular
    • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

    Fat Head Dough:

    • cooking spray
    • 2 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese
    • 3 oz cream cheese
    • 2 large eggs
    • 1 ¾ cup almond flour
    • 1 tablespoon baking powder
    • ¼ cup Swerve Granular
    • 1 teaspoon xanthan gum (optional)

    Instructions

    Step 1.  Add chocolate, 5 oz cream cheese, and cream to a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl and cook in 30-second intervals until melted and combined.

    Step 2.  Stir in cocoa powder, cinnamon, filling sweetener, and vanilla, and mix well to combine.  Set aside. Fat Head Dough:

    Step 3.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.

    Step 4.  In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, mix together mozzarella cheese and remaining cream cheese.  Cook in 30-second increments, stirring each time until melted and combined.

    Step 5.  Stir in eggs and mix well to combine.

    Step 6.  In a medium-sized bowl, mix together almond flour, baking powder, dough sweetener, and xanthan gum.  Slowly add this mixture to the melted cheese and mix well to combine.  Towards the end, you'll need to use your hands.  If the dough feels too wet to work with, add more almond flour until it's the right consistency to roll out.

    Step 7.  Divide the dough into 2 balls.  Place 1 dough ball between 2 sheets of parchment paper and roll it out with a rolling pin until it's about ¼ inch thick.

    Step 8.  Spread half of the chocolate filling on top of the dough. 

    Step 9.  Roll it up tightly into a long log and pinch the ends together.  Repeat steps with remaining dough and filling.

    Step 10.  Form an X with the two dough logs.  Twist the logs around each other.

    Step 11.  Place the dough into the loaf pan and bake for 20 minutes.

    Step 12.  Loosely cover the loaf with tin foil and bake for another 35-40 minutes until fully browned.

    Step 13.  Cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then remove and place on a cooling rack.  The loaf will be soft when it comes out of the oven but will firm up as it cools.

    Equipment

    glass mixing bowls

    Glass Mixing Bowls

    Buy Now →
    large serving platters

    Rectangular Serving Platters

    Buy Now →
    loaf pan

    Loaf Pan

    Buy Now →
    pastry baking set

    Pastry Baking Set

    Buy Now →

    Notes

    *If you take this babka to a party, make sure to clearly mark that it contains nuts.  Most people don’t expect a pastry to use almond flour, so people with nut allergies might inadvertently eat it. 

    Nutrition

    • Serving Size: 1 slice
    • Calories: 296
    • Fat: 25
    • Carbohydrates: 11
    • Fiber: 5
    • Protein: 13

    Keywords: Gluten-Free Babka, Chocolate Babka, Keto Chocolate Babka, Sugar-Free Chocolate Babka

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Helan says

      March 25, 2021 at 2:41 am

      Thanks For Sharing this Amazing Recipe. My Family Loved It. I will be sharing this Recipe with my Friends. Hope They will like it.

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        March 25, 2021 at 11:30 am

        Sure thing!

        Reply
    2. Annie says

      June 27, 2020 at 3:50 pm

      I've had this bookmarked for a while and finally had 1) the time and 2) all the ingredients today! Unfortunately, while it looked and smelled amazing, it came out very dense and doughy, except for the outside. I baked @ 375 for 20 min then covered loosely and baked another 40 minutes. I'm wondering if it needed more time, or if I overmixed, or if there's anything else anyone can offer tip-wise for this type of dough?

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        June 27, 2020 at 3:54 pm

        Unfortunately, this is a very dense kind of dough. The ingredients are just pretty heavy. I’ve got quite a lot of more classic yeast bread doughs on the site though. Just do a search for “yeast bread”.

        Reply
        • Annie says

          June 27, 2020 at 4:08 pm

          Thanks for the quick reply. I've been looking at your other recipes, too. I'm not going to give up on this one! I'll try again with a different brand of mozzarella, adding a bit more almond flour, playing with my oven temp, and maybe even try dividing into 2 loaves. In the mean time, I think I might use this loaf for French toast or bread pudding. 🙂

          Reply
    3. Haley says

      December 28, 2019 at 8:29 pm

      Ohmygosh this is amazing!!!!!! It’s the best babka I’ve ever had! My moms favorite dessert (well one of them) is a Babka and I had to find a way to make it Keto (my whole family is Keto) I’m so glad I found and tried this recipe! I’ve made it twice in the last two days!!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        December 28, 2019 at 10:06 pm

        Thanks! So glad you and your family liked it. I love updating family favorites.

        Reply
    4. Nicole says

      June 16, 2019 at 4:14 pm

      This recipe exceeded my expectations. I can’t believe I’m allowed to have it. Thank you so so much!!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        June 16, 2019 at 4:30 pm

        Sure thing! So glad you like it.

        Reply
    5. Jessic toledo says

      May 21, 2019 at 11:07 am

      What is the serving size for the nutrtional facts? 1 or 2 slices with how many cuts to the loaf

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        May 21, 2019 at 11:17 am

        It makes 12 slices and each serving is 1 slice.

        Reply
    6. Keto Full Diet Reviews says

      May 11, 2019 at 9:01 pm

      Some genuinely nice stuff on this site, I love it.

      ★★★★★

      Reply
    7. Pat says

      January 12, 2019 at 9:00 pm

      I made your babka this morning and it's delicious! I should maybe have added a little more almond flour because the rolls tended to crack open a little, but I was afraid of making it too dry. It's not as pretty as yours, but this recipe is definitely a keeper!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        January 13, 2019 at 10:54 am

        Sweet! I'm so glad that you liked the recipe.

        Reply
    8. Noah says

      October 25, 2018 at 4:21 pm

      This is so much like regular babka! Thanks for posting this.

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        October 25, 2018 at 8:34 pm

        It's very convincing, isn't it?

        Reply
    9. Lisa says

      May 30, 2018 at 7:07 pm

      I Just made this recipe today. It is really good. Thank you for sharing it. My husband and I have been on Keto for almost 2 years, so I am always looking for low carb recipes.

      Reply
    10. Melanie Solomon says

      May 18, 2018 at 2:30 pm

      This was really good, I’m making my second one this week. I’m taking this one to a end of season sports BBQ on Saturday. I divided mine up in thirds and braided it because I wanted more layers but the recipe was so good

      Reply
      • Emily says

        May 18, 2018 at 3:28 pm

        Yay! Thanks so much for letting me know that you liked it. You totally made my day. Enjoy your BBQ!

        Reply
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    I'm Emily, the diabetic behind Resolution Eats. Many years ago, I made a New Year's resolution to switch to a low carb diet. It improved both my health and my outlook on life. Since then, I've come up with hundreds of Keto recipes for everything from soup to nuts. And this blog is a way for me to share the low carb love. Cheers!

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