This recipe was from Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe, which I'm really growing to like for ideas. It doesn't look like the round babka I'm used to having, and it had a lot less air in it. In fact, when I first cut into it after it baked, I was kind of disappointed because it looked like cake. But cutting it, and eating it, revealed a different story. It's dense, rich, with that eggy heaviness. And chocolate. I was worried because I didn't use all the sugar-cocoa mixture, but it didn't seem to matter. On Day 2 it was starting to get a little on the dry side, though. As a coworker and I compared recipes it became clear that this is a relatively low-fat recipe with about half the usual amount of yeast, which probably accounts for the dry, dense texture (the handfuls of extra flour I added certainly didn't help).

Dissolve 1 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast (about half a packet) in 1/4 cup warm water for 5 minutes. (I added about a teaspoon of sugar to feed the yeast, then added that much less later; I wonder if that affected the outcome. I just like to see that my yeast is working.) Then stir in 1/2 cup yogurt, 1 egg, 1 1/4 teaspoon salt, 3 tablespoons sugar and 3 tablespoons melted butter.

Stir in 2 cups flour, 1 cup at a time, then work an extra 1/4 cup in with your hands. At this point my dough was so sticky I kept adding more flour, about 3 more handfuls (I have a pretty light touch when measuring flour and always seem to add too little, although with this recipe you really have to be careful not to add too much; the dough stays very sticky). Then I sprayed my hands with nonstick spray, which really seemed to help. Work all the flour in while it was in the bowl, lift the dough, spray the bowl and the top of the dough with nonstick spray, then put the dough back in the bowl. Let it rise in a warm place 1 1/4 hour, while it increases in bulk a bit more than 50 percent (which kind of looks discouraging after making things that double in bulk, but the recipe does use only half the yeast packet).

Punch it down with a greased fist, then put it on a greased surface and let it sit 5 minutes, then pat and stretch it into a 10 by 16 inch rectangle. Spread to within 1/2 inch of edge with a tablespoon of softened butter, then with a mixture of 5 tablespoons sugar and 3 tablespoons cocoa powder. Sprinkle with 1 cup chocolate chips. Roll it up from long side, pinched end closed, then transfer to a greased baking sheet, seam side down, and let it sit for another hour (it doesn't rise much). Bake in 350 degree oven 40 minutes until brown and sounds hollow when tapped.

I think I may use a different recipe next time, but the technique should be universal (the proportions of ingredients just differ).