By: Danit Solomon and Yehudah Solomon, Chef Halavan

Prep time: 40 minutes

Serves: 15

Ingredients:
Dough
3 cups (360 g) of flour you’d normally use for challah
2 bags (2×10 g) of vanilla sugar
3 tablespoons of sugar
2 teaspoons of dry yeast
100 g of Tnuva USA Butter, room temperature, cut into small cubes
⅓ cup of smooth peanut butter
2 large eggs
1 cup (250 ml) of milk
½ teaspoon of salt

Filling
400 grams of Tnuva USA’s De La Creme Hazelnut With Cocao Cream Spread
⅔ cup (100 g) peanut butter nibs (sold in retail chains)
A handful of chopped hazelnuts for decoration (if desired)
⅔ cup (135 g) of sugar
1 vanilla sugar pouch
⅓ cup (80 ml) of boiling water from the kettle

Instructions:
1. Prepare the dough (you can either use a food processor or knead it by hand). Mix 3 cups of flour with vanilla sugar, regular white sugar and dried yeast. Add butter, peanut butter, eggs, milk and salt and knead until the dough becomes flexible and doesn’t stick to your hands. If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour. Transfer to a greased bowl, cover with a plastic wrap and let rise until the dough doubles in volume.
2. Grease two 10×30 cm cake molds with butter and cover their bottoms and sides with a piece of baking paper.
3. Place a sheet of baking paper on the work surface. Divide the dough into two equal parts. Place one part back into the bowl and keep it covered.
Sprinkle the baking paper with flour the other part of the dough into a 35×30 cm sheet. Shmear half the amount of the hazelnut spread on it, until it reaches the top 2 cm of the dough’s edges, and then drizzle half the amount of the peanut butter on top. Roll it tightly lengthwise and pin the edges together.
Cut the roll in half lengthwise, braid the two halves together, and transfer to the cake mold.
Repeat the same steps with the remaining part of the dough.
Cover the molds and allow to rise until the dough almost doubles in volume. Sprinkle the hazelnuts on top of the pastries.
4. Heat the oven to medium heat (350 F). Place the two molds on the middle shelf of the oven, and bake for 40-35 minutes until the babkas are golden brown.
5. Make syrup by dissolving the sugar in boiling water and adding vanilla extract. Brush the babkas with the syrup and return to the hot oven for 3-5 minutes. Remove and cool.