When my friend Leela and I first began researching places to WWOOF, we searched for hosts that were female or couples to mitigate the risks of getting a predatory host. We landed on two older couples in Northern California, and began corresponding with them. With the second WWOOF hosts we were planning on staying with, I began a long email chain to get to know them and learn what we would be doing to help them out. One of our duties, they said, would be to pick the wild black raspberries that grew along the trails by their house. What luck! I responded, I love berries! With the prospect of fresh right-off-the-vine berries in sight, I began contemplating what dessert I could make with the juicy jewels. I landed on a sourdough babka, since they are fun to make and very striking. I saw that Bread by Elise made a blueberry lemon babka, so I knew I could add fresh fruit to the filling without compromising the integrity of the dough. I used the same recipe I used to make babka in the past, from The Perfect Loaf.
I keep a whole grain starter, feeding with spelt or rye, so it added a touch of grain flavor. I used the chocolate filling, but used unsweetened chocolate instead of bittersweet, which mellowed out the sweetness a lot (if you use bitersweet I would add less sugar to the filling). Leela and I filled a bowl to the brim with fresh raspberries, then when construction of the babka ensued I spread the chocolate filling down then we placed hand-crushed raspberries across the surface of the dough. The quantity of gooey raspberries made braiding the two strands of dough together challenging and messy, but with quick motions and hand support the dough made it into the pan to be baked. The babka baked, for longer than the recipe said to ensure the extra wetness would not prevent the dough from being fully cooked. I took it out and let it cool, omitting the step with simple syrup because the raspberries added some sweetness and moisture and I did not want to make an overly sweet bread.
Our hosts had guests over for dinner that night, and one of them commented that they thought it was a roast beef! I thought that was funny. It was a very striking loaf of decadence, that we enjoyed for breakfast the next morning. It got two thumbs up from our hosts!