These Keto Chocolate Babka Buns are a twist on the ultimate breakfast treat. The individual babka buns are sugar-free, low carb and yeast-risen with all the chocolate cinnamon layers you know and love!
Just like my Bubbe used to make! No, wait! I didn’t have a Jewish grandmother, but if I did, I imagine she would have made me these decadent chocolate, cinnamon and love-filled pastries every weekend! She definitely would not have made a lesser babka!
Babka is a layered sweet bread that was traditionally an Eastern European Jewish delight. With the diaspora, babka can be found all over the world where Jewish baking traditions are upheld and likely, might be lurking at your closest Jewish deli. I’m not too proud to admit that my first, life changing taste of the miracle food came from a Costco! It was divine and I still remember it clearly!
You’ll usually see babka made in a loaf but these Keto Chocolate Babka Buns are made in individual servings! One decadent, delicious, mouthwatering whole babka for you and you alone! A pinch unassuming from the outside, their inner beauty – layer upon layer of chocolate cinnamon in paper thin dough will surely capture your heart! Sorry, I could wax poetic about these all day!
Traditional babka is made with sugar, flour and chocolate so read on to see what we need to make these babies ketofied!
KEY INGREDIENTS KETO CHOCOLATE BABKA BUNS 🍫
Vital Wheat Gluten
This wheat protein gives the Keto Chocolate Babka Buns their chew. Wheat gluten is actually the protein from wheat. It is low carb and helps these babka buns have a familiar texture and taste to the traditional version. Kneading it helps the gluten develop and allows us to roll those beautiful paper thin layers of chocolaty goodness!
Check out more keto recipes with vital wheat gluten.
Lupin Flour
This high protein, low carb flour from the lupin bean helps the Keto Chocolate Babka Buns have their amazing texture. This miracle bean will help you recreate some of your favorite recipes in a keto way. It is a great ingredient to keep in your keto pantry.
Check out more keto recipes with lupin flour.
Oat Fiber
This zero calorie fiber from oats helps give these Keto Chocolate Babka Buns a light texture. I love this ingredient for baking and use it in all of my breads. Please be sure to buy LifeSource brand, others I have tried have caused my breads to collapse.
Check out more keto recipes with oat fiber.
Allulose
My true keto love! This sweetener tastes and behaves so similarly to sugar. Allulose is a rare, naturally occurring sugar that is very low in calories and well as low carb. It’s hands down my favorite keto ingredient. In our Keto Chocolate Babka Buns, allulose is what give these pastries their sweetness.
Check out more keto recipes with allulose.
TECHNIQUE
There are a couple of techniques used to make these Keto Chocolate Babka Buns.
Water Roux
For a soft texture and longer shelf life, I like to use a water roux method for making the dough. This involves taking a portion of the flour mix (vital wheat gluten, lupin flour and oat fiber), combining it with water and microwaving it until the mixture thickens. Although it’s a little different, this technique will help these buns stay deliciously fresh and soft.
Extended Kneading
This dough does require a bit of time to knead it. I usually knead for 7-10 minutes until the bread has a nice stretch. This stage is called weak windowpane – where the dough stretches to form a “window” rather than just ripping. At this stage, I add the softened butter one tablespoon at a time and continue kneading until the dough is soft and supple. It can take a little time and some close watching at the end!
Chocolate Cinnamon Filling 🍫
In a microwave safe bowl combine half of the chocolate and the butter. Microwave in 20 second bursts until the butter and chocolate are melted, being extremely careful not to burn the chocolate. To the melted mix, add the remaining chocolate and stir until it’s completely melted and then add the remaining ingredients. I’ve tried using the stove top but it’s just too easy to burn the chocolate. This mixture will get spread in a very thin layer across the bread to form those amazing chocolate layers we all love! Yum!
EQUIPMENT
- Microwave safe bowl
- Scale
- Spatula
- Rolling pin
- Silicone mat or parchment paper
TROUBLESHOOTING
These are pretty straight forward but, when you’re in the kitchen, anything can happen! Let’s plan ahead in case anything goes awry!
Why is my dough not rising?
This dough is enriched with butter, cream and allulose. Enriched dough can take a little extra time and effort to rise. Make sure that the dough is in a warm spot – you can place it inside the oven with light on or in a warm microwave (Tip: warm up some water so the microwave is warm and steamy, leave the hot water in the microwave with your dough). To judge when it’s risen, go more on the size and feel of the dough than the clock. If you have waited and it still seems like the dough is going nowhere, it’s possible your yeast is dead. Sorry, that’s the worst case scenario and means you’ll need to start again.
What if the dough rips as I’m rolling it?
The dough is pretty tough and can be rolled pretty darn thinly. I did not flour the surface or the rolling pin; this dough is not too sticky. However, if you find you’re having a hard time, you can try using a piece of parchment between the rolling pin and the dough. Another trick is to get it as thin as you can, then once the roll is all rolled up, roll the entire roll with your hand to make it longer and thinner. This will get those layers even thinner.
If you do get a couple of rips, no worries! Just hide these in the far side of the dough – they will disappear as you roll it up! Just be mindful as you roll them up not to get chocolate all over your work surface!
What if I don’t like cinnamon in my babka?
How could you? No, just kidding, no worries! If you don’t care for it, just omit it.
🍽 SERVING
These would be perfect to serve in many ways!
How to serve Keto Chocolate Babka Buns:
- Perfect for breakfast or brunch
- Amazing for a holiday gift basket, who wouldn’t love to receive these? 🎁
- Great for a potluck, easy to pick up and eat and transport
What should I drink with Keto Chocolate Babka Buns?
These are amazing with coffee ☕️ or a nice cup of English breakfast tea would definitely stand up to these.
STORING
These are good for a couple of days in an airtight container… if they last that long!
❤️ MORE RECIPES YOU’LL LOVE
- Chocolate pull-apart Keto Babka Snowflake ❄️
- For chocolate lovers Keto Chocolate Zucchini Cake
- Keto Pumpkin Coffee Cake Muffins are huge hit!
- Keto Pasadena Zucchini Bread is another amazing quick bread
- A breakfast favorite, Keto Pecan Sticky Buns 🍯
Keto Chocolate Babka Buns
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- scale
- Rolling Pin
- Wire Rack
- baking sheet
- Silpat
- Parchment Paper
- Microwave safe bowls
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons water for Water Roux (see note below)
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/2 teaspoon honey for feeding the yeast
- 1/2 tablespoon instant yeast
- 1 eggs
- 2 tablespoons butter room temperature and cut into cubes
- 1/4 cup allulose
- 75 grams vital wheat gluten
- 40 grams lupin flour
- 20 grams oat fiber
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
FILLING
- 1.5 ounces baking chocolate unsweetened
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 8 tablespoons allulose
- 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Make the flour mix: weigh out vital wheat gluten, lupin flour and oat fiber and mix thoroughly.
- Make Water Roux by mixing 25 g of flour mix with 6 tablespoons of water. Microwave in 30 second intervals until mixture thickens. Approximately 1.5-2 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.
- Add warm water roux (make sure it is not hot!), heavy whipping cream, 2 tablespoons of water, honey, egg, allulose and yeast and mix well.
- Slowly add flour mixture and salt to the mixer as it runs on low.
- Once combined, use the dough hook to mix for 6-8 minutes. Touch the dough to check for stickiness. The dough should stretch when pulled and not rip.
- Add one tablespoon of butter and begin to knead again on low. When it is absorbed, add the second tablespoon of butter. Continue to mix until dough is supple and stretches easily.
- Cover and place in a warm spot. Allow to rise until doubled in size. Be patient!
- When the dough has risen. we'll prepare the filling.
FILLING
- In a microwave safe bowl, combine half the chocolate with the butter. Microwave 20 seconds at a time until both are melted, being careful not to burn the chocolate.
- Add the remaining chocolate to the warm mix and stir until in melts. Then add the remaining ingredients and mix until combined. The filling will be a pretty stiff mixture.
- With the filling prepared, portion out the dough into 8 pieces using the scale.
- Roll out the piece of dough into a rectangular shape until it is so thin you can see through it.
- Add about 1/2-3/4 tablespoon of the filling to the dough in a line close to you.
- Using a spatula spread the filling across the dough evenly.
- Leave a little space at the sides and about two inches at the top.
- Roll the dough tightly, leaving the margin at the end to wrap over the roll. Then coil up the roll. Continue with remaining pieces of dough.
- Place the rolls on a silicone sheet or parchment paper lined baking sheet. Allow the rolls to rise again for 40-60 minutes, covered in a warm spot.
- Preaheat the oven to 350 degrees F, I do not recommend convection for this recipe
- Optional – if you prefer a shiny top, brush rolls with beaten egg before baking.
- Bake the rolls for 22-28 minutes until golden.
- Allow to cool on a baking rack. Enjoy!
Looks so delicious and pretty sure it is too ! Cant wait to ask my mum to give this a go !
Dane, thanks so much! Your mum sounds like the best 🙂
WOW! These look amazing! Trying these ASAP!!
Thank you, Jessica, I can’t wait to hear how it turns out! xo
Chocolate Babka is a favorite of mine! I just made one recently! I have not made a keto version, though. I’m interested in trying this!
Thank you, Alyssa, the real deal is definitely so delicious! I’ll look forward to hearing how the keto version goes! 🙂
I love the troubleshooting you offer because I tend to focus on what might go wrong when I bake and knowing your tips ahead of time gives me confidence I can work around or through any issue.
As an Eastern European, this recipe reminds me of the special breads made in preparation for the holidays and I’m grateful to have a healthier version to make for my family this year.
Thank you, Tiffany! Keto baking seems to present its own challenges – I’m so glad the troubleshooting section has been helpful! It’s so nice to be able to keep our traditions with a healthier twist!
There are perfect. I can’t wait to make them. Thank you for figuring out how to make these, you’ve saved me a ton of time.
Thanks, RL, I’m so glad you’re enjoying the recipe. Hopefully you’ll share a pic when you make them!
Hi,
I’m living in the Baltics and haven’t found a way to get oat fibre. Is there a substitute that would mimic this ingredient?
Thanks!
Hi Jean, I really appreciate you checking out the site and this recipe. I have friends in Europe who have had luck ordering from netrition.com to get some of these harder to find ingredients, maybe try there? Oat fiber is kind of spongy and seems to hold onto water and I’m not sure that I can think of another ingredient with exactly those characteristics. I have done some baking with protein powders in the past but (also in conjunction with oat fiber) I kind of wonder if micellar casein protein might be fluffy enough to make it work. I’ll continue to look into this and report back if/when I learn more. Thanks again, Lindsay
Looks like something a chocolate lover would like, but wait, that’s me!
Thank you, Faizan! Definitely a great recipe for a chocolate lover! Hope you love them!
it looks so good! love that chocolate inside 🙂
Thanks, Jeannie, the chocolate and cinnamon combination really makes these awesome!
I am in love with these. I bet they taste as amazing as they look!
Thanks so much, Cindy, I look forward to hearing how you like them!
The thought I’ve trying to create a babka instills fear in me! It looks amazing and is worth me putting into the queue for when I get adventurous on one of these upcoming winter days.
Daphne, you are too funny! Nothing to be afraid of here, you can do it! I hope you’ll try it and enjoy it!
Incredible! Loved it so much, made it twice! Doesn’t taste keto – omg!
Thank you so much, Josy! I appreciate you trying out the recipe and leaving your thoughts. This is a favorite recipe around here too! xo
Such a delicious holiday recipe!
Thanks so much, Sabrina! I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
My mouth is watering. I have to make this tonight!
Aw, thanks! I hope you’ll love them!