Chocolate-Cinnamon Babka, kranz-style

today's seasonal offering is chocolate-cinnamon babka, but in the braided loaf style of the israeli kranz. babka is a yeast cake of eastern european heritage, popular during easter. this recipe, from reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day, seems to strike a compromise in the famous chocolate vs. cinnamon babka Seinfeld episode by featuring both flavors. i've been wanting to make this ever since i got the book, not so much because i wanted to eat it, but because it looked so cool. i'm not a big fan of chocolate-y breads, and there's little difference between a yeast cake & a rich bread, that i can tell. the cinnamon saves it (for me). it's good, but it's not great, though i think most would like it a lot more than i do. it's kind of like chocolate bread pudding in solid form so, if you like that sort of thing, or chocolate croissants, then you'd probably like this. not my thing, but it's kinda cool.

ps. it turns really brown because of the sugar & chocolate, but it's not burned, nor is it hard & crusty.