Re babka: did you know there are two common sizes of loaf pan, and they aren't really interchangeable? The smaller is 8.5 by 4.5 inches, and the larger is 9 by 5 inches. Both are usually about the same height, about 2.5 inches tall. If you do the math, the bottom of the big one is about 15% bigger than the bottom of the small one. If your pan was the smaller size but the recipe was written for the larger size, that might explain why you felt like there was too much dough to fit in the pan. (Conversely, if you use a larger pan to make a recipe written to go in a smaller pan, your bread will often wind up short and squat compared to what the recipe intended.)
This is fascinating, especially because I've never seen a recipe indicate the size of the loaf pan called for! Regardless, this particular recipe yields *a lot* of dough. So much so that when I made it Friday I chopped enough off the end of the raw loaf to fill a half-loaf pan fully in addition to the full-size pan. Even if I used a larger loaf pan, it would be too much dough to shove in there and cool properly. (I do suspect I have the smaller size, and could easily measure, but I'm lazy.) Now that I've sorted this out, I actually love that I've got a half-loaf to give away every time I make this. :)
Another option, should you want a single large loaf, would be to coil the dough into a Bundt pan. You don’t necessarily need to seal the ends together to form a ring of dough. Or just divide the dough in half at the start, and I bet you’ll wind up with two nice-size loaves.
I have one of those cushions too! I did find that it’s best for about 20 minutes at a time, or my bottom goes numb.
Re babka: did you know there are two common sizes of loaf pan, and they aren't really interchangeable? The smaller is 8.5 by 4.5 inches, and the larger is 9 by 5 inches. Both are usually about the same height, about 2.5 inches tall. If you do the math, the bottom of the big one is about 15% bigger than the bottom of the small one. If your pan was the smaller size but the recipe was written for the larger size, that might explain why you felt like there was too much dough to fit in the pan. (Conversely, if you use a larger pan to make a recipe written to go in a smaller pan, your bread will often wind up short and squat compared to what the recipe intended.)
This is fascinating, especially because I've never seen a recipe indicate the size of the loaf pan called for! Regardless, this particular recipe yields *a lot* of dough. So much so that when I made it Friday I chopped enough off the end of the raw loaf to fill a half-loaf pan fully in addition to the full-size pan. Even if I used a larger loaf pan, it would be too much dough to shove in there and cool properly. (I do suspect I have the smaller size, and could easily measure, but I'm lazy.) Now that I've sorted this out, I actually love that I've got a half-loaf to give away every time I make this. :)
Another option, should you want a single large loaf, would be to coil the dough into a Bundt pan. You don’t necessarily need to seal the ends together to form a ring of dough. Or just divide the dough in half at the start, and I bet you’ll wind up with two nice-size loaves.