A dessert from a pizza dough may sound odd, but it works great with this chocolate babka.Danielle Matar/The Globe and Mail
Summer isn't all hot dogs, watermelon and corn. Sometimes it rains, sometimes you have kids who need things to do while you make dinner and (if you are lucky) sometimes you get invited up to someone's cottage and all of these things are true at once.
Our challenge this week is to make something that can mollify a group at a rainy day at the cottage (or at home). The secret ingredient is store bought pizza dough, and we recommend that you always keep a couple of balls in the freezer. It really makes it easy to whip up something amazing, whether it's addictive cheesy, garlicky dough knots or the wonder that is the chocolate-swirled bread known as babka.
Once you have the pizza dough, all the other ingredients are probably already in your kitchen – if they aren't, skip them. Emma uses chopped up bacon or sliced pepperettes instead of pancetta in the garlic knots and has been known to throw some chocolate chips into the babka.
Both of these recipes are a fun group project, and the amazing aroma wafting from the oven is a major bonus point.