Halvah and Nutella Babka Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

Why do Jews eat babka? ›

One theory says Babka is indigenous to the Ukraine, part of an ancient fertility symbol. The story of chocolate and the Jewish community is a bit different in the Mediterranean. There, Jews and chocolate went together like bagels and cream cheese. Don't miss what matters.

It can be confused for a cake due to its loaf shape, but like other sweets like Italian panettone, raised doughnuts, Mexican pan dulce, and even cinnamon buns, babka is a sweet yeast-raised bread.

To my friend who posted on February 19: Your dough is dry because kneading for 16-20 minutes is WAY too long. Babka is delicate, not at all like regular bread dough and should not be kneaded but for maybe 30 seconds to combine the softened butter as the last step (far less than even this recipe recommends).

Babka, it should be explained, is a sweet yeast bread, like cake. Its dough is richer than that of a cinnamon bun but not as rich as Danish dough. It features a sticky, gooey, addictive filling of cinnamon sugar or chocolate sugar spread and either a glossy glaze or a crumb topping — or both.

borrowed from Yiddish & Polish; Yiddish babke (in sense a), borrowed from Polish babka (in sense b), literally, "old woman, grandmother," diminutive of baba "grandmother, midwife, old woman"

Baka' Definition

NAS Word Usage - Total: 1. Baca = "weeping"

From there they have diverged. All have a rich, yeast-risen, tender crumb; panettone's texture is more like cotton candy with its long, airy strands that literally melt in your mouth, whereas babka and brioche tend to be a bit denser and somewhat chewier, with a high ratio of butter and eggs to flour.

Store your babka at room temperature in the provided packaging using the reseal tab on the back if opened; do not refrigerate. Our babkas are baked daily and, if you can resist eating them, will stay delicious for up to 5 days after purchase.

Slice the babka and serve it at room temperature; or rewarm individual slices briefly in a toaster, if desired.

Do NOT underbake your loaves. I recommend checking them with a thermometer to make sure they're done. If you pull them out too early, the babka will sink in the middle and be doughy (it's happened to me before and it's a total bummer).

How to tell if babka is done? ›

To be extra sure that your babka loaf has finished baking, you can use an instant-read thermometer to check if the internal temperature has reached 190°F. This method is also great if you don't have a long enough toothpick to get to the middle of the loaf. Don't skip the sugar syrup at the end.

What time of day do you eat babka? It is with great pleasure that we can say there's no wrong time to eat babka! This chocolate loaf is especially decadent, making it particularly well-suited for dessert, but if you're feeling fancy in the A.M. hours, it goes great with a cup of coffee.

Trader Joe's describes this as "a sweet rich pastry layered with chocolate." An 18-ounce babka costs $4.99. In our Trader Joe's, I've seen this come and go. It's always right by the first register and nowhere else in the store that I have seen. Keep your eyes peeled.

The word 'babka' means grandmother, referring to the grandmothers on Shabbat who made this out of the leftover challah. Chocolate wasn't added to babka until Jews arrived in New York. Chocolate became more affordable and accessible, so Jews started embellishing their babkas with rich chocolate instead of cinnamon.

Babka Cake

In Poland, Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria, Babke Cake is usually baked to be eaten on Easter Sunday, although it's also enjoyed during other celebrations too.

Like challah, it is braided and made from a rich yeasted dough, but unlike challah, it is filled and glazed with a sweet syrup. While chocolate babka has grown in popularity in recent years, it has also continued to evolve. New variations include different shapes, glazes, fillings and more.

Babka is another braided white bread that is usually served with a cinnamon filling and syrup. But unlike challah, which includes eggs and oil, babka dough contains eggs, butter and milk, making it more airy, shiny and smooth.

Soon, bagels took on a variety of meanings within Poland's vibrant Jewish encalves. They were fed to women who had recently given childbirth as part of folk traditions designed to protect newborn children and became part of Jewish mourning rituals.

In the 1200s, the Jewish people weren't allowed to bake bread. This was due to the ties between bread and the sacrament. Poland was considered relatively progressive when it came to the land's Jewish population, and Jews were allowed to work with bread.