If you grew up in Plainview, Long Island, as I did, and your mother bought stuff at The Bakery, you were the luckiest kid ever. Everything about this place was promising. All you had to do was look through the clear glass cases that offered every classic kosher bakery item you can think of: Russian coffee cake, hamantashen, mandelbread, Jewish corn bread, rainbow cookies, black-and-whites and Chinese cookies! You knew tonight’s dessert would be terrific! All of those specialty baked goods were the best tasting anywhere.
The best of the best at The Bakery was the babka.
Theirs was the old-fashioned kind, Eastern European style, meaning cinnamon-raisin babka or, if you wanted to be swank, chocolate babka, which was a cinnamon-raisin babka fancied up with some chocolate bits inside and maybe a swirl of chocolate on top. It was nothing like what passes for chocolate babka today, and, though I realize I may sound like a heretic, despite what Elaine said on the “Seinfeld” episode called The Dinner Party (that cinnamon is the “lesser babka”), what’s called chocolate babka these days doesn’t cut it for me! It’s mostly chocolate with a hint of cake, while old-fashioned European-style babka is mostly cake. So, sue me – when I want babka, I want cake: The original, egg-rich, yeasty coffee cake, studded with raisins and maybe nuts and, ok, sometimes chocolate. I want the Jewish version of Polish baba (literally “grandma”), named for the hard-working older women who baked them at home in Europe back in the day.
In the old country, Polish babas were large and baked in bundt pans, usually for holidays, especially Easter, in the larger Christian community. Jewish babkas (which means “little grandmother”) were smaller and baked in loaf pans. Sometimes they were made using leftover challah dough, but more to the point, they were everyday items, typically sweetened but plain or with a handful of nuts or raisins. More exotic flavorings like vanilla and ingredients such as dried fruit could be too costly to include. Chocolate? Who could afford chocolate?!
Recipes for this beloved dessert came to America with Polish-Jewish immigrants, and babka became a favorite among other Jewish-Americans beginning in about the mid-20th century. It has since become popular among non-Jewish Americans, too. Of course.
As with most American cuisine, the old fashioned babka evolved. As early as the 1950s, The Bakery babkas had a contemporary streusel top (a 20th century American add-on).
For years after I moved from Plainview I would go to The Bakery twice a year because my contact lens doctor’s office was across the street, so why not? I would call ahead and order a trunk load of my favorites (I made sure my freezer was cleared so there was room for it all).
Alas, the owners of The Bakery retired in 2018, and it closed forever! No more mandelbread! No more Chinese cookies! No more babka! I had to start making my favorite goodies at home because no other bakery’s offerings could compare.
My recipe for babka isn’t a quickie; it’s time and labor intensive. But if you like old-fashioned babka, it’s worth the effort (and it makes two loaves so you can freeze one!). The dough is rich and buttery and vaguely sticky (don’t be tempted to add more flour because the cake will be too dry). It’s versatile too: You can leave out the chocolate, add some chopped dried fruit, or substitute lemon or orange zest for the vanilla, and so on.
Babka is a comfort and pleasure to nibble just plain but tastes awfully good when dunked in sweet wine or hot tea or coffee. If you have any leftovers, you can toast a slice or two for a glorious breakfast. This old-fashioned loaf is absolutely not the lesser babka.
Note: To freeze, wrap the babka in two layers of plastic wrap and enclose it in a freezer bag. Freezes for up to one month.
Old-Fashioned Cinnamon-Raisin Babka Recipe
This old-fashioned cinnamon-raisin babka is cakey and delicious, just like they used to be.
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 2 loaves
Ingredients
For the babka:
- 1 package active dry yeast
- ½ cup sugar, divided
- ¾ cup warm whole milk
- 2 large eggs
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or 2 tsp grated fresh lemon or orange zest
- 3–¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 4 Tbsp melted unsalted butter
- 4–6 oz chopped semisweet chocolate or chocolate bits (optional)
- ½ cup raisins
- ½ cup chopped nuts, such as almonds, pecans, cashews or walnuts (optional)
- ground cinnamon
- 1 large egg beaten with 2 tsp water
For the streusel:
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp salt
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter
Instructions
- Combine the yeast and ½ tsp of the sugar in a small bowl, pour in the warm milk and mix. Set aside for 5-6 minutes or until foamy.
- Beat the eggs, egg yolks, remaining sugar and the vanilla extract in the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium for 2-3 minutes or until well combined and smooth.
- Add 2 cups of flour and the salt and beat them in.
- Add the yeast mixture and beat it in for several minutes or until the batter is smooth.
- Add the remaining flour and mix to form a soft dough.
- Add the butter, one Tbsp at a time, beating each Tbsp in completely.
- Use a dough hook or knead by hand for a few minutes until the dough is soft and smooth and slightly sticky. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place for about 2 hours or until doubled in bulk.
- For the streusel, combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Add the butter in chunks and work into the dry ingredients with fingers or a pastry blender until the mixture is crumbly.
- Lightly grease two 9” x 5” loaf pans. Line the pans with parchment paper, leaving enough extra on two sides so that you can lift out the cake when it has finished baking.
- Cut the dough in half and roll or press each half out on a floured surface to 13”x9” rectangles. Brush each rectangle with equal amounts of the melted butter. Scatter the chocolate, raisins and nuts on top, leaving some room around the edges. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon. Roll the dough, jelly roll style. Twist the filled dough 3-4 times and place in the loaf pans.
- Brush the tops with some of the beaten egg. Sprinkle with streusel. Let rise for 1 to 1¼ hours in a warm place (or overnight in the refrigerator).
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the babkas for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool in the pan. Lift the cake out using the parchment paper ends.
Notes
To freeze, wrap the babka in two layers of plastic wrap and enclose it in a freezer bag. Freezes for up to one month.
- Prep Time: 40 minutes + 3 hours rise time
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Ashkenazi
The bakery was the best
I miss it! It was worth the trip from Connecticut.