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A taste of zingermans bakehouse babka at zingermans bakehouse.

A taste of Zingerman’s Bakehouse Babka could be just right

More and more over the years people bring or send a Zingerman’s gift—a taste of Tree Town, it’s a terrific way to convey their own commitment to high quality and an easy way to share some of their connection with the community here in the Ann Arbor area. Sour Cream Coffee Cake, which we’ve been making for over 35 years now, is probably the most popular way to do that. Magic Brownies, which we’ve been making for almost that long, are another favored choice. I’d like to propose a third option, something that might well make for a great taste of Zingerman’s and Ann Arbor: the Bakehouse’s Chocolate Babka. While it’s not well known in the Midwest, in New York, Babka has long been a big deal. I tend to be a bit skeptical about trends in Tinsel Town, but folks on the East Coast could well be onto something with their regular Babka-eating.

While Babka is pretty easy to pronounce, it’s not easy to make. Melissa Clark, writing in the New York Times, says that:

Baking a chocolate Babka is no casual undertaking. The Eastern European yeast-risen coffee cake has 14 steps and takes all day to make. But the results are worth every sugarcoated second – with a moist, deeply flavored brioche-like cake wrapped around a dark fudge filling, then topped with cocoa streusel crumbs.

If you’re from New York, the odds are reasonably high that you’re well familiar with Babka. If not, you’re in for a treat. Babka is traditional Jewish “sweet bread,” akin you could say to a light-textured coffee cake, or maybe a bit denser piece of Italian panettone. It starts with a rich, slow-rise yeasted dough made with lots of butter, real vanilla, and fresh egg yolks. That in turn is sprinkled with chocolate “crumble” and orange-syrup-soaked raisins, all of which get formed into a fine looking swirled loaf, and then baked off to a golden brown with a sensual cinnamon-sugar crust. The Bakehouse crew adds a good dose of dark chocolate on top and rolled into the middle as well. It’s already got a LOT of loyal fans, and it seems to be gaining more momentum all the time.

Babka’s history? Its roots are in Eastern Europe, very likely indigenous to Ukraine, where it would have been a part of an ancient fertility symbol used in the matriarchal system once in place in the region. The old forms of the Babka were likely much larger, somewhere from the size of a modern day panettone on up to some a few feet high. The original name was likely “baba,” meaning “grandmother”; with the “modern era’s” smaller sizes the name shifted to the diminutive, “Babka,” meaning “little grandmother.” Up until the 20th century, it’s unlikely that Babka would have had any chocolate in it, since chocolate came from the Western Hemisphere and became popular in Europe only late in the 19th century.

Earlier versions of Babka would likely have been closer to the Eve’s Apple Babka we make at the Bakehouse (a special bake coming in August). For those who want to return to the older, more true to traditional type offering, this is it. Still, I know, chocolate is likely to take the cake. Susana Trilling, author of the excellent cookbook, Seasons of the Heart, and creator and cooking teacher extraordinaire of the Oaxacan cooking school of the same name once wrote me to say that, “… bar none, Zingerman’s Bakehouse makes the BEST Babka I have ever eaten!! It was incredible.”

The Bakehouse’s Chocolate Babka will be available all summer on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

Bag A Babka At The Bakehouse
Ship This Sweet To Your Sis
P.S. If you want to try making Babka at home, the recipe will be in the Bakehouse’s forthcoming cookbook, Celebrate Every Day, due for release October 3rd. Pre-order here!

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Getting ahead of Rosh Hashanah’s arrival

Ready to kick the New Year off in good form? Here’s a new apple babka from the Bakehouse, made specifically for this year’s celebration of the Jewish High Holidays.

a sliced-in-half loaf of apple babka

Babka is one more food that comes out of the culinary traditions of Eastern European Jews. I did not grow up with it at all but almost every Jewish person I know from the East Coast did. “Baba” is a reference to a Polish Easter cake, and it’s also a reference to “babushka,” or grandmother. It would likely have arrived in the Americas in the large waves of late 19th/early 20th century arrivals of Jewish immigrants.

Babka’s origin—where it is most consumed and associated with the culture—is in Belarus, the Baltics, Ukraine, and Russia. The old forms of babka were likely much larger, somewhere from the size of a modern-day panettone on up to a few feet high. The original name was likely “baba,” meaning grandmother. One theory says that with the modern era’s smaller sizes, the name shifted to the diminutive, “babka,” meaning “little grandmother.” Others say the tall shape they were made in resembles a grandmother’s pleated skirts. One origin theory says babka is indigenous to Ukraine. There it was part of an ancient fertility symbol used in the matriarchal system once in place in the region.

Babka at the Bakehouse

We’ve been happily making Chocolate Raisin Babka at the Bakehouse for many years. This new Babka celebrates the coming Rosh Hashanah season. Apples and honey are classic Eastern European eating for the holiday. Now we can eat them in the form of this beautiful baked good! It’s particularly tasty cut into slices, then browned lightly in butter. Great with gelato, more butter, or just as it is. The hygroscopic nature of the honey (it absorbs moisture over time) and the juiciness of the roasted apples make the dough a bit richer and moister. I can’t guarantee Eve’s Apple Babka will make the coming year culinarily better than the last few—I will ensure that at least you’ll be getting it off to an awesomely flavorful start!

The new Eve’s Apple Babka is available throughout the month of September at the Bakeshop, Deli, and Roadshow. It can also be shipped across the country from Mail Order.

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Babka is back! And it’s better than ever.

While we don’t tend to follow food trends here at Zingerman’s we will admit to caving into popular demand once in awhile. Our latest sweet capitulation? Babka. After halting production years ago, Zingerman’s Bakehouse—to the delight of customers from around the country who’ve been requesting it—is once again making babka!

“Amazingly, babka, a treat with a long history, is making a strong come back now.” says Amy Emberling, one of the managing partners at the Bakehouse. “People want it!”

If everything you know about babka comes from the famous Seinfeld episode, and you’ve never actually had a slice, the traditional Jewish treat is as Amy describes “an enriched sweet bread that’s usually filled with something and then rolled.” Here at the Bakehouse, we start with brioche dough covered in a dark chocolate spread and a hefty sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar, chocolate crumble, and raisins soaked in orange syrup. You can watch it being made in this behind-the-scenes video:

In his Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, Gil Marks traces the origins of babka back to Poland and Ukraine…and grandmas.

“Bakba takes its name from the endearment form of the Slavic babcia (grandmother), which is related to the Eastern Yiddish bubbe, thus literally meaning ‘grandma cake’,” wrote Marks, going on to explain that the name might be inspired by the fluted sides, resembling a woman’s skirt, that a traditional Polish pan creates. It could also be so named because grandmothers were usually the ones making the babka.

Ironically enough, Zingerman’s founder Ari Weinzweig tells us that babka of today, a Jewish-American invention and a decidedly much squatter affair, would be unrecognizable to his great grandparents as their version was “likely much larger, somewhere from the size of a modern day pannetone on up to some a few feet high.”

For some, babka is the ultimate comfort food. This goes especially for those who grew up eating it, but it has, thanks to food writers and yes probably that Seinfeld episode, become popular among those outside of Jewish-American communities. Ours will soon be made available throughout the U.S. via Zingermans.com.

“We had a lot of requests for it, and then there’s a lot of long-time customers that have never had it and are really excited about it,” says Carly, who works in the Bakeshop. Her co-worker Cathy reports that customers really seem to love the babkas, and they’ve been routinely selling out on weekends. “I had a customer this morning buy five, and he said he wouldn’t be able enter the door unless he had them.”

And what’s so great about our babka? Ours is richer than most that we’ve tasted (and we tasted a whole bunch before we started up production again) because we’re using butter and many babkas are made with shortening for kosher meals. We also use very flavorful, high-quality chocolate and cinnamon for a deeper flavor. “We like indulge, so our babka is bursting with filling,” says Amy. “No skimpy babka here!”

We love babka as a mid-morning treat—Amy suggests heating it up and enjoying it with a cup of coffee, but it’s also a stunner on any dessert table. Come get a taste at the Bakehouse!

This month, we’re baking it Friday through Sunday, and in September it will become available daily at the Bakehouse and the Delicatessen.