Babka

[hensonville]

Once upon a time. a long time ago, when I was growing up in Manhattan there were stores called "Babka". They sold a rummy, glazed babka. Very light and yummy. Anyone remember? Any recipe suggestions?

[Steve Plotnicki]

My father used to bring home a babka every weekend. I like those sugary and buttered crumbs on the top of the babka. But chocolate is okay as well. But isn't babka just a yeast cake? I might be wrong but isn't Kuglehopf from Alsace the same dough as babka? Koug Amman from Brittany as well I believe. It might be easier getting a Kuglehopf recipe and using that dough with cinammon, sugar and chopped walnuts (yum).

[hensonville]

Hi, Steve, Yes babka and kugelhopf and savarin are all similar. But there are many different recipes for and types of babka. The babka from Babka was different from any other I know. I am also puzzled by the method for Green's babka, available at Zabar's. Now this one is layered. The dough must be rolled very thin somehow to get the proportion of chocolate. In a wonderful cookbook called Yiddish Cuisine there is a recipe for shikere babka. I haven't tried it. I've gotten a good approximation by soaking a pannetone in rum syrup.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Is there no recipe for babka in Joan Nathan's Jewish Cooking in America? Oy that would be a shanda.

[Timo]

I also recommend the Babka at Zabar's (chocolate, of course!) It is great, but I admit I didn't know what it was before I tried it for the first time. I only bought it because of the name- I call my grandmother Babka. (she's Polish) She likes Zabar's babka too. If someone named Babka likes the Babka, its got to be good Babka.

-Tim

[Steve Plotnicki]

Good post Tim.

[stefanyb]

I also recommend the Babka at Zabar's (chocolate, of course!) It is great, but I admit I didn't know what it was before I tried it for the first time. I only bought it because of the name- I call my grandmother Babka. (she's Polish)  She likes Zabar's babka too. If someone named Babka likes the Babka, its got to be good Babka.

-Tim

Have you ever had and if so, what do you think of the strudel at Zabars?

[La Niña]

Tim, are you talking about Green's babka, which is packaged for Zabar's, and comes in chocolate (blue packaging) and apple cinnamon (green packaging)?

[hensonville]

I think the cheese strudel at Zabar's is delicious, but it's not, to my mnd, strudel. Too gooey, too sweet, too flat, and the dough is not crisp enough.

LaNina...yes, the chocolate Green's Babka from Zabar. Again, it's delicious, but I don't think it's a babka. Too layered, too high a proportion of chocolate, wrong shape.

[JSD]

I had babka which had been imported from Jersey City by a distant Polish relative. It was bread-like, not cake-like, and was rich as though it contained cream cheese. In my 3 Polish cookbooks, the recipes for babka vary drastically. Some contain yeast, and others contain baking soda or baking powder.

[hensonville]

The Viennese cookbooks always have a quick, backing powder kugelhupf. But I am only interested in discussing yeat ones. I made a comparative chart of the ingreduents for all the babka and kugelhupf recipes I have at home and boy do they vary! I may have to embark on making one each week, keeping records, and comparing. LeNotre just uses his brioche recipe.

[Suzanne F]

The Polish babka we get at Teresa's (in the East Village) is a very simple, only-slightly-sweetened yeast dough, rich but not as rich as brioche.

The kind we used to get from The Garden Bakeshop in Kew Gardens (?) was much fancier, with both streusel crumbs and very dark chocolate -- more definitely a dessert than something to have with coffee in the afternoon.

Finally: my grandmother would take some of her challah dough, sprinkled it with cinnamon-sugar and chopped nuts, and make a cake that way. For the longest time, I couldn't figure out why the family referred to it as "hollywood nuts."

[jaybee]

(Louis) Lichtman's, on the corner of 86th and Amsterdam, had the best chocolate babka ever. Lichtman closed because his son didn't want to follow in his path and he had no one to take over. That was a sad day. I walk past the store (today a kitchen and bath shop) and smell the wonderful Vienese pastry in my memory. Their strudel was classic and the Linzer tart was too.

If the babka Zabar's sells comes even close, it will be a happy day.

[MartyL]

If the babka Zabar's sells comes even close, it will be a happy day.

Unfortunately, I agree with Hensonville. The Zabar's (Green's) Babka is way too gooey for me.

My "echt-Babka" was the chocolate Babka made by the lamentably departed Royal Kosher Bakery on West 72nd Street. Their Babka was light, airy and deliciously crumbly. Truly one of the great parve desserts.

I'm not familiar with Lichtmans but it sounds like it would've been a great place to stop in for dessert after lunch at Famous.

[jaybee]

My "echt-Babka" was the chocolate Babka made by the lamentably departed Royal Kosher Bakery on West 72nd Street. Their Babka was light, airy and deliciously crumbly. Truly one of the great parve desserts.

I'm not familiar with Lichtmans but it sounds like it would've been a great place to stop in for dessert after lunch at Famous.

Royale, we used to buy from them before the Russians took them over. The best rugelach. Their onion rye was great too. Famous. Yes, and Steinberg's Dairy on Broadway is also late and lamented. Cheese blinztes so light they would float off the plate. Lichtman's has been gone for over ten years.

Edited December 16, 2002 by jaybee (log)

[La Niña]

Yes, Lichtmann's was the place. We got babka and other things from them on a regular basis when I was a kid. The Green's babka at Zabar's is nothing like it, unfortunately.

[hensonville]

Okay. Let's take Lichtman's chocolate babka as one model to seek. Am I right that the chocolate was grainy and soft and moist? Do you think the graininess was unmelted sugar? Would someone venture an approximate recipe?

And, if we're talking about that neighborhood and its bakeries, how can we leave out Eclair?

[jaybee]

And, if we're talking about that neighborhood and its bakeries, how can we leave out Eclair?

Chocolate cherry cake, mmmm.

Iced coffee mit schag, mmmm.

Eclair's, mmmmm.

[hensonville]

Schwarzwalderkirschtorte. But perhaps my favorite was the very pink Punschtorte. There is a very good, inauthentic version served at Sabarsky Cafe.

[jaybee]

They serve a pretty good Linzer torte too. And their schlag ain't Cool Whip!

[La Niña]

Not to mention a fantastic sachertorte.

[Suzanne F]

(Louis) Lichtman's, on the corner of 86th and Amsterdam, had the best chocolate babka ever.  Lichtman closed because his son didn't want to follow in his path and he had no one to take over. That was a sad day.  I walk past the store (today a kitchen and bath shop) and smell the wonderful Vienese pastry in my memory.  Their strudel was classic and the Linzer tart was too.

If the babka Zabar's sells comes even close, it will be a happy day.

Wait a minute. I used to know a chef named Lou Lichtman, who has to be maybe in his early 40s. Can't be the baker you mean, but might he be son of?

Cafe Sabarsky is a delight, even if the cakes are not totally Viennese. After all, the pastry chef is Swiss.

[La Niña]

Possible, but doubtful. Ashkenazi Jews don't usually name children after parents who are living.

[hensonville]

Yes, I agree that Cafe Sabarsky is a delight. But I do have one objection and would love to read opinions on the subject. I believe that classic pastry names have meaning. So a Dobostorte for me has to have a grillage top and chocolate butter cream layers. A Punschtorte has to be multicolored inside and pink on the outside. A Sachertorte has to be dense and have a chocolate glaze. And so on. If you want to serve a different version, I want you to call it something else. For instance, Dobos a la Larry. But don't advertise it as a Dobostorte. Am I wrong?

[jaybee]

Yes, I agree that Cafe Sabarsky is a delight. But I do have one objection and would love to read opinions on the subject. I believe that classic pastry names have meaning. So a Dobostorte for me has to have a grillage top and chocolate butter cream layers. A Punschtorte has to be multicolored inside and pink on the outside. A Sachertorte has to be dense and have a chocolate glaze. And so on. If you want to serve a different version, I want you to call it something else. For instance, Dobos a la Larry. But don't advertise it as a Dobostorte. Am I wrong?

I agree with you 100%. There must be absolutes and we must know what they are, so we can also understand the derivatives and variations.