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Babka

Angel

Angel

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My Israeli friend let me have the leftover babka from our Friday morning coffee klatch. Yummy!

But there's a lot of it. Can babka be preserved?

How?

How long?
 
Angel said:
My Israeli friend let me have the leftover babka from our Friday morning coffee klatch. Yummy!

But there's a lot of it. Can babka be preserved?

How?

How long?
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Mmmm, Babka, Bábovka. "Babka" is Polish for old woman. Cinnamon or chocolate? Decisions, decisions. Babka can be frozen for months, but is best eaten fresh. Trader Joe's carries a great babka when it isn't sold out. Dean & Delucca carry an expensive one that can kill with a slice. The best homemade babka is truly an egg bread with a thick swirl of either a paste made from chocolate and sugar or cinnamon, raisins and walnuts or almonds. Excellent with coffee or tea, once considered a peasant cake in eastern Europe, actually devised in the Vienna bakeries of the Austro-Hungarian empire for the servants. Adopted by the eastern European Jews as a Friday night, sabbath, desert. Often baked with Shabbat Challah, sabbath egg bread, from the same yeast dough. In Russia, it is made with potato flour, also excellent, a bit less dense. Often rich with sugar and fats (usually vegetable oil) it would stand up well and was served thinly sliced. Leftovers lightly toasted on a Sunday morning for part of breakfast, after bagels, lox, eggs, cream cheese, lightly buttered with more coffee for those who still had an appetite. My grandmother baked her babka with a fruit jam and cinnamon, topped with streusel. Served slices smothered with dried dates and prunes soaked in sweet wine and cups of dark unsweetened Turkish coffee prepared in her samovar or tea from another samovar. Glorious. My grandfather demanded she bake a babka at least once per month. He'd pour a bit of whiskey into his coffee when she turned her back. If she caught him, a smack on the head with a wooden spoon. :) Family comedy.
 
According to this, it freezes well.
Baked babkas also freeze beautifully, so don’t hesitate to wrap one or two from your batch in a double layer of plastic wrap and then aluminum foil and freeze them for up to 1 month. Leave the wrapped frozen babka at room temperature for a few hours to thaw, and then remove the plastic wrap and rewrap in foil and place it in a preheated 325°F oven for 8 to 10 minutes to warm through.
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I'd freeze individual slices. Thaws more quickly.
 
Angel said:
This babka came from Breads Bakery on Union Square:
Breads Bakery | New York Bakery | Union Square
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Overly expensive and too much chocolate. I've eaten there with my wife and grandkids. Favorite was the egg and artichoke heart sandwich on a whole wheat roll. Terrible day, my wife used my credit card to buy two of my granddaughters new pink outfits, head to toe. All I got was a sandwich and a cup of Joe, and a ridiculous parking tab. Union Square was more fun when it was relatively empty, with all the side street stores that sold closeouts and fakes to street peddlers. Where else could Birken handbags be bought for $20? :) Of course the labels read "Bilken."
 
OldFatGuy said:
Overly expensive and too much chocolate. I've eaten there with my wife and grandkids. Favorite was the egg and artichoke heart sandwich on a whole wheat roll. Terrible day, my wife used my credit card to buy two of my granddaughters new pink outfits, head to toe. All I got was a sandwich and a cup of Joe, and a ridiculous parking tab. Union Square was more fun when it was relatively empty, with all the side street stores that sold closeouts and fakes to street peddlers. Where else could Birken handbags be bought for $20? :) Of course the labels read "Bilken."
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Hmm. Interesting. This is my first babka. So I have no basis of comparison. But Trader Joe's (the newly opened one on Spring) and Dean & Delucca are nearby (I'm in Greenwich Village) and I shall try theirs on your recommendation.
 
Angel said:
Hmm. Interesting. This is my first babka. So I have no basis of comparison. But Trader Joe's (the newly opened one on Spring) and Dean & Delucca are nearby (I'm in Greenwich Village) and I shall try theirs on your recommendation.
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Try them both, and enjoy.
 
OldFatGuy said:
Overly expensive and too much chocolate. I've eaten there with my wife and grandkids. Favorite was the egg and artichoke heart sandwich on a whole wheat roll. Terrible day, my wife used my credit card to buy two of my granddaughters new pink outfits, head to toe. All I got was a sandwich and a cup of Joe, and a ridiculous parking tab. Union Square was more fun when it was relatively empty, with all the side street stores that sold closeouts and fakes to street peddlers. Where else could Birken handbags be bought for $20? :) Of course the labels read "Bilken."
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Ah, the trench coat wearing selling of real oaklys and rolexes.

Part of the flavor of NYC, imo.
 
Chocolate babka fried in a pan with a touch of butter.

Sinning.
 
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The Absolute Best Babka in New York
Once the province of Jewish bakeries, the twisted sweet bread has gone mainstream, with the most compelling new versions made from such unconventional ingredients as laminated dough, Nutella, and buckwheat. Below, the top babkas in New York.
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The Absolute Best Babka in NYC
 
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