babka

Babka

Babka (бабка), also known as baba (баба), is a sweet spongy yeast cake that is traditionally baked for Easter Sunday. Babka originated in Eastern Europe and was introduced to North America by early immigrants. Traditional babka has some type of fruit filling, especially raisins, and is glazed with a fruit-flavored icing, sometimes with rum added. Modern babka may be chocolate or have a cheese filling.

Despite its Christian associations, babka is also popular among Jews, particularly those with family origins in Eastern Europe. The Jewish version however looks completely different from the one pictured here. They're usually baked in high loaf pans and the dough is twisted to make a unique shape. It is topped with a streusel topping. The filling is never fruit but usually either cinnamon or chocolate. A similar cake called a kokosh cake is also popular in Jewish bakeries but it is lower and longer and not twisted. It also comes in chocolate and cinnamon varieties. Kokosh cakes are not topped with the streusel which is the other main difference between them and babka.

Other than the dessert variety, there also exists a traditional Eastern European Jewish variety prepared during Passover in lieu of bread. Generally, this sort is not sweet and is prepared using crushed matzos with water, egg, and salt.

Etymology

The name babka is a diminutive of baba ‘old woman’ or ‘grandmother’, and probably refers to the shape of the pastry, a tall cylinder, sometimes with corrugations resembling a skirt’s pleats.^[1] The name of the pastry entered the English language from Polish, via French, although it is also sometimes used in its original sense, especially among those of Eastern European descent.^[2]

Babka in popular culture

Babka was a plot point in the Seinfeld episode "The Dinner Party", in which the main characters try to buy a chocolate Babka for a dinner party, but settle for a cinnamon one instead after a couple also attending the dinner party purchases the last chocolate babka.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Paska
• Rum baba
• Cozonac

References

1. ^ Oxford Companion to Food
2. ^ Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed.

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