Master Babka Baking With These 6 Recipes

Jewish chocolate babka recipe

The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck

Babka has been a kosher bakery staple for decades (at least!), and a specialty of Jewish grandmothers for even longer. But the yeast-risen sweet bread, threaded with swirls of filling, is having an undeniable heyday. Some credit "Seinfeld" not only with inserting babka into the collective pop culture consciousness, but with planting the seeds of debate regarding whether chocolate filling is superior to cinnamon. That Israeli and Ashkenazi fare are trending in upscale restaurants, cookbooks and food magazines doesn't hurt. And that a cross section of the loaf boasts undeniably photogenic swirls makes babka one sexy pastry in the age of Instagram, food blogs and cooking sites. 

Today, butter-based laminated doughs are all the rage with both professional and home bakers, but according to historian Gil Marks, babka's beginnings - and ingredients - were humbler. Generally, they were made from oil-based challah dough, which was a boon for keeping the loaf pareve. Those babkas were spread with jam or nuts, while today's fillings skew more decadent. But whatever sort of dough and filling you prefer, you'll find lots of recipe options here. And while the results look complicated to achieve, with a little practice, you'll find that the technique is pretty simple, and the payoff is absolutely delicious! 

  • 01 of 06

    Chocolate Babka (Dairy)

    Jewish chocolate babka recipe

    The Spruce / Julia Hartbeck

    Chocolate babka is undeniably one of the most popular iterations. Barbara Rolek's recipe calls for a canned chocolate filling, but if you can't find it (and don't feel like making a filling from scratch), take a cue from Uri Scheft, and spread the dough with Nutella, then sprinkle it with mini chocolate chips. 

  • 02 of 06

    Apricot Pistachio Babka (Pareve)

    Apricot Pistachio Babka

    Evi Abeler / Bubbe and Me in the Kitchen

    This babka, from the cookbook Bubbe and Me in the Kitchen, marries Sephardic flavors of tart apricots and pistachios with a quintessentially Ashkenazi-style pastry. The recipe is dairy-free, though you can substitute milk and butter for the soy milk and coconut oil if you'd prefer. The recipe also includes step-by-step pictures for filling and shaping the loaf. 

  • 03 of 06

    Cinnamon Babka (Dairy)

    Michael Grimm / Getty Images

    For every chocolate babka devotee, there's someone else who swears that cinnamon babka is the best. Some recipes include raisins and/or chopped walnuts in the filling, though this one uses storebought cinnamon filling and whipped egg whites to achieve the bread's swirls. 

  • 04 of 06

    Cheese Babka (Diary)

    Cheese Babka
    Barbara Rolek

    Eastern European Food Expert Barbara Rolek shares this recipe for Cheese Babka. A sweet cream cheese-based filling is swirled throughout the streusel topped pastry, which makes a perfect treat to enjoy with coffee. The recipe makes 3 loaves, but Rolek notes that they freeze very well.

    Continue to 5 of 6 below.
  • 05 of 06

    Savory Vegan Babka With Coriander, Basil and Sour Cashew Cream

    Savory Vegan Babka
    Black White Vivid

    Google "babka," or even "vegan babka" and you'll get loads of returns for the chocolate version. But if you're hunting for a truly innovative riff on the recipe, the pickings are slim. So it was thrilling to chance upon photographer and blogger Kati Boden's Savory Babka with Coriander, Basil and Sour Cashew Cream: it's vegan, and features whole grain spelt, fresh herbs, and a homemade cashew-based "sour cream." The dough, it turns out, was inspired by this water challah, which is especially nifty because babkas were originally made with oil-based challah dough (rather than the butter laminated doughs so popular now). 

  • 06 of 06

    Gluten Free Chocolate Babka (Dairy)

    Gluten Free Babka
    Gluten Free on a Shoestring

    If you can't eat gluten, the notion of slicing into a babka and taking a bite may seem like the stuff of dreams. Consider Gluten Free on a Shoestring blogger Nicole Hunn your babka fairy godmother, because she's managed to devise a gluten-free recipe that's got culinary wish fulfillment written all over it.