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(Photo: Victor Prado/New York Magazine) |
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- Breads Bakery
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18 E. 16th St., nr. Union Sq. W.; 212-633-2253
Babka may have been born in Central Europe, but there is likely no country more besotted with the stuff than Israel, where it’s known as �krantz cake.� The sweet yeast bread is taken so seriously there, in fact, that when Israel-born, Denmark-trained Uri Scheft opened his first bakery in Tel Aviv a decade ago, he brought a flour-dusted babka maven out of krantz-cake retirement to not only teach him the intricacies of the rolled and braided loaf, but to return every year for quality-control spot checks. For the launch of his American outpost, Scheft has tweaked his recipe only slightly, using cultured butter from France and spreading his laminated dough with a mixture of Nutella and Belgian dark-chocolate chips. As soon as the babkas emerge from the oven, which they do at least three times a day, Scheft’s team bathes them in sugar syrup, ensuring a crisp, burnished crust and a rich, chocolate-veined interior that remains tantalizingly moist for days ($9.95).