Babka is such a perfect treat, a great bookend to a hearty dinner or a tasty breakfast to enjoy with a good cup of coffee. For those of you who don’t know what babka is please watch the Seinfeld episode “The Dinner Party” and you’ll fully understand. Ok, maybe you’ll only understand that cinnamon babka is the “lesser babka.”

If you do a quick search for babka you’ll find a million and one things, including it's various origin stories. Well the babka I know and love is of Eastern European Jewish origin. It is a yeast cake that is often filled with chocolate, rolled up and twisted into a loaf pan. For the last few years I have gotten my babka fix with Trader Joe's Brooklyn Chocolate Babka. Though if you go to any Jewish bakery (and probably many NYC bakeries in general) you'll find some babka like pastry.

I honestly have never even thought about making my own babka. It looks like one of those complicated things you should let the pros do. But I recently got the book Modern Jewish Baker by Shannon Sarna. And her recipe for Babka looked surprisingly easy. Not to mention she has a dozen ideas for variations including sweet ones like s'mores or tropical Babka, and even some savory ones.

So I decide to give it a shot. Below is my process and final bake.

After you roll the dough and filling you split the rolls in half.

Twisting the dough and placing into a loaf pan.

Since this first batch I also added crumble on top and made a s'mores version.