‘You’re born with it in your mouth’: The treat you’ve been missing out on

By Sapeer Mayron in the Sunday Star Times (paywalled)…

If you’ve ever bitten into a cinnamon roll and thought it could be more cakey and less bready, I have the perfect recipe for you.

The babka, which originated in impoverished 1800s Eastern Europe, has a pristine ratio of filling to dough – more filling than dough, obviously, and the dough is light and airy, yeasty and buttery.

You can spread almost anything on that dough; make a babka with just about any filling. But the unbeaten combo, at least for me, is cinnamon and nuts.

Perhaps you watched Seinfeld in the 90s, and laughed as Jerry and Elaine waited in line at the Royal Bakery for chocolate babka to find there was only cinnamon left. The “lesser babka,” Elaine says (to which Jerry extols the value of cinnamon: “It should be on tables in restaurants along with salt and pepper”).

Baker and restaurateur couple Carmel Davidovitch and Tomer Shabo agree with Jerry.

Read the full article on the Sunday Star Times here.