Serious Eats
White Chocolate and Cinnamon Babka?
And it has streusel crumbles on top? Hm, Zabar's doesn't have that one in stock now—or ever. But D.C.–based online bakery ShoeBox Oven does. Since pickin's are slim in the District, babka-wise, ShoeBox wants to become the missing Babka Buff. Sure, the Jewish delis out in the Maryland suburbs sell a good standard loaf, but within city limits, selection is limited to Dean and Deluca's one location.
Krishna Brown—the aproned, and more oftentimes overalled, lady behind ShoeBox—has been experimenting with recipes lately. At first, people told her babka and danish doughs were interchangeable. But Brown flat-out disagrees. "That's like comparing cat and man," she says. "They may have the same blood, brain and skin, but are completely individual creations."
Brown has a butter totem pole all sketched out, and babka dough sits at the bottom, underneath danish, croissant, and cream puff doughs (all way more buttery). After some fiddling, she's settled on a recipe she likes. Maggie Glazer's Lithuanian Yeasted Coffee Cake" recipe from the Blessing of Bread Jewish cookbook, but the coffee cake nomenclature is a bit of a turn-off for Brown.
When Brown premiered her babka test loaf at the Arlington, Virginia, farmers' market last week (ShoeBox Oven's stall is a hot ticket every Saturday), some marketgoers reacted, "Oh, that's just a coffeecake." The streusel topping may be misleading, but there's still a little babka guy underneath. And it's what's inside that counts, right? Or is it? What makes a true babka? The sweet, yeasty cakelike dough? The bulkiness? (Usually weighs more than a brick). The baker? (A hunched-over Polish grandmother?)
Brown likes her funky white-chocolate filling and streusel topping—as have recent taste-testers—but she also wants to respect the classics. Can she do both? What are your thoughts on babkas and babka variations?
ShoeBox Oven
URL: shoeboxoven.com
Also found at: Arlington Farmers' Market on Saturdays, North Courthouse Road and North 14th Street, Arlington VA 22201
About the author: Erin Zimmer, Serious Eats's Washington, D.C., correspondent, is a just-graduated Georgetown gal following her nose about town as Washingtonian magazine's Dining intern and Best Bites blogger. She got her start as the Hoya campus paper's food columnist, and since entering "real person-hood" has ached for her dining hall's omelet station.
Photograph by Jason Katz