Babka, or Bobka, also known as baba, is a sweet pastry yeast bread.
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Eastern-European version
It is a spongy yeast cake that is traditionally baked for Easter Sunday. Darra Goldstein, professor of Russian at Williams College says "babka comes from baba, a very tall, delicate yet rich yeast-risen cake eaten in Western Russia and Eastern Poland."[1] Traditional babka has some type of fruit filling, especially raisins, and is glazed with a fruit-flavored icing, sometimes with rum added. Modern babka may be chocolate or have a cheese filling.
Jewish version
Babka is popular among Jews, particularly those with family origins in Eastern Europe. The Jewish version however is different from the one described above. The Jewish babka is usually baked in high loaf pans and the dough is twisted to make a unique shape. It is topped with a streusel topping. The filling is never fruit but usually either cinnamon or chocolate. A similar cake called a kokosh cake is also popular in Jewish bakeries but it is lower and longer and not twisted. It also comes in chocolate and cinnamon varieties. Kokosh cakes are not topped with the streusel, which is the other main difference between them and babka. Other than the dessert variety, there also exists a traditional Eastern European Jewish variety prepared during Passover in lieu of bread. Generally, this sort is not sweet and is prepared using crushed matzos with water, egg, and salt. Some Polish Jews refer to pancakes with these ingredients as bubbeleh, a name similar to babka. This babka was popularized in the United States and Canada by Jewish immigrants, especially in cities with large Jewish populations, such as Montreal, New York and Toronto, so much so, it was featured as the plot point in the Seinfeld episode "The Dinner Party", in which the main characters try to buy a chocolate Babka (the Jewish variety) for a dinner party, but settle for a cinnamon one instead after a couple also attending the dinner party purchases the last chocolate babka.[2]
Belarusan and Lithuanian version
Babka is also a dish popular in Belarus and Lithuania, where it is called "bulvių plokštainis." It is made from grated potatoes, egg, onions, and smoked bacon. It is baked in a crock, and often served with a sauce of sour cream and pork flitch. Depending on how it is cooked, and the recipe, it may be a flaky potato pie, or a heavy potato pudding
Etymology
The name babka(Russian: бабка babbka) and baba (Russian: баба baba) means grandmother, and probably refers to the shape of the pastry, a tall cylinder, sometimes with corrugations resembling a skirt’s pleats.[3] The name of the pastry entered the English language from Polish, via French, although it is also sometimes used in its original sense, especially among those of Eastern European descent.[4]
See also
References
- ^ Joan Nathan, "Inviting an Old Favorite to the Hanukkah Table", The New York Times, (December 5, 2007) page F5.
- ^ http://seinfeldscripts.com/TheDinnerParty.html
- ^ Oxford Companion to Food
- ^ Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed.
