page_title: Babka
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Babka / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Chocolate babka, with streusel topping.
context_page_description: A babka is a sweet braided bread or cake which originated in the Jewish communities of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It is popular in Israel and elsewhere in the Jewish diaspora. It is prepared with a yeast-leavened dough that is rolled out and spread with a filling such as chocolate, cinnamon, fruit, or cheese, then rolled up and braided before baking.
context_section_description: Babka developed in the Jewish community in Poland in the early 19th century. Extra challah dough was rolled up with fruit jam or cinnamon and baked as a loaf alongside the challah. Chocolate was not originally used, as it was not generally available; the chocolate babka was likely a mid-20th century American development. Its name (though not necessarily the dish itself) may be related to a type of Easter cake popular in Poland and western Ukraine known as baba or the diminutive babka, which means "grandmother" in Polish, related to the Yiddish bubbe.
  Babka was mostly unheard of outside of the Polish Jewish community until the latter part of the 20th century. European-style bakeries started to offer it in late 1950s Israel and in the US. In addition to chocolate, various fillings including poppy seeds, almond paste, cheese, and others became popular, and some bakers began to top it with streusel.
caption: A traditional American-style Chocolate babka, made with a dough similar to challah, and topped with streusel
exif: {}