The best Babka recipes to cook: Molly Yeh, Claire Saffitz, Melissa Clark

Kat Thompson is the assistant editor of Eater at home, covering the kitchen and house cooking, kitchen books and kitchen gadgets. She has once eaten an entire Babka Miche in a single day.

When I asked my colleagues their favorite Babka recipes, I really expected a deafening silence. I was wondering how many people went through the challenges of rolling, twisting and braiding to reach a perfectly damp and swirling bread, while the purchase would be simpler. But the answers I learned taught me not to underestimate my colleagues, who are all obsessed with food and cooking (we work at Eater, after all). These are our favorite Babka recipes, from chocolate to black sesame to a Challah Babka hybrid.

Melissa Clark, now cook

My wife regularly asks me why someone would eat babka except the nyt recipe from Melissa Clark. Unless you are an apologist Babka with cinnamon, I should agree. There is almost as much shameless chocolate garnish as the bread here, and the two are swilled so completely that no bite is a disappointment. Feeling that it was perhaps in a way underlying, Melissa is at all at all with a rich chocolate streusel which would make Augustus Gloop absolutely Plotz. Oh, and there is a roller of syrup on the whole to keep it moist; A dry and chalky babka is not the case. It is heavy enough to be called a cake, and I served it for birthdays on several occasions, with a few candles that provide among the braids. Like some other versions, this recipe calls for two breads; I guess the idea is that you can do one now and save one for later, but we can never keep this second bread for a long time. – Nick Mancall-Bitel, editor-in-chief

Claire Saffitz, Dessert

I love it, I like, I love to cook, but the yeast always intimidates me. But Babka-Challah's recipe from Saffitz in his cooking book Dessert Intrigued me – What should not love with Babka and Challah and why not combine both? His instructions are very clear and I took a step at a time – while waiting for the foaming and the bread to the proof and the rise (twice!) Is a test of patience (in the right direction), and kneading the dough and wearing the strands activates a different part of my brain than the work. My first attempt was not too pretty but it was very delicious. So much so that I made the recipe again when I was at home in my parents' kitchen and the results were always the same: pure sweetness. – Nadia Chaudhur, northeast eater

Erika Drake, Serious Eats

The cooking of a babka seems to be a business, even if you use a spread or a chocolate garnish purchased in store. The dough can be capricious and a stand mixer is practically a necessity to obtain a good pre-cooked texture. After all this effort, many Babkas only remain fresh for a day or two, which leads to a slightly outdated newspaper that you feel badly throwing yourself. While Babka who has passed, his peak can easily be transformed into a French toast or an bread pudding, starting with a recipe that remains fresh longer can be a better way to proceed. Erika Drake's Babka recipe presents Tangzhong in the process, a technique where a water paste and flour is precaderated before being added to the rest of the dough. The result is a babka which is somewhere between the brioche and the milk bread, tender without being dry and always rich without going too brittle. A homemade chocolate garnish brings this babka to another level, but a simpler cinnamon garnish or even some Nutella globes would not be a bad call either. – Rebecca Roland, assistant editor -in -chief

Deb Perelman, Kitchen Struck

The first time I made Babka, I used the recipe for JerusalemYotam Ottolenghi's 2012 Cookbook, entitled “Chocolate Krantz Cake”. It was a success, but the process was not easy. It was, I presume, roughly as delicious as those who have never imagined a babka with the complex appearance of the swirling bakery. But, the next time I will do Babka, I turned to Smitten Kitchen, where Deb Perelman simplified this very ottolenghi recipe to a certain extent where I no longer consider Babka as a difficult thing to do. I have done it several times since with always excellent and perfectly chocolate results. This makes two loaves so that you can give one to a friend, a neighbor or a colleague who will be impressed enough by your work-that is to say if they have not yet cut how much the manufacture of a babka can be. – Monica Burton, chief editor

Molly Yeh, Sweet firm

I felt really intimidated by Babka, but Molly Yeh does a great job to spell the process for her black Sesame Babka in her latest kitchen book, Sweet firm. The result is a supremely damp bread with impressive whirlpools of black sesame and oreo garnish, which makes it both hazelnut and chocolate. I love the fact that Yeh takes the Babka over including a black sesame crumble, which clings to the bread and offers enough crunch and sweetness. Let me be clear: this is a day project (two, if you let your bread prove to be overnight in the refrigerator), but a bite of hot and feather bread and black sesame with butter is worth it. – Kat Thompson, deputy editor -in -chief of Eater at Home