Breads Bakery’s chocolate babka has been named one of the “25 baked goods you must try in New York” by The New York Times, which credited the Israeli pastry with igniting a “babka renaissance” now spreading from New York to Paris.

The Times described the Tel Aviv-based bakery’s creation—a buttery, soft yeast cake filled with chocolate and Nutella—as a turning point for New York’s pastry scene. “The babka, crunchy at the edges, springy and holding a molten chocolate and Nutella filling, was a revelation,” the newspaper wrote.

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״היתה התגלות״. הבבקה המדוברת״היתה התגלות״. הבבקה המדוברת

Breads Bakery’s chocolate babka

(Photo: Instagram @breadsbakery)

Before Breads’ arrival in New York, most babkas sold in the city were based on the traditional Eastern European Jewish recipe: dense, oil-based, and parve to keep kosher. In contrast, Breads’ version—developed by Israeli baker Uri Scheft—used laminated dough rich with butter, closer in texture to a Danish or croissant.

Sales of the cake, once just a few dozen a day, soared to over a thousand after The New York Times dubbed it “the best babka in the city.” Gadi Peleg, the bakery’s co-founder, now oversees six locations across New York and calls his business “the house that babka built.”

The judging panel included some of America’s most prominent pastry chefs, among them Melissa Weller of Bub’s, Christina Tosi of Milk Bar, and Lauren Tran of Bánh by Lauren in Chinatown. They praised Breads for “reigniting the babka trend” and experimenting with laminated doughs in new ways. Tosi added that the bakery “broke all the rules about how much chocolate you can pack into a single babka.”

According to The Times, this revival has inspired an explosion of new takes across the city—from sweet variations to savory twists like pesto ricotta, olive tapenade, and anchovy babkas, and even experimental ones such as pretzel babka.

The paper traced babka’s origins back nearly two centuries to Jewish communities in Poland and Ukraine, where it began as a creative way to use leftover challah dough, rolled with jam or cinnamon for the Sabbath. Chocolate only entered the mix in the mid-20th century, first in the United States. Over time, the sweet yeast cake became a staple in both American and Israeli bakeries.

In addition to Breads’ babka, The New York Times list featured other pastries with Jewish roots, including the Hungarian-inspired cheesecake from Agi’s Counter in Brooklyn, chef Jeremy Salamon’s tribute to his Holocaust-survivor grandmother; the tiny knishes from Elbow Bread on the Lower East Side, filled with potato, sauerkraut, and dill; and the elongated Hanukkah doughnut from Fan-Fan Doughnuts, created by Mexican-Jewish pastry chef Fany Gerson and filled with cream cheese, guava glaze, and nut crumble.

The list, inspired by what the Times called New York’s ongoing “pastry renaissance,” celebrates the city’s experimental spirit—one where, as the paper noted, “every long line somehow ends at a pastry counter.” Notably absent was the famous Cronut, the croissant-doughnut hybrid that once broke the internet. The judges explained their omission simply: “It’s already had enough celebrations.”

Instead, the focus was on the new wave of creativity that flourished during the pandemic, when many out-of-work chefs turned to baking, delivery, and pop-up ventures—reshaping New York’s pastry culture one bite at a time.