There are a handful of places anyone who lives in New York City will tell you to eat when you come to visit: Katz's deli, Serendipity, Russ & Daughters, and Breads Bakery, to name just a few. Delish recently got a chance to get into the latter's kitchen and watch them make their iconic babka—seeing the process from beginning to end did nothing but propel the bakery to the top of our recommendations list.
If you're not here for the food recs and just came for the "Nutella-stuffed bread" bit, fine. We'll fast forward through the making of the insane dough in Breads' gigantic vat of an industrial mixture (they crank out hundreds of babka loaves a day, but OK), zoom right past their special lamination technique (that's what makes the thing so flaky and buttery throughout all its layers, but WHATEVER), and not even worry about how the laminated dough gets long and thin enough to make as many babkas as it does (it goes through—ugh, NEVERMIND).
Once all the dough is laid out, Nutella-ing it in its entirety becomes a two-person job. "A lot" of the stuff is spread across it until every corner of the dough is covered. Next comes dark chocolate chips, a little pizza cutter action, and we've got Nutella-covered dough bits to braid.
The end result is a warm and gooey-yet-slightly-crisp chocolate-filled loaf that makes for a perfect breakfast or dessert. Or breakfast dessert. Up to you.
You can find these guys at any Breads Bakery location in NYC.
