Talia Berk, Babka Baker
PAINTED DOG BAKEHOUSE
Edgware, North London
Babka has hit the big time, and Talia Berk has been upping the ante since opening Painted Dog Bakehouse last year, mixing, kneading, rolling and twisting the yeasted dough in her parents’ north London kitchen. Talia’s babkas are a far cry from the ones she grew up eating to break the fast for Yom Kippur. A self-confessed “flavour maximalist”, she swirls her eastern European dough with generous amounts of cinnamon and raisin, chocolate, or tahini, walnut and halva, alongside seasonal flavours, such as pistachio, rhubarb and rose, and poppy seed inspired by the festival Purim. Babka has been made in Talia’s family for generations and Painted Dog Bakehouse is a real celebration of her Jewish/South African heritage.
”I grew up eating babka, but not in the form I now make it. It came from eastern Europe, where my grandmother’s parents brought it over. It was more like a bread than what I produce now, and it was either cinnamon or cinnamon and raisin, twisted and baked into a loaf – it wasn’t sliced down the middle and twisted like you find with modern babkas. We would have it for festivals, including to break the fast for Yom Kippur. I don’t remember exactly when I started to help and bake it, but I always enjoyed being in the kitchen with Mum when she was preparing for festivals and dinner parties.
I did a patisserie apprenticeship at Westminster Kingsway College, London, working in hotels and restaurants, but I left because I was not getting the support I needed from the place I was working in. I then tried to set up a business, but that failed. I ended up at Chin Chin Ice Cream, and I grew with them for quite a few years. What I really loved there was the recipe development, the creativity and just getting involved. I also did a few little jobs in recipe development, but sadly that didn’t really go anywhere; there are so many processes down the line that can stop products coming to market. So I thought I may as well create my own product.
I started playing around with babka a couple of years ago and became a bit obsessed with it, trying to perfect my recipe. Enough people said, ‘You should sell this’, that I thought, ‘Okay’. I was born in Johannesburg and so I wanted to bring in my South African roots [with the name]. Painted dog is another name for the African wild dog, and they are amazing animals. Plus, I didn’t want to limit myself with the name babka. I started on 1 December last year, so it’s still really new.
To me, a good babka is about making sure you’ve got great flavours and enough filling. I’m all about maximum filling; I try to cram as much as I can in there. When I started, I decided that I wanted to have a ‘classic’ range and then some specials. It meant that I was doing something that people came back for, but also something new and exciting.
“I’m all about maximum filling; I try to cram as much as I can in there”
Talia Berk
I picked three flavours for my core range: cinnamon raison, because that’s what I knew babka to be, chocolate, and then walnut, tahini and halva. It was quite popular, but it still seems to be a flavour people aren’t sure about until they’ve tried it. I’ve been doing a monthly special, so I change it up on the first week of the month, which gives me four weeks to play around and test recipes. What I really like about babkas is that they’re so versatile, you can put whatever you want in it. I did a pistachio, rhubarb and rose babka for Valentine’s Day, with homemade rhubarb jam, crushed pistachios and sugar syrup with rosewater. It had these floral notes but was a little bit tart. I don’t like babka to be too sweet. For March, I made a poppy-seed babka; I was inspired by the festival, Purim. There are these pastries called hamantaschen, and they have a poppy-seed filling which I absolutely love, so I thought I had to make this as a babka. I had a great one lined up for Easter, which unfortunately we couldn’t do because we stopped producing [because of Covid-19], but I’ve made it since reopening. It’s a triple-chocolate babka: chocolate dough filled with chocolate ganache, and then some chopped-up white chocolate chips and few dark chocolate chips. It’s full-on chocolate.
Things started off really quiet [when I opened] and I wasn’t making too many babkas, but since I’ve been properly counting, I’ve been making about eight a week, and that was mid-February. Just before I had to close, I was making 34 a week. And that’s on top of my wholesale customers, which include Panzers Deli and Sons & Daughters. However, lockdown really threw me; I was building up momentum and suddenly it stopped.
I have a kitchen in my parents’ house in Edgware. I was looking for quite a while for a space where I could rent a kitchen and it was so costly, especially when I had no idea how much I would be able to sell. I very cautiously asked my dad if I could take over their extension. So I’ve got all of my equipment in its own space, and it’s not too far from my home in Camden. Making babka is quite a long process, and it’s just me making them. It’s a real labour of love – it’s a 48-hour process. I can do a few batches of dough in a day, and then let it rest overnight.
When my aunt and uncle came to visit a few months ago from South Africa, I think they were quite apprehensive [to try the babka]. They don’t get the kind of babka I’m producing where they live, and they’d only had the very bready ones with cinnamon sugar. They were pleasantly surprised, though. My family like it, it’s different from what they’re used to and what we’ve grown up with. That’s the beauty of food, though, things evolve.”
For more, visit painteddogbakehouse.com
Photography: Ellie Cook
@painteddogbakehouse
