17 Popular Items You'll Commonly Find At The Jewish Bakery

Even as the Jewish food scene changes and expands across the U.S. to accommodate changing tastes and ingredient costs and celebrate a wider variety of Jewish diasporas, there will always be something special about the Jewish bakery. The familiar sweet smell of fermented yeast and chocolate draws you in. The sight of bulbous and shiny, golden-plaited challahs lined up on the shelves sends a wave of calm over each customer. And, as a child, the promise of a free cookie, firmly planted in your chubby little hand, is all the motivation needed to behave.

Though still largely Ashkenazic, Jewish bakeries and restaurants are changing to reflect a blend of cultures, both of the owners and the local community, including Masa Madre in Chicago (currently closed for redesign), Breads Bakery in New York City, and Taste Bakery in Boston to name just a few. There are, however, some classic features that never go out of style. Here are a few items we'd recommend ordering during your next visit to the local Jewish bakery.

The name rugelach comes from Yiddish, meaning "little twists." While versions of this shape exist all over Eastern Europe, like kifli in Hungary and rogal in Poland, American-style rugelach is distinctive for two reasons. The yeasted and laminated dough commonly found in versions of rugelach outside of the United States, like in Israel and the U.K., has been replaced with cream cheese. The result is a rich, easy-to-manipulate, slightly flaky dough perfect for smearing with jam, nuts, chocolate, or whatever filling you prefer and rolling into finger-sized twists.

Though rugelach is a popular choice around the high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, it is also a year-round treat. It is also a likely contender, and a handful of other small cookies to be handed out for free to children. This is considered an unspoken policy that is still part of the culture of many old-school Jewish bakeries across America. We can't think of a better incentive to behave inside the bakery than the promise of a free cookie!

Even mentioning a black and white cookie evokes images of its yin-yang-like pairing of black and white smooth icing on top of the drop cake-like texture beneath. They are a quintessential Jewish American bakery classic, synonymous with the Jewish bakery and deli culture of New York City.

The Black and white cookie's origins, according to Eater, have likely been traced back to the influence of Dutch immigrants, who arrived during the 1600s and 1700s with similarly textured miniature cake traditions. The Dutch word for tiny cake also points to the Dutch influence on American culture: the Dutch word "koekje," meaning "little cake."

And, of course, if it's part of Jewish New York culture, it is no surprise that it's also been a subject of a Seinfeld episode. The famous cookie also had a cameo in season five's "The Dinner Party" episode, as Jerry and Elaine debate the cookie's meaning and symbolism.

Suppose you want to decipher between a good (Ashkenazic) Jewish bakery and a great one. We say the proof isn't in the pudding but in the bagels. Brought over to the U.S. by Jewish Polish immigrants in the early 1900s, an excellent fresh bagel highlights the multi-textured crisp-meets-chew that comes from boiling the rounds before baking them. Even the plain bagels should have a sweetness to them, thanks to the yeasted dough. We're also suckers for a fresh bagel slathered with scallion cream cheese with lox, pickles, and capers.

When it comes to bagels, everyone has their favorite: plain, salt, onion, sesame, poppy seed, or the king of all bagel flavors, everything (aka mishmash). So popular is the everything bagel that various celebrities have come forward to claim ownership of inventing what is considered New York City's favorite bagel. 

We love it when happy accidents in the kitchen result in a much-loved classic, like the cheese danish. The first action that led to the creation of the beloved danish was a happy accident in the early 17th century. A French baker did what all cooks, professionals, and ammeter have done before: He forgot to add an ingredient! To make up for it, he folded the missing butter into the flour to create the classic flaky dough we now know as puff pastry. The pastry was such a success it began to make its way across Europe.

Many years later, a labor strike in Denmark in 1850 resulted in the hiring of international bakers, including bakers from Austria who brought their own heritage into the Danish bakeries and cemented the new products within the culture. The once-Austrian pastry eventually became known as the 'Danish,' making its way to New York via Danish immigrants in the early 20th century, and the Jewish Danish was born. Filled with lightly sweetened cream cheese or farmer's cheese, sometimes accompanied by a fruit jam filling, these are now a classic Jewish bakery staple.

Once referred to as "the Jewish fruitcake" by Marcy Goldman during an interview for NPR's The Salt, honey cake is an old Ashkenazic baked good and a classic Jewish bakery item. This traditional cake, laden with honey and traditionally flavored with clove and other warming spices, is eaten symbolically in hopes of a sweet New Year during Rosh Hashanah. However, a honey cake can be appreciated year-round and in many different (read: less dense) forms. Green's Bakery in Brooklyn thinks so, too, offering their rich honey cake year-round alongside other classics on this list like babka and rugelach.

Goldman's reference to a fruitcake indicates the sheer heft that honey cake can encompass, as was the trend in 12th-century Italy, where this treat gets its roots. Later, in Germany, the cake took on its Yiddish name "lekach" meaning honey cake. Honey cakes were also made and given as rewards for new Torah students, alongside pure honey, during Medieval times, a metaphor likening the Torah's teachings to a sweet, rich taste. 

Order nearly any sandwich at the Jewish deli, and you have a 50 percent chance of uttering the phrase "on rye." Therefore, it makes good sense that rye is a classic offering at many Jewish bakeries. Jewish rye differs from some of the darker, denser rye varieties prevalent in German, Scandinavian, and Nordic countries.

Often associated with the fennel-tasting caraway seeds, Jewish rye also tends to be lighter in color than some of the similarly named German or Scandinavian ryes. Taking inspiration from the lighter varieties found in Poland and Ukraine that incorporated wheat into the dough, this lighter variety often was more cost-effective, making it easier to absorb into American culture, especially post-war. The lighter versions, more commonly placed at the Jewish deli, can also be purchased fresh from the bakery; you can even ask for them to be sliced right on sight, perfect for freezing.

Though it might be a bit harder to find than a bagel, anyone who undertakes the noble quest for the bialy at the Jewish bakery will be rewarded with a chewy, baked-onion-filled treat! Though often lumped into the same category as bagels, bialys are their own entity.

Bialys, like the bagel, are also thought to be from Poland. However, bialys are only baked instead of undergoing the double cooking method of their carbohydrate cousin. This means the texture of a bialy will differ from a bagel, offering less chew and more sourdough-like bubbles under its crust. Both bagels and bialys play well with classic toppings like cream cheese, lox and capers, and tuna salad. A bialy might be the perfect solution for those looking to change their go-to bagel order.

Not to be confused with the almond-based French macaron, macaroons are a coconut lover's dream, found at the local Jewish bakery. Though they've become a classic go-to dessert during the eight-day Jewish holiday Passover, their chewy texture and sweet coconut flavor are worth eating year-round. Variations can include many other fruits and nuts like raspberries, pistachios, and our favorite, chocolate-dipped! Notably, neither the coconut-based drop macaroon nor the French almond macaron contains any flour, making them both delicious options when celebrating Passover.

Interestingly, both the French macaron and the Jewish macaroon have roots in Italy before traveling first to France, then later from France to America. As food and people have always done, this cookie evolved during each relocation based on available ingredients at the time.