At her weekly mahjong games, my mother served an old-school style of babka, a Jewish sweet bread characterized by its elaborate swirls. Invented as a way to use leftover challah dough, babka originally contained no dairy. As such, these babkas often had a dry, firm crumb and dense structure. My mother’s were no exception. That didn’t stop me from devouring them, but they were nothing like the towering chocolate-­packed varieties that now make the rounds on social media. Today’s babka-scape leans creative, buttery and lush, a shift often credited to New York City’s Breads Bakery, which popularized richer, Israeli-style babkas.

To create Milk Street’s take on the classic, we started there, then added a few modern tweaks of our own. We discovered that the secret to getting those signature swirls is all in the twist, which is simpler than it looks. Think of it as making cinnamon rolls, except instead of slicing rounds, you slice the rolled dough lengthwise down the middle and twist the halves together.

But the real key to success is a cold dough. Enriched doughs like this are soft and sticky. A thorough chilling yields dough that is much easier to handle and roll thin, which makes for more swirls in the finished babka.

When we roll it out, we like to keep a ruler handy. That’s because a consistent thickness ensures better, more uniform swirls and even baking. And while the dough doesn’t need to be a perfect rectangle, starting with equal dimensions helps achieve that beloved babka look in its twists and folds.

For the filling, we stuck to tradition but added tahini, which brings a nutty richness to the chocolate, all deepened with a little espresso powder. Thin layers—of both the dough and filling—ensure the elaborate marbling that is babka’s signature look. For a finishing touch, we brush the warm babkas with espresso-spiked sugar syrup. This helps seal in the cake’s moisture while creating a thin, sweet crust.