Crodough and sourdough babka: London’s best modern Jewish bakeries

There’s a black papier-mâché bowl decorated with the words ‘bread’, ‘meat’ and ‘coal’ housed in London’s Jewish Museum. The object dates back to the late 18th or early 19th century and tells a story of the presence – and importance – of bread within London’s Jewish community. It was created by the Meshebat Naphesh or ‘Spirit of the Sabbath’ Society, which was established in 1779 and distributed these three essentials to poor Jews.

Following the lifting of England’s Jewish immigration ban in 1656, the first wave of Sephardic refugees arrived in London fleeing the Spanish Inquisition. Later, in the late 1800s, a second wave of Jewish refugees settled in the city, this time Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe escaping Russian pogroms. So essential were bread and bakers to the community that the London Jewish Bread union formed in 1905, eventually earning the title of longest-running Jewish trade union.

Rinkoff and Kossoff were two key bakeries of the early 20th century, situated at the centre of the city’s community in London’s East End. Hyman Rinkoff, a Jewish Ukrainian refugee, first opened his bakery in 1911. Wolf Kossoff, also from Ukraine, opened his just a few years later in 1920, which went on to have several sites. Their businesses largely focused on breads from back home, with bakes using grains like wheat, rye and barley: a coarse black bread, rye, and challah specially made only on Fridays for Shabbat. There were also cakes. Neither bakeries were kosher; both served the Jewish community.

Today, exciting new bakeries that draw on this tradition are opening but attributes of a ‘modern Jewish bakery’ can be hard to pin down. I would argue the identity doesn’t necessarily warrant a strict adherence to kosher laws (such as the separation of milk and meat), as keeping these dietary laws wasn’t always possible or necessary depending on circumstances.

I would also suggest that the bakers need not be Jewish, so long as the origins of the bakes remain acknowledged. Gabe and Georgia Gomez of Papo’s Bagels in Dalston are a fine example of this – and make my favourite bagels in London. Papo’s pays homage to the Jewish roots of New York’s bagel culture with their flavours and bagel-making techniques, while using lingo like ‘schmear’ – a now-familiar Jewish-American term, originally borrowed from Yiddish, referring to cream cheese varieties.

Equally, the definition of modern doesn’t automatically rule out kosher-keeping bakeries either. In London, purpose-built kosher bakeries like Carmelli’s in Golders Green, Indig’s in Hackney and Hendon Bagel Bakery straddle these lines, adhering to kosher law by using margarine and vegetable fats in place of butter while offering bakes and styles that incorporate newer demands and trends – such as New York’s famous black and white cookies.

Sometimes, the strength of these bakes’ Jewish origins leads the way. This was the case when New Yorker Dan Martensen opened It’s Bagels in London, which now has three branches in Primrose Hill, Notting Hill and Soho. Though Jewish himself, he hadn’t intended his business to be a ‘Jewish business’, nor had he anticipated the enthusiastic response from London’s Jewish community. “It’s so wild to me how the religion and this food are connected in London,” he tells me. “I mean, you open up a bagel shop in New York and people just assume you’re Puerto Rican. When I opened this [shop] suddenly I was anointed into this club. I didn’t see that one coming.”

Here are a few other bakeries in London that I think fall under the category of modern Jewish bakery, providing welcoming spaces and really great products.

Kossoffs, Kentish Town

Fifteen years after the shuttering of the last Kossoffs bakery, Aaron Kossoff (great grandson of Wolf Kossoff) and his partner Jo have given the name a new life. Now located on the high street in Kentish Town, Kossoffs straddles old and new. Some bakes, such as Wolf’s apple cake recipe, remain the same and sit alongside the bakery’s modern viennoiserie, breads and sandwich offerings.

Passersby might not be aware of Kossoffs’ Jewish roots, as the bakery reads like many of the other popular artisan independents continually opening to London’s benefit. But one moment on the Kossoffs website is enough to understand the pride of the family legacy, rooted in craftsmanship, the bakery trade, community and London.

Oren Deli, Bethnal Green

Tucked away on Ada Street, just a stone’s throw away from bustling Broadway Market, is Oren Deli, an unassuming café/deli-meets-wine bar, specialising in foods from chef and owner Oded Oren’s childhood. Originally from Israel, Oren talks about his desire to share the range of cuisines he grew up eating including Moroccan, Syrian, Palestinian and Jordanian foods.

The menu runs the gamut with largely Sephardic-leaning mains and savouries and Ashkenazi-inspired baked goods. Year-round hamentashen (a triangular filled cookie normally reserved for holiday Purim), chunky Nutella-filled rugelach and savoury borekitas and babka slices are displayed on the counter. Challah and what might just be the city’s fluffiest pitta are baked daily.

While never really intending to be a ‘Jewish business’ as such, Oren says that the food has become a welcome vehicle with which to express the multitudes that can make up Jewish identity.

Rinkoff Bakery, Whitechapel

Rinkoff Bakery has been situated in Whitechapel for over a decade. The steady flow of customers through the door is unchanged, though it now includes a diverse customer clientele, many from the Bangladeshi, Somali and Muslim communities that call the area of London home.

Rinkoff’s range of pastries detail the bakery’s timeline – starting with a century-old cheesecake recipe, brought over by founder Hyman Rinkoff in the late 1800s, through to their crodough, a hybrid croissant-doughnut constructed by great-granddaughter Jen Rinkoff and longtime Rinkoff baker Djamal Dallalou; its steadfast popularity has seen it far outlive their cronut muse. Rinkoff’s also has a second location nearby on Vallance Road, serving up just about anything you could want on their homemade bagels.

Margot Bakery, East Finchley

Located in a quiet commercial strip in a largely residential area of East Finchley, Margot Bakery is not the kind of place you randomly stumble into. There are two kinds of customers – locals there for their daily fix and those traversing the city in search of Michelle Eshkeri’s sourdough-powered pastries, croissants, cinnamon rolls and breads.

Opened in 2016 in a borough with an active Jewish community, Margot Bakery has a steady supply of Jewish bakes on hand, including challah, babka, rugelach and bagels – all made using sourdough for a tangy depth of flavour. Staff are poised to explain technique alongside origins to anyone who asks. Seating is limited, encouraging grab-and-go, with a number of breads and other sundries are also available to pick up – including Eshkeri’s cookbook, Modern Sourdough.

Bread Bakery by Hendon, Temple Fortune

Lined in white subway tile that gives off an airy open feel, Bread Bakery by Hendon is a kosher hotspot in Temple Fortune. The countertop reads like a rainbow, serving an array of fresh, colourful grain-and-texture rich salads, roasted vegetables, oven-fired flatbreads, sandwiches, breads and pastries from scones to croissants. Clientele are largely Jewish urbanites, stopping in for breakfast and lunch, often in small groups – some intergenerational, many with children.

At the back there’s a chilled section laden with smoked fish, dips and other items for home consumption, as well as pre-packed rugelach, cookies, loaves of challah ready to be sliced and caraway-studded rye bagels.

Honey & Co. Daily, Bloomsbury

It’s hard to write succinctly about Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer, husband-and-wife founders and chefs of Honey & Co. The pair have managed to create what feels like from the outside, looking in, a small empire: there’s grill restaurant Honey & Smoke and café/grocery store Honey & Spice, both near Regent’s Park, alongside flagship destination Honey & Co in Bloomsbury, with bakery Honey & Co. Daily around the corner. They specialise in foods from communities across the Middle East and baked goods that incorporate Jewish traditions, among others. The bakery’s expansion was a necessary pivot during the pandemic that stuck – which is unsurprising if you’ve ever tried Packer’s chocolate babka.

“We never had a mission statement or an ideological flag to fly,” says Srulovich. “We knew what good food was. We know we need to have good chefs, good training and nice service. This is always what we’ve been about. But, the baking had its own strand, that has always been very Jewish. If you don’t have challah to mop up whatever’s on the plate, that’s a crime against a lot of things.”

Despite the size of their new expansive digs at this latest spot on Store Street, opened in 2023 and the centre point where bakery magic happens, it feels less like an empire and more like a community – which, Srulovich says, had always been the goal.

Hungry for more? Discover our guide to the best bakeries in Oxford.