clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile
Four babka waffles sit in the waffle press at Ava Gene’s. The sugar on the outside of them has created a caramelized brown on them, with patches of black from the poppyseeds
Babka waffles at Ava Gene’s
Dina Avila / EPDX

Ava Gene’s Buzzy Babka Waffles Are a Time-Intensive Marvel

Chewy, caramelized, and sturdy, the babka waffle has become the must-order at Ava Gene’s new brunch

by Brooke Jackson-Glidden
Brooke Jackson-Glidden is the editor of Eater Portland.

When Joshua McFadden, the owner and chef behind famed Italian restaurant Ava Gene’s, decided to start serving brunch, was thinking about babka. He had a particularly good version at New York’s now-closed Arcade Bakery, and his other restaurant, Tusk, has served a version on its brunch menu for years.

He also knew he wanted some sort of waffle. So he, former pastry chef Nora Mace, and current pastry chef Mason Herbert Suda decided to kill two birds with one stone, creating the restaurant’s babka waffle. The gang tested a single recipe, and it worked on the first try.

A woman with short hair and a brown cap stands outside a black building with her arms behind her back. She’s wearing an off-white apron and bright aquamarine clogs.
Mason Herbert Suda
Dina Avila / EPDX

The waffle is something to behold: Laminated brioche gets a slathering of poppy seeds before it’s tied into little knots, dipped in sugar, and pressed in a waffle iron. It comes topped with maple butter and maple syrup, a tiny wonder ideal as a pre-meal pastry, something to share with coffee before the main event.

It was a smart move: Babka of any kind was bound to do well in Portland. Before 2019, babka was a relative rarity in the city’s restaurants and bakeries. Outside of Tusk’s brunch service, it was occasionally spotted in pastry cases and delis around the holidays, or available wrapped in plastic at the occasional grocery. But when Westside Jewish deli Beetroot announced its impending arrival, and Portland’s pastry nerds and homesick East Coasters fixated. People started asking owner Sonya Sanford about whether the bakery would serve babka; now, loaves often appear in the pastry case, with flavors like pistachio cardamom alongside the classic chocolate.

Portland’s growing interest in babka extended outside the culinary world, as well: In Portland Experimental Theater Ensemble’s Our Ruined House, which premiered in 2019, a character passes out slices of chocolate babka for audience members during a monologue. The effect was to create the illusion of intimacy: There’s something about the pastry — a sweet and deceptively complicated woven loaf — that creates a feeling of comfort.

Ava Gene’s babka waffle, a brunch treat with nostalgic roots, quickly became a best-seller at the restaurant. “We never thought it would be the thing,” McFadden says. But considering the long, labored process of making it, it wouldn’t be worth it unless it was stunning. Luckily, it is.

Suda holds both palms flat on a rolling pin, rolling out a sheet of butter between two pieces of parchment paper.
Herbert Suda rolls out sheets of butter to use for the lamination process
Dina Avila / EPDX
Suda reaches an arm into a black tub to dislodge a pillow-sized hunk of yellow dough, some still sticking to the case.
The brioche dough for the waffles
Dina Avila / EPDX

Herbert Suda starts with brioche dough, which proofs until it doubles and then gets folded down in a large, bus-tub-like container. That dough then sits in the fridge for 24 hours. In the meantime, she takes huge butter blocks and rolls slices of the butter into thin layers, to line each layer of the brioche once it’s ready. Then, Herbert Suda preps the babka filling, a combination of butter, milk, sugar, honey, and salt. It boils and gets a combination of ground and whole poppy seeds. The finished product should cool, and ends up looking remarkably similar to caviar.

Suda holds a rolling pin on one end of a long, thin sheet of rolled brioche, which lies on a large butcher’s block counter. Other cut pieces of brioche dough lie in the background. Dina Avila / EPDX
Herbert Suda’s hands pinch two corners of pastry as they meet at the center of a square of butter. The rolled square of butter sits within the diamond of rolled brioche dough, to be folded around the butter like an envelope. Dina Avila / EPDX
Dina Avila/EPDX
Using an icing spatula, Suda lathers a black, caviar-like substance onto a thin square of rolled and layered dough. A pastry scale and mixing bowl are just out of frame. Dina Avila / EPDX

Herbert Suda rolls the brioche dough, adding a layer of butter over the piece of pastry. As she folds the butter and dough, layers of butter multiply. Eventually, she adds a layer of the poppy seed mixture, continuing to fold afterward.

The key to lamination, Herbert Suda says, is having the butter and dough at the same consistency. If the butter is too warm, it’ll melt into the dough and disappear. If it’s too cold, it’ll crack when it folds. The pastry chef lays the butter in the center of the rolled dough, folding around it like an envelope. That folds again and again, smearing the poppy seed mixture into the dough, until the final product has 12 layers of butter.

Using a big butcher’s knife, Suda cuts into the layers of pastry, with a black pocket of poppyseed mixture in its center. Her other hand holds the pastry in place.
Herbert Suda cuts the pastry into strips, to be knotted and thrown on the waffle iron
Dina Avila / EPDX
Little cinnamon-roll-looking knots of pastry dough with swirls of black poppy seeds sit in a single-layer clump on a butcher’s block counter. Suda continues to twist another in her hands.
The waffle dough knots, pre-sugar-dunk
Dina Avila / EPDX
A waffle with a dollop of maple butter and swirl of maple syrup sits on a white plate. It’s browned with caramelization and somewhat misshapen.
The finished babka waffle
Dina Avila / EPDX

Once the dough is layered, Herbert Suda cuts the dough into strips. She twists each strip so it’s swirly, and then ties the dough into itself. Each little roll gets dipped in sugar, to caramelize when it hits the waffle iron. The final product gets a dollop of maple butter and a swirl of maple syrup.

The final product has the quality of a pull-apart bread, with a caramelized crust. It’s glossy and toasty, with the iron gently toasting the poppyseeds. “I love taking two ideas that don’t make a lot of sense and making them better than the sum of their parts,” she says. “Even though it’s so rich, it’s not too sweet; it has this savoriness to it. It’s this great thing to present, it’s glistening and warm — people freak out about it.”

Updated March 6, 2020, at 10:22 a.m.
This story has been updated to note Tusk’s brunch service.

• Ava Gene’s [Official]
• Previous Ava Gene’s coverage [EPDX]
• Italian Mainstay Ava Gene’s Starts Serving Brunch Labor Day Weekend [EPDX]

Foursquare

Ava Gene's

3377 Southeast Division Street, , OR 97202 (971) 229-0571 Visit Website

Get the Picnic Gear Because the World’s Largest Charcuterie Board Is About to Hit Portland

Coming Attractions

The Latest Updates on the Restaurant-Packed Portland Ritz-Carlton Building

What We Know About the Ritz-Carlton Portland’s Enchanted Forest of a Lobby Bar