Photo by Daniel Lailah
Master baker Uri Scheft has built an empire on flour and yeast — yet neither was part of the original plan. Before baking became his life’s work, Scheft pursued biology in college.
“Very early in my studies,” he says, “I realized that my passion wasn’t there.”
Baking, however, had already entered his life years earlier. Born in Israel to Danish parents, Scheft moved with his family to Denmark when he was 11. There, an appreciation for bread that had always been part of home life began to deepen. As a teen, he took baking classes at school, gaining an early introduction to the European traditions that continue to influence his work today.
Challah
Photo by Daniel Lailah
Festive Challah
Photo courtesy of Bakey
Pistachio Babka (top) and Cinnamon Babka
Photo courtesy of Bakey
Scheft returned to Israel to complete his military service and earn his undergraduate degree, but the pull of the kitchen eventually sent him back to Denmark to study at Ringsted Tekniske Skole, a technical school with a longstanding baking program. This time, there was no doubt he’d found his calling.
“On my first day of baking school, when the bread came out of the oven, I heard the crust crackling and smelled the freshly baked bread, and it immediately brought me back home,” he recalls. “In that moment, I knew that this was what I was meant to do.”
Apprenticeships across Europe followed before Scheft returned to Israel, where he worked under renowned chef Ran Shmueli and later became one of the founding partners of Patiss’Art, the bakery behind the Arcaffé coffee shop chain. Back home, his European training collided with a different approach to flavor.
“In Israel,” he says, “there is more of a focus on combining ingredients, layering flavors, mixing spices and bringing together different cultural influences.”
He brought those sensibilities together when he founded Lehamim Bakery in Tel Aviv in 2002. What began as a small neighborhood spot grew into a multilocation business known for its breads, pastries, cakes, sandwiches and salads.
Scheft’s entry into the U.S. market was equally successful. He co-founded Breads Bakery in New York City in 2013, and shortly after the shop opened, New York magazine named his chocolate babka the “Best Babka in New York.”
Despite the attention that babka received, Scheft’s philosophy remains straightforward and rooted in the principles he learned in Denmark. “The babka should always be fresh and made with simple, quality ingredients, like buttery dough and chocolate chips,” he says. “It’s important to have a consistent system in place so we can deliver our baked goods at their peak, when they are truly fresh.”
In 2021, he founded Bakey in Boston with longtime business partner Or Ohana, offering breads, babkas, bourekas and other baked goods produced throughout the day. For the South Florida expansion, Scheft and Ohana teamed with fellow baker Amir Vadash, whose family has operated bakeries in Israel for decades.
Photo by Adir Avivi Photography
Photo by Adir Avivi Photography
On any given day at the Hallandale Beach shop, thick, gooey babkas fly off the shelves and into Bakey’s rectangular orange boxes, emblazoned with the bakery’s philosophy, “Love, Always.” Besides chocolate, flavors include Cinnamon, Pistachio, Apple and ChocoBanana Pecan.
Challah holds an equally prominent place in Scheft’s bakeries. The Festive Challah, available Friday through Sunday, is shaped into a round braid and finished with an assortment of seeds across the top.
“With each challah, I can express my creativity with the variety of toppings to choose from, and the way it is braided,” Scheft says.
Home bakers looking to bring Scheft’s techniques to their own kitchens can turn to his three books. “Bread at Home: The Complete Guide to Home Baking,” published in Israel in 2009, “Breaking Breads: A New World of Israeli Baking,” released in the U.S. in 2016 and “The Artisinal Kitchen: Jewish Holiday Baking: Inspired Recipes for Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah, Purim, Passover, and More,” released in the U.S. in 2020.
Photo by Adir Avivi Photography
His biology degree may not have led to a laboratory, but it has hardly gone unused. “That knowledge has stayed with me,” he notes. “It continues to support the way I understand baking today, especially when I think about fermentation, ingredients and how they interact with one another.”
For Scheft, that balance between science and creativity is part of baking’s enduring appeal. Precision matters, but so do instinct, experimentation and the drive to keep pushing further. “I’ve always said, ‘Let’s see where the bread takes you,’” he explains, “because there’s always a new adventure to discover with the technique — and always something new to learn and improve.”
Photo by Daniel Lailah
The Famous Chocolate Babka
Adapted from “Breaking Breads: A New World of Israeli Baking” by Uri Scheft with Raquel Pelzel (Artisan, 2016).
Makes 3 babkas using Advanced Babka Dough in 9-by-2¾-by-2-inch loaf pans
INGREDIENTS
Babka:
• 1 recipe Advanced Babka Dough or your favorite challah dough, chilled 24 hours
• 1½ cups Nutella
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Simple Syrup:
• ¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• ½ cup water
PREPARATION
Place the chilled Advanced Babka Dough or challah dough on a lightly floured work surface and roll into a 10-by-28-inch rectangle, just under ¼ inch thick, with a long side facing you. Roll only from side to side rather than up and down. If the dough begins to spring back, let it rest for 5 minutes before continuing.
Spread the Nutella evenly over the dough to the edges, then sprinkle with the chocolate chips. Starting at the top edge, roll the dough into a tight cylinder, gently stretching it as you roll to keep it even and firm.
Using a bread knife, slice the cylinder in half lengthwise and place the pieces cut-side up. Cut each crosswise into thirds to make 6 strips. Pair the strips to create 3 equal-size babkas. Cross two strips to form an “x,” keeping the exposed chocolate facing up, then twist the ends together at least twice on each side. Place each babka, chocolate-side up, in a pan. Cover with plastic wrap.
Set the pans in a warm, draft-free place until the dough rises 1 to 2 inches above the rims and feels very soft and jiggly, 2 to 3 hours.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake until the babkas are dark brown and cooked through, about 40 minutes. Check after 25 minutes and loosely tent with parchment paper or aluminum foil if they are browning too quickly.
While the babkas bake, combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and cool.
Remove the babkas from the oven and, while they are still hot, brush them generously with the cooled syrup. Run a paring knife around the edges and turn the babkas out of the pans. Serve warm or cool completely before slicing.